OT: What To Do About the Olympics?

Submitted by stephenrjking on

The rolling disaster that is the Olympic Games continues to escalate in Rio, as the burgeoning Zika virus has prompted 200 doctors to urge the postponement or relocation of the Olympic Games this August. This is on top of widespread turmoil in Brazil.

I've grown increasingly weary with the politics and corruption involved in the Olympics, and it is increasingly clear that no city should ever subject themselves to them again. 

But they are two months away. At this point, what would you do? Brazil has already spent basically all of the money to produce the massive infrastructure the IOC requires (which is a huge part of the problem, because bids are built upon systematic mega-dollar kickbacks the promise of massive and expensive building programs to make the host city a showcase for the Games, making this an absurd proposition for most locations). Traveling and television production plans have been made. The tickets have been purchased.

But even beside all this, where would you put them on short notice? I sometimes speculate that the World Cup should be moved from Qatar to the US, because that's obviously smart and logical. But that works because the US has so much sports infrastructure that the only question would be which $500 million stadiums would lose out in a bid. Everything is there.

But the Summer Olympics require an infrastructure that is virtually impossible to find in existence anywhere, let alone produce on short notice. Obviously, logical options would include previous hosts of the games, but even many of those cities can no longer hold them on short notice. Just finding a stadium with an Olympic-sized track is a chore, because stadiums that size have very poor sightlines for other sports and are often modified or destroyed. Atlanta, for example, turned theirs into a now-about-to-be-defunct baseball stadium. The LA Colisseum has been modified for football. Turin built a brand new stadium with track for World Cup 90, and it was such a disaster that local team Juventus eventually bought the thing just to demolish it.

This is not even considering the many other sports that need to be held. Gymnastics needs at least half of a basketball arena, and there aren't many Olympic swimming/diving complexes that also have a lot of seating available. 

There's always a delay... but how long would it last? Zika might not cease to be a problem in 12 months. 

Feel free to drift here and discuss other Olympic "issues."

Rabbit21

June 9th, 2016 at 5:13 PM ^

So you like skating and being confused while watching inexplicably scored skiing and snowboarding events, good to know.

I'll stick with swimming and track and other sorts where when you go home at the end of the day you know who won.




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stephenrjking

June 9th, 2016 at 5:16 PM ^

Speaking for myself, I enjoy national-team hockey (a lot of guys on the US team lived in Ann Arbor for a year or two, there's a good local angle available) and objectively timed alpine skiing events and speed skating and curling. Among other things. I know who wins all of them when I watch.

BursleyBaitsBus

June 9th, 2016 at 5:21 PM ^

OP your anecdote about Juventus and Torino purchasing Stadio de Alpi to demolish it is not totally correct. 

Juventus and Torino FC shared the stadium until Juventus bought it out to build their own independent stadium on top of it, Juventus Stadium. 

The stadium wasn't the best fan experience but the main reason Juve did it was to gain sole financial control of the stadium so that no rental fees needed to be paid to the Italian govt. 

 

 

stephenrjking

June 9th, 2016 at 5:22 PM ^

Yes. Juventus bought it. The purpose was to destroy it and replace it. Perhaps I wasn't clear that a new building was rebuilt, but I wasn't trying to include every detail, just point out that by virtue of having an Olympic track, the stadium was so bad that it had to be euthanized.

The Fugitive

June 9th, 2016 at 4:59 PM ^

I think the US could handle it on somewhat short notice.  Spread it out across the country to make sure venues are available.  

I don't see this ending well for Brasil.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

June 9th, 2016 at 11:29 PM ^

Whatever money they spent was completely insufficient.  It's funny that just now people are opening their eyes to what a terrible idea it was to put the Olympics in Rio.  The sailing community has been howling for years because sailors have to compete in what is literally a shithole.  

When the Olympics were awarded, something like 15% of sewage dumped into the bay was treated.  Part of the deal was they'd clean up the bay, and now they're at about 40%.  Great work.  The bay where the sailing will happen is full of shit, trash, and dead bodies.  Qualifying races and such have seen the competitors come out with flesh-eating bacteria and viruses that haven't been named yet and God knows what else.

lilpenny1316

June 9th, 2016 at 5:03 PM ^

I have a hard time believing none of the thousands of people travelling to the Olympics won't be bitten by one of the yellow fever mosquitos that carry the virus.

jblaze

June 9th, 2016 at 5:04 PM ^

College Campuses have it all. Hell, the Athletic Campus at Michigan has all of your sports covered. Any of the big State Schools would work.

BlueWolverine02

June 9th, 2016 at 5:04 PM ^

i would have no problem if the US pulled out until the IOC got their act together. it's such a waste of resources, they need to pick one city and have it there every Olympics.