It’s actually going to be three in a row if Beijing is chosen. In addition to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the 2020 Summer Olympics are going to be in Tokyo.
Me too.
American cities have consistently demonstrated that they’re happy to hand over large wads of public money to multi-billionaires and corporations involved with sporting enterprises, whether or not doing so is in the best interests of the citizens. The Olympics would seem like an ideal opportunity to exercise one of the few acceptable forms of American socialism.
This sort of corporate welfare often works best when you keep things as quiet as possible. Just yesterday, the President of the Atlanta Braves admitted that the deal to fund his brand new stadium, which will be paid for by Cobb County tax dollars that could otherwise have gone to things like schools and roads, had to be done in secret so that the people who pay those taxes would be less likely to take issue with it.
The US didn’t want to put in a bid for 2022 because they want to bid for the 2024 Summer Games. The USOC sent out letters to 35 cities to gauge their interest in hosting those Games.
Absolutely. What could go wrong at the Munich Olympics?
New York and Philadelphia have dropped out of the running for the US bid for 2024
Too bad. I’d love to see the games in NYC or even Philadelphia. Maybe Comcast/NBC could give them a break on the broadcasting rights. It’s got to be cheaper to broadcast the games from their home base (NBC is based in NYC, NBC Sports is based in Stamford and Comcast in Philadelphia).
There’s a group trying to put together a Boston bid for 2024, but they haven’t gotten far enough to be stopped yet. There was quite a bit of discussion during the Sochi games that we could put on the 2026 Winter games here, with the snow/mountain events in Vermont or Maine (closer than Whistler is to Vancouver), maybe even Lake Placid. That might not even be a money loser overall, since most of the facilities are already in place, and could be a lot of fun.
Summer, though? Not happening.
There was an effort to raise support for Bozeman MT hosting the Winter games. But it got squashed pretty easily by the local as I remember. And rightfully so…
I agree. The whole IOC selection process is a racket.
This may be the sign of changing times.
That may be the key reason they haven’t established a permanent site - it would take away the fun and the bribe money.
There just no money in it for the IOC to have permanent sites.
As pointed out, if you don’t have a bidding process, you don’t get boatloads of cash, hookers, and cocaine every couple of years. But in general it would also make the Olympics a less lucrative enterprise. Holding it in new host cities is a big part of the pizzazz. It builds up excitement, provides a better show, contributes to national pride, and gets the host countries way more involved in the Olympics over the long haul.
And would you really trust Greece to run it on a permanent basis? 
Huh, I never heard about that, even with living in Bozeman for over a decade. It really wouldn’t make sense: Bozeman has none of the infrastructure needed, beyond ski slopes and the university’s arena. Certainly the hotels couldn’t accommodate it, and there are no large cities close enough to take up the slack.
Reno/Tahoe has the hotels, skiing, hookers and snow. I don’t think the stadium or arena are up to the task, however. Besides, Fuck Em’!
All true. But at this point, the question is how many more countries are there that are really eager to show off to the world?
The Beijing Olympics was China’s big chance to tell the world, “Look at us- we’ve arrived.” The Olympics in Rio are BRazil’s chance to say, “Look at us- we’re not just a Third World backward nation any more. We’re a growing, rich country.” The Sochi Olympics were Vladimir Putin’s chance to strut on the world stage.
It’s really the same as mid-tier American cities shelling out big money to get NFL franchises. Some Chamber of Commere types think, “We’re not really a big time city unless we have sports.”
But Los Angeles doesn’t have an NFL team, and Angelenos don’t care if they ever get one. They don’t need to prove to anyone that theirs is a world class city. L.A. IS a world class city.
How many countries are left that think they have something to prove to the world? Not many.
Of course, I’ve been predicting for ages that nations would wise up and stop handing money to the IOC, and I haven’t been right yet. Maybe there’s still a sucker out there I haven’t thought of.
If you Google it it actually is a thing, but damn, that would be crazy. That’d make Sochi look cheap. They’d have to build a 20,000 seat arena for hockey and figure skating, tons of new hotels, and probably a new airport, all of which would be totally useless once the games were over. The days of Squaw Valley and Lake Placid hosting the games are long over.
I recall that dynamic when a bunch of local boosters were trying to bring the Nationals to Northern Virginia based on the usual dubious projections of economic benefit and the even more dubious notion that an extra ten miles would somehow mollify Peter Angelos. It got shot down and DC got the team (and, given that the economic benefits vanished into unicornville while the costs piled up, they’re more than welcome to them).
If sports boosterism is fading away in the harsh light of economic reality, the IOC may be forced to do what they should have done long ago – set up permanent venues with a one-time infrastructure investment. Surely they have clever staffers who can figure out some angle to keep the boodle flowing in through commercial endorsements or something.
This wouldn’t work at all for the WInter Olympics, but for the Summer Olympics: The one country I can think of that still MIGHT want to show off for the world is a country that has little or no interest in any of the traditional Olympic sports.
I mean, quick- name me an Olympic medalist from India!
Seriously, India is another country that well MIGHT have the urge to show off on a world stage, and say, “Look how far we’ve come! We’re a growing, richer, high-tech society!”
But apart from cricket, India as a whole doesn’t seem to have a huge interest in sports. Which actually reflects well on them!
There was a time where India dominated Olympic men’s field hockey the way USA dominated Olympic men’s basketball.
However, we may be heading back to a situation like the one in 1984, where only one city could afford to host the Olympics, and even then, mainly on the strength of using existing stadiums (I think the only one that had to be built was the veoldrome, and, IIRC, it was made so it could be moved to somewhere where it would be more useful when the Games ended).
Countries hoping to make money from having USA TV networks bid against each other recently had their hopes dashed; NBC managed to make another long term deal (through 2032, I think).