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Post-Olympic Abandonment

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Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#41

Post by johannes1234321 »

StevePerkins wrote: post #21
lhopki01 wrote: post #4

There are many articles about abandoned Olympic venues but I've never seen one about successful former Olympic venues. I'd like to see what happened to all the venues in London and Beijing. From my bit of knowledge a lot of the London ones were temporary or have been successfully transitioned.

Atlanta has always felt snubbed by hostility from the IOC, who didn't like the level of private corporate sponsorship used to fund the 1996 Games (nevermind that two decades later, it would be considered modestly quaint today). However, it was overwhelmingly a successful Games. It created a lasted economic boom, and much of the construction saw continued use or was repurposed afterward. Today, Atlanta is not really r…

I always remember the extra cheering the team of the country of Georgia received during the parade of nations. Some Georgians probably confused the state they are in with the country :-)

https://youtu.be/5Fmk2bS8OWk?t=350

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#42

Post by batbomb »

lhopki01 wrote: post #4

There are many articles about abandoned Olympic venues but I've never seen one about successful former Olympic venues. I'd like to see what happened to all the venues in London and Beijing. From my bit of knowledge a lot of the London ones were temporary or have been successfully transitioned.

Salt Lake City still very actively uses almost all venues, even year-round.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#43

Post by [deleted] »

lhopki01 wrote: post #4

There are many articles about abandoned Olympic venues but I've never seen one about successful former Olympic venues. I'd like to see what happened to all the venues in London and Beijing. From my bit of knowledge a lot of the London ones were temporary or have been successfully transitioned.

[deleted]

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#44

Post by theluketaylor »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #16
lhopki01 wrote: post #4

There are many articles about abandoned Olympic venues but I've never seen one about successful former Olympic venues. I'd like to see what happened to all the venues in London and Beijing. From my bit of knowledge a lot of the London ones were temporary or have been successfully transitioned.

The venues from the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary are forming the basis of their 2026 bid, so they must still be in good shape.

I remember using lots of the olympic facilities when my family lived in Calgary in the late 90s. The ski jump and bobsled are used for national team training and the public can ride them in a slower and safer manner for a fee.

I think winter olympics are much easier to run sustainably than summer games since there are far fewer sports, and the ones that do exist don't require nearly the same level of specialized venues. Bobsled and ski jump are pretty unique, but other than that everything needed for winter games is highly reusable. Most of the venues are not even that seasonal with the right planning.

Calgary is in an excellent position to host winter games. The venues that have been maintained and used for nearly 30 years and the city has excellent light rail transit to move between venues. Calgary is used to opening its doors to millions of visitors in a short time every year thanks to the Stampede, so the is a huge volunteer core and tons of hotel space. There have been calls for permanent olympic venues to help hold down costs; I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better option than Calgary for the winter games.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#45

Post by sizzzzlerz »

It seems to me that the countries that maintained their Olympic facilities (England, Australia, US, Norway, Germany, China) all tilt to the wealthier end of the spectrum. Conversely, the poorer ones, Brazil and Greece, really couldn't afford hosting the games in the first place, let alone maintaining the venues afterwards. These days, its the wealthier countries that turn down the offer to host because of the costs while the poorer ones, often led by corrupt and bankrupt governments, are awarded the "honor" resulting into even deeper poverty for their people and short-term glorification of the government.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#46

Post by pmarreck »

saalweachter wrote: post #36

Would it negatively impact the Olympics if we stopped rotating them at this point? I mean, besides the IOC missing out on the opportunity compete with FIFA on graft? Let's just locate the Olympics in a permanent facility -- Greece, if they'll have them, for tradition. I think between "not rebuilding everything from scratch every four years" and the expectation of recurring events, the single host country could both r…

You could do that or you could just keep it at the same facility for, say, 20 years and THEN move it. So a country could get a 20-year economic boost (hopefully, at least long-term) and at least re-use the facilities a few times

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#47

Post by emondi »

cbernini wrote: post #33
emondi wrote: post #7

Starts with a bad example. The maracaná is from the 1950 world cup, also used last world cup.

Not exactly. It wasn't the same stadium at all. The original Maracanã received something around 1.2 bi BRL (387.55 mi USD if we consider today's rate) in order to receive the Olympic games. Sergio Cabral' (former RJ governor) prision was motivated (among other things) because of that

So is it not going to be used again?

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#48

Post by grabcocque »

This is an entirely unfair representation of the current state of Olympic venues in London. The Olympic stadium is used by West Ham Football Club every week for league and championship football. The Olympic village has been converted into state of the art affordable housing set in a gorgeous new green space.

The swimming and diving and velodrome facilities are state of the art, oversubscribed, and at the forefront of creating a new generation of athletes. I myself am having Kayaking lessons at the London White Water centre Olympic course.

Of course other major Olympic venues predated the bid and have continued to be in continuous use. Wimbledon, Wembley, the Excel, the O2, Eton Dorney...

London has not simply "abandoned" anything, and to pretend otherwise is dishonest.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#49

Post by eloycoto »

santialbo wrote: post #9

I like to think that Barcelona is a good example of how Olympic Games should impact a city. Growth was controlled and it allowed for regeneration of some shady parts of the city. They didn't build crazy venues and the ones they did build are still in use today 25 years later.

I fully agree with this. Barcelona is one of the best examples as for how the Olympic games can help.

London is a great example, but in London is easy to use the large venues. Barcelona was more challenging and they made well.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#50

Post by bane »

duiker101 wrote: post #26
danpalmer wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live next to the olympic park in Stratford and it's pretty great. - The main stadium is now the local football team's home ground and gets used for concerts as well. - The olympic pool is an open public pool that anyone can use and looks like it gets a fair amount of use. - The park itself is a nice open space to be in with lots more flats and shops being built in and around it. - I have several colleagues who trai…

Another thing from the article that struck me as good for London is how little it costed compared to the others > The games set back Sochi $51 billion, London $11.6 billion and Beijing at least $40 billion That is no small amount, I wonder how much of it was corruption and bad management.

Corruption played a big part, but Sochi had zero infrastructure at the start, it all had to be built from wholecloth, and Beijing need to transform large parts of an existing city to become an international showpiece. London already has incredible infrastructure and is already iconic. It seems that the strategy the London Olympics really used was to simply extend off of the existing systems in place and build up in a cheap area bringing new economic development to that area instead of trying to retrofit the city core.
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