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Post-Olympic Abandonment

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Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#101
post #95

Glad to see Vancouver doesnt show in any of these articles. It can be done well enough. Nobody seems to have any great complaints about those games (2010). The facilities are still in regular use ... which one would expect of a winter games in canada.

The facilities from the '88 games (Calgary) are similarly still actively used for training and by the public. edit: '88 not '86

The Olympics were held in Calgary in 1988.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#102

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…

There's a Greek national park just southwest of Thessaloniki, which is just across the bay from the international airport. It seems like there ought to be somewhere between Thessaloniki and Litochoro that can support multiple permanent athletics venues--with the obvious exception of the marathon, which would have to start in Marathon and end in Athens.

And if Sochi can do a Winter Games, so can a mountain resort in the Olympus Range.

The IOC can definitely invest in their own danged facilities, instead of bankrupting local governments every 2 years and then skipping town for a generation.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#103

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…

The world is falling into 3 distinct time zones, Americas, Europe/Africa, East Asia. At the very least we would need 3 permanent hosts in those 3 regions to rotate between every 4 years.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#104
There were articles like that before the Rio games.

The Beijing facilities, which were in a city that could use big sports facilities, are now mostly abandoned.[1] The big "birds nest" stadium now has an ice rink in it, but the huge grandstands are unused. London is doing OK with their leftover facilities.[2] The ones that aren't near a large city, such as Sochi, are abandoned.

[1] http://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ghosts-of-olympics-past?... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/davehillblog/2015/jul/23/...

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I think any boom would be short lived. The travel novelty would grow thin. The repeated use of the same facilities would also impact the sports. More fundimental is the question of any boom. London didnt see much, with some shops downtown instead seeing marked reductions. Vancouver barely broke even. China didnt do it for the money. And the less said about Sochi's costs the better.

> The repeated use of the same facilities would also impact the sports.

If you where going to host 5 games then you could build a lot larger and more enduring facilities which would still be fairly new 20 years out. Importantly, you could also make some improvements after the first game when something did not work well. Worst case, I doubt maintaining unused buildings for 4 years then doing some renovation costs nearly as much as building them from scratch.

So, I don't see how using the same buildings 5 times would be a major issue. Further, a 20 year stretch in a single city would bring a stronger connection to the games as visiting the future site of the games is far more interesting than seeing where there was once greatness.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, at least they're in jail.

Yep. I do personally have the opinion that the World Cup and Olympics were worth much more than their cost just by the fact that they bankrupted every kind of government here and pressed the people into revolting. I estimate they were the hightest ROI project our government ever had when considered that indirect gain.

I'd agree with you, I wish lots of our corrupt officials went to jail, but I'm afraid it's not happening...

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#107
I had hoped for more investment in sports in Brazil as a result of the games, and indeed the transportation improvements in/out of Barra are incredible. But unfortunately, the govt of Rio is now totally broke and on the brink of failure.

To put it into perspective, in much of the country they have stopped paying their police officers a salary. ((boggle)) Not the safest city in the first place, and maintenance was never a strong suit of Brazil. So the stadiums are just a symptom.

Did they move the futebol games to Engenhao or something? Why would Maracana be abandoned? Where are they playing all the games that still need to be played? It would make sense to rotate them to keep the stadiums used at least part of the month.

I'm trying to think of a way to maintain them and provide sports activities for kids. Normally, I dislike the branding of stadiums, but perhaps a corporate sponsorship of each stadium is a solution, while the govt should focus on its citizens.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won't argue that they would fit right in with any government Greece has had since Kapodistrias. However there are a lot of good people in Greece right now trying to turn the situation around, the Olympic games of the past made things even harder for them, I would hate to see it land on their lap again... They seems to bring the worst out in people.

It's possible that, even though it'd be nice for historicity / tradition, the Games just aren't a good fit for Greece. But one of the things that turning the Games from a maybe-just-once event for a city/country to a recurring relationship does, is that it changes the nature of the profiteering. A one-time-only event encourages profiteers to cut as deeply as they can can and really screw their customers -- no repeat…

Even for tradition, the games in antiquity were much different from today's games. They used to be about the sport, whereas today they're about money (which is hard not to do when they're this popular, granted).

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#109
post #65

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…

I love the idea of hosting in Greece with a "co-host" country that kicks in a bunch of money and gets to do the opening ceremony.

All the athletes go to the opening ceremony, so it would be hard to do logistically, not to mention the jet lag.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I do personally have the opinion that the World Cup and Olympics were worth much more than their cost just by the fact that they bankrupted every kind of government here and pressed the people into revolting. I estimate they were the hightest ROI project our government ever had when considered that indirect gain.

I'd agree with you, I wish lots of our corrupt officials went to jail, but I'm afraid it's not happening...

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