I'm not kidding. I nearly spit my coffee out when I saw the headline earlier today.
"The USOC sent letters to the mayors of 35 cities Tuesday to gauge interest in a potential bid to bring the Summer Olympics back to the country for the first time since 1996." (Columbus the only Ohio city that received a letter)
Truthfully, I don't think Cbus has the facilities, city infrastructure, or international appeal to host the Olympics, but 2024 is 9 years away - a lot could change. Some other hopeful cities are Paris, Rome, Doha, and Dubai. I love Columbus as much as the next person, but that's an impressive list so far.
For now though, the capital city is being considered by the USOC!
With Ohio State I'm sure the facilities wouldn't be a problem
Wondering if they'd build a stadium or try to use Ohio Stadium. Would have Crew stadium, Nationwide, the Schott, and St Johns/its replacement. For the sake of the city, I hope they don't get it. Would be a disaster around campus/downtown, plus cities almost always lose money on the Olympics (although if they could largely use the existing facilities, that wouldn't be as much of a concern).
the kids are playing their tail off, and the coaches are screwing it up! - JLS
Is Crew Stadium big enough for soccer? Ohio Stadium can't really host anything - way too small for soccer, no track, etc. Is Jesse Owens a big track stadium? No. What does Nationwide do for the SUMMER games? Nothing really. I assume tennis would be in Cincy?
I get the reasoning not to have it here, but selfishly I hope it is. My sister will be borderline too old for Synchronized Swimming (her realistic goal is 2020) but how cool would it be to do it in her hometown? (Kind of related, she's in Urban's son's class and was featured in SI's faces in the crowd so I always ask her who's more famous because all the boys in her class saw her in SI this fall)
Salt Lake City is a much smaller city with a smaller metro area that pulled off the 2002 Winter Games. They built a rail system in a short period of time for that. Columbus could feasibly pull it off (it being the city infrastructure needed).
This would do more harm for the city than good
I really hope we don't even come close to getting it
Just look at what happened to Athens for a good example of what the Olympics can do to a city after they end, especially one that doesn't have nearly as many resources as the likes of London/Beijing/Sydney
I would love to see the summer Olympics return to the United States, but preferably to a city more prepared than Columbus. We would have to build a new stadium for track, expand crew stadium for soccer, expand or build a new facility for swimming/diving (I know that OSU's swimming facility is really nice, but it isn't even CLOSE to being big enough for how popular that event is) and that's only scratching the surface. The entire thing would be a logistics and construction nightmare, and transportation would also be a huge issue because some events would have to be held in other cities.
The fact that Columbus is even being mentioned at any stage of the IOC selection process is fantastic though. 2024 is too soon, maybe some other time in the more distant future.
Agreed; every city that hosts ends up in financial ruin.
"Don't put syrup on shit, and tell me it's pancakes"
No matter how sh*tty the tour is, it's always tough to leave.
It would be a long shot but I do think it is a positive that Columbus is being looked at in the light of an up and coming city that is growing into a city that the USOC would like to show off. They would have a lot of the facilities (probably using Cinci and Cleveland as some facilities) but I think they don't have the transportation logistics to make a real potential.
Putting all of the new buildings necessary aside, this would be really cool to have 15 minutes from my house. It would probably be one of the only times I would ever be able to go and see such amazing athletes in all kinds of sports
Back in my early student days, the focus was on the (then 10 years away) 500th anniversary of Columbus's voyages, and the possibility of having a world's fair in CBus. Which didn't quite come to pass.
As long as no one in city government spends real time working on this, no harm no foul, but it's important to be realistic. The IOC came away from the Atlanta Games thinking that it had made a mistake putting the Olympics in such a "small" city. Every Summer Games since has gone to someplace that is beyond question a world-class city, of which the U.S. has at least four (NYC, LA, Chicago, Washington) and possibly more, depending on your feelings about places like Miami, Boston, the Bay Area, etc. (Houston's weather is too miserable to ever consider putting a Summer Olympics there, unless they got moved to October.)
There's also the small matter that the U.S. hasn't been awarded a Games since the bribery scandal, for which America was blamed by the clowns that run international sports. The insulting way our 2020 bid was dismissed is a sign that hasn't been forgotten yet.
Bottom line is that if the IOC would never consider an Atlanta again, they aren't going to do anything but laugh at a Columbus.
The most "loud mouth, disrespect" poster on 11W.
Pretty much this. I don't see the Olympics coming to the US any time in the next 20-25 years.
Considering the way Chicago got embarrassed in the first round of voting, it's hilarious to even think that Columbus would even make it to the Candidate City stage of the process
It wasn't really 1st round, it was the final 4 cities, and from what I heard there was some controversy that people didn't want it in the US period. I wouldn't be surprised however if the 2026 Olympics, or there abouts, comes to the US due to the extended time away from the country.
"Every Summer Games since has gone to someplace that is beyond question a world-class city" Wait, when did Athens become a world class city? The place is a festering shit-hole.
Also Columbus has the athletic infrastructure to host the Olympics (Schottenstein Center, Ohio Stadium, Crew Stadium, Nationwide Arena, McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion, Scioto River) however I don't see the city coping well with the crowds that an event like the Olympics would draw. An Olympic Stadium would most likely have to be built for the Track & Field events as well.
What's even funnier is Jacksonville got the same letter! It's all over the news here tonight. We barely pulled off hosting a Super Bowl here, I can't imagine what a mess the Olympics would be in Florida in the summertime!
"Because I couldn't go for 3"
So did Memphis. Grouped with these two, Columbus looks like a shining star
Yeah I think Columbus would be better than Jacksonville or Memphis!
"Because I couldn't go for 3"
God yes, though I'm not qualified to compare infrastructure with those cities. I would think a new Olympic stadium would have to be built here, as it is with most Olympic venues. Probably not a huge deal, and Columbus would be ideal for funding, given that property is not expensive, and our standing as a top 5 or so business city/diverse market would be attractive to advertisers and favorable for possible funding.
I don't see anyone beating Dubai, maybe that's just me. Maybe Rome
It's 5 o'clock somewhere, & Michigan still sucks
Rome is another butthole. I don't see the attraction of Dubai either. People are going to die from heat-stroke if they host the Olympics in Dubai. The World Cup in Qatar is going to be an absolute disaster. Really I'd restrict the Summer Olympics to North America (excluding Mexico), Northern/Western Europe, and a few select Asian/Oceanic countries (Japan and Australia). Of course I'm being harsh, but not everyone should host international events. The Winter Olympics in Sochi are also most likely going to be a disaster, and I imagine that they'll have a bigger problem with less than ideal snow conditions than Vancouver had.
Weather-wise, I'd much rather be in Dubai in the summer than Jacksonville.
I'd rather be in Toronto or Munich for the summer than Jacksonville or Dubai. The average temp in Dubai during the summer is 104, no thank you.
Yeah, I was being facetious haha. Perhaps this will help:
Sigh. I fell into that one.
Excellent, sir.
It would be interesting to see what a city like Dubai could do with an Olympic presentation, given the concentration of wealth in the city. However, one could also point to their rapidly disintegrating palm-shaped islands, and argue that they don't exactly flaunt a perfect record of urban planning.
I would vote for Toronto first, and then I'd like to see the games in Munich, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, etc.
I agree with your list of suggestions, and the only city in the Middle East right now that I see as a viable choice to host the Summer Olympics would be Tel Aviv, but I don't see Israel hosting the Summer Olympics any time soon, as that would most likely be far too controversial.
I've been to Sochi in 2011... Columbus >> Sochi. While they probably expanded the numbers of hotels, Columbus can do what Sochi did.
not gonna happen
knucklehead
In the late '90s, I was on a small committee working with the Experience Columbus folks and others to try to lure the National FFA Convention to Columbus from Kansas City. Columbus was in the final three with Louisville and Indianapolis (Louisville eventually won the bid, and now the convention rotates between there and Indy). The biggest single problem was the number of hotel rooms available in the metro - there just weren't enough at that point by comparison.
While the question of stadium and aquatic facilities are the most obvious concern, I'd be equally concerned that the city couldn't physically host that many international visitors for the games.
That said, one of the most obvious reasons for hosting in a city like Columbus is location - CowTown is within half-a-day's drive of something like three-quarters of the country's population (okay, there's a real statistic here that I can't quite recall, but you get the idea).
That stat is 500 mile radius of 50% of the U.S. population and 600 miles encompasses half of the u.s. and Canadian populations.
i think it said something like 45,000 hotel rooms needed, 200,000 on staff, an Olympic village for 20,000. The new Hilton was a big thing and that doesn't even hit 700 rooms.
would the Olentangey need dredged for skulling
or would they move these events to Alum Creek?
This is probably going to be one of those "We were just excited and honored to be thought of ..." even though I would love to see the games come to Columbus because it would be great for our state.
JT