The USOC selects Boston as U.S. bid to host the 2024 Olympic & Paralympic Games

jsinger121

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SoxFanInCali said:
2018 Winter Olympics: PyeongChang, South Korea
2020 Summer Olympics: Tokyo, Japan
2022 Winter Olympics: Beijing, China
 
Don't they usually try to distribute the games worldwide a bit better than this?
 
yes but no one put forth a bid for 2022 other than Beijing or Almaty. This is the Olympics the US should have tried to get. And if Boston wanted the Olympics they could have hosted the winter games with ease much more than the summer games.
 

SoxFanInCali

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California. Duh.
jsinger121 said:
 
yes but no one put forth a bid for 2022 other than Beijing or Almaty. This is the Olympics the US should have tried to get. And if Boston wanted the Olympics they could have hosted the winter games with ease much more than the summer games.
 True, but there were other options for 2020.
 
IOC corruption was the reason Norway bailed out on their bid only a couple of months after being named one of the final candidates, leaving only Beijing or Almaty.  Poland and Sweden had already dropped their bids due to lack of political support, and Ukraine had to drop out due to the situation with Russia.
 
The bidding for the next few games should be interesting. Many Western countries have determined that it's not worth the political and economic issues to host the games, so it's getting to where most of the major events are going to authoritarian states (including the next couple of World Cups).
 

Ale Xander

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jsinger121 said:
 
yes but no one put forth a bid for 2022 other than Beijing or Almaty. This is the Olympics the US should have tried to get. And if Boston wanted the Olympics they could have hosted the winter games with ease much more than the summer games.
Only real question is which northern state gets alpine, correct?
 
Bretton Woods is x-c/biathlon, Figure skating at TD and hockey at Dunk and DCU (final, and maybe a semi at TD), speedskating and curling at the beanpot schools in some fashion, freestyle/boarding/cross at Sugarloaf/SR, medal ceremonies at Fenway, no?
 

axx

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jsinger121 said:
yes but no one put forth a bid for 2022 other than Beijing or Almaty. This is the Olympics the US should have tried to get. And if Boston wanted the Olympics they could have hosted the winter games with ease much more than the summer games.
 
You have to understand that the point of Boston hosting the Olympics was to make the construction companies (and the Boston pols!) rich building worthless venues. If most of the events are outside of Boston, that doesn't really help their cause.
 

Dan Murfman

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So the marathon swimmers, rowers and boaters are going to have to deal with raw sewage next year in the Olympics.
 
 
"If I were going to be in the Olympics," said Griffith, the California water expert, "I would probably go early and get exposed and build up my immunity system to these viruses before I had to compete, because I don't see how they're going to solve this sewage problem."
 

A "huge risk" for athletes
Ivan Bulaja, the Croatian-born coach of Austria's 49er-class sailing team, has seen it firsthand. His sailors have lost valuable training days after falling ill with vomiting and diarrhea.
"This is by far the worst water quality we've ever seen in our sailing careers," said Bulaja.
Training earlier this month in Guanabara Bay, Austrian sailor David Hussl said he and his teammates take precautions, washing their faces immediately with bottled water when they get splashed by waves and showering the minute they return to shore. And yet Hussl said he's fallen ill several times.
"I've had high temperatures and problems with my stomach," he said. "It's always one day completely in bed and then usually not sailing for two or three days."
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/brazil-summer-olympics-water-contaminated-with-raw-sewage/
 

The Napkin

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surprise surprise
 
The governor's office today released the Brattle Group report on financial implications of holding the 2024 Olympics here. And what the Brattle Group found was that Boston 2024 dramatically underestimated the costs of certain facilities and that the much vaunted "deadline" effect for forcing infrastructure improvements could have meant even higher costs as contractors demanded extra payments to build everything on time.
 

The Napkin

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Toronto has rejected an Olympic Bid for 2024
 
People familiar with John Tory’s deliberations on a Toronto Olympic bid expect him to say no on Tuesday, citing a tight timeline and lack of interest from the private sector as reasons for not pursuing the 2024 Summer Games.
 
2026 though?
 
Instead, Mr. Henderson has already begun lobbying for a 2026 Winter Olympics bid, saying the downhill skiing events could be co-hosted by an American town, such as Lake Placid.
 

Fred not Lynn

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I was a little surprised that Toronto was making any serious consideration so late in the process. Shame, too, because you do get to leverage a lot of the work done towards the Pan Am Games.

As for winter 2026, the correct Canadian bid is Quebec City. They've been waiting their turn a good long while. Calgary is contemplating a bid, but I am not a big supporter - these things should go where they haven't been before whenever there's a suitable host who wants to host.
 

Harry Hooper

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Harry Hooper said:
 
 
True, plus the idea that the meter has stopped running on the Big Dig is ludicrous. Go in the Central Artery tunnel almost any night after midnight and you'll see workers in there trying to cope with damage from the inrushing seawater. I don't know which budget item all this ongoing work is hidden under. We'll see if the tunnel actually lasts until its supposed payoff date in 2 decades as seawater doesn't play well with steel & concrete.
 
 
Nice to see at least one of the Boston papers looking behind the curtain:
 
Herald: State Spending Millions Every Year Pumping Out Big Dig Tunnels
 

 
 

Ale Xander

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They chose the wrong games to go after. They should have put forth an effort for the Winter Games in 2026 which would have been much easier to host and many less facilities to build and put Boston on the global spotlight.
Sorry to bump this but I'm already on Olympic withdrawal. If Boston/Ma won't/can't host, what about NH for 2026? I've enjoyed my time at whittemore which would be a fine secondary rink (Verizon primary) and Wildcat and Bretton (xc) should be ok for skiing. Dartmouth could probably host a couple of the smaller events. Lowell and Lawler are close enough if you need a helping hand from your neighbor.

Obviously you need a place for the opening and closing ceremonies but would there be other impediments? (Enough hotels in Manchvegas and white mountain area?) if lake placid can build a temporary ceremony venue why can't NH?

There is still time to make an effort for 2026 right? (Whichever state or set of states)
 
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Beomoose

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With adequate political will, funding, and management you could host an Olympics nearly anywhere. Of course, you also have to get the IOC onboard. Chicago was, for all appearances, a perfectly cromulant bid that lost because too many IOC members got stars in their eyes for Rio. Sochi's backers spent their way into the members' hearts. NH has to make them want it, or it needs to pull a Beijing II -type hand where everyone else bails.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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With adequate political will, funding, and management you could host an Olympics nearly anywhere. Of course, you also have to get the IOC onboard. Chicago was, for all appearances, a perfectly cromulant bid that lost because too many IOC members got stars in their eyes for Rio. Sochi's backers spent their way into the members' hearts. NH has to make them want it, or it needs to pull a Beijing II -type hand where everyone else bails.
I'm aware anywhere could host it if they wanted to and had he money.

I'll start with a few things and let you guys go from there.

- whiteface is in NY. I have no idea what it's like but that's pretty friggin far, so I'm not sure why it would even be mentioned when Killington is much closer and a legit mountain. Anyone that thinks Breton Woods could handle Olympic skiing, well, should ski more. I'm not someone anyone would call a 'good' skier and I could handle the toughest slopes at Breton woods when I was about twelve. It's far too small a mountain to make Olympic runs on.

- Where do you think we are getting the money from? We have no income tax and no sales tax. We have some of the highest real estate taxes on the country because of this. I would bet good money that you wouldn't get more than 2% of state population to support spending billions of dollars to build Olympic facilities from anyone at least tiny bit rational. We have serious issues in this state, top of the list being a pretty damn bad heroin epidemic, but yeah let's spend billions on the Olympics.

- The amount of infrastructure needed would be astronomical and completely useless afterwards. We can barely handle tourist season. No, Manchester doesn't have enough hotels and no the state doesn't have enough highways. We were worried about how bad it would suck when there was rumors about Boston, because it would impact us. And you guys think the state would make a bid?

- Great point on Sochi. As soon as Putin and his mobsters move to town we should have the backing.

I mean, even the amount of people to work it and the amount of plows to keep the streets clean of snow aren't even in the realm of practicality, let alone that outside the Verizon center and Whittemore there isn't a single venue in the state that could host an Olympic event.

I mean, I have to assume you guys are fucking joking. Throwing around Boston, Beijing and Chicago as comps. This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen proposed. I'm going to give you two the benefit of the doubt that you're joking.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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Yeah man, Wildcat couldn't handle it either. The only places in New England that could handle Olympic events are Killington and Sugarloaf. Possibly Sunday River but that's up for debate and not one I could really weigh in one with any authority. If you put your Olympic village in Manchester all of them are 2-4 hrs away without traffic. And none have major highways leading to them.

I understand the romance of a Lake Placid style little Olympics but it's not 40 years ago.
 
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Stowe / Burlington could probably handle it as well.

You've got 10 years between here and there, a lot can happen in that span if the basic idea makes sense. And the infrastructure build-out required for the winter games is tiny compared with the summer games. But I think you'll sooner see Manchester England host an olympic games than Manchester NH.
 

Beomoose

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I mean, I have to assume you guys are fucking joking. Throwing around Boston, Beijing and Chicago as comps. This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen proposed. I'm going to give you two the benefit of the doubt that you're joking.
Was meant to be a "serious" but lighthearted response to Xander's post, yours just snuck in there. Sorry.
 

Leather

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You people are nuts.

Where is Stowe going to hold ice skating events, never mind opening/closing ceremonies? Plus hockey? Curling? Montpelier?

I was just up in Whistler, BC, which is about twice as big as Killington, and they were only home to the skiing events. Vancouver (90 minutes south) hosted the indoor events, most lodging, and ceremonies.

For logistical reasons alone, I think having a major int'l airport within the vicinity of the Olympics is a modern day requirement, especially for the winter games when highways could be socked in and limit travel.
 

Byrdbrain

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It isn't going to happen but I'll play along here.
Burlington would be home to the games and would host the opening/closing ceremonies and hockey. Stowe would only host the alpine skiing events. The UVM campus area would essentially be home base and the buildings would be built so they could be used by the university after the games.

Burlington has a airport and while it clearly isn't a very large Montreal is two hours away and Boston is three, both essentially connected via major highway(there are 10 miles of smaller roads as you cross the Canadian border).
There obviously aren't enough hotel rooms and those that are there aren't up to IOC standards(they want 5 star, even the downtown hotels are 3 star). There is also zero chance that the egalitarian/ultra-liberal VT government would put up with the quasi-royalty of the IOC.
That said in an ideal world I think that area would be great, this world isn't ideal and it ain't happenin.
 

Ale Xander

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If you're going to use the Montreal infrastructure, may as well have the whole thing there except for the Alpine stuff at Mont Tremblant.

I'll take that. As being close enough to Boston to make the trip as a spectator


Then again, they should just have it rotate between Scandinavia and the Alps.
 

Quintanariffic

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If you're going to use the Montreal infrastructure, may as well have the whole thing there except for the Alpine stuff at Mont Tremblant.

I'll take that. As being close enough to Boston to make the trip as a spectator


Then again, they should just have it rotate between Scandinavia and the Alps.
Can't do it at Tremblant b/c you need 800 meters of vertical for the men's downhill and Tremblant only has 650.

The idea has been floated to do a joint Olympic bid with Montreal hosting most of the events and somewhere in the northeast US hosting the skiing and other like bobsled that require a more mountainous environment. Functionally, this means only Whiteface, Smuggs, Stowe, Sugarbush, Killington and Sugarloaf would be potential candidates due to the vertical requirements. In practice, I can't see any place other than Whiteface as being a likely venue b/c they already have the facilities. The only way you break-even at the Olympics is to have most of the infrastructure already built, so a bid requiring the construction of multiple facilities in northern NY or NE is unlikely to succeed for various reasons.
 

Ale Xander

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Thanks for that, Q. That place is beautiful, with tons of lodging. Didn't realize about the lack of height.
 

cannonball 1729

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If you're going to use the Montreal infrastructure, may as well have the whole thing there except for the Alpine stuff at Mont Tremblant.

I'll take that. As being close enough to Boston to make the trip as a spectator


Then again, they should just have it rotate between Scandinavia and the Alps.
I suspect Montreal would sooner host an al-Qaeda/ISIS joint convention than host the Olympics again. They hosted the Summer Olympics in 1976 and did't finish paying off the debt until 2006.

Edit: summer, not winter
 
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axx

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It may be moot since I think LA has a decent chance of winning the 2024 games.
 

Fred not Lynn

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And the Canadian Rockies.
And today the people of Calgary vote on the future of the Olympic movement.

Seriously - a potential bid for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games is being voted on in Calgary today...and its got a great chance of losing. If the IOC has reached a point where the citizens of a city that fairly recently hosted, had a profitable and positive experience and doesn't need to build a pile of esoteric venues reject a near slam-dunk bid, they're in serious trouble...

https://sports.yahoo.com/calgary-residents-vote-canadas-2026-olympic-bid-173607212--oly.html
 

Ale Xander

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They should just host every one, both summer and winter, in Moscow and St. Petersburg. (not the one in Florida)
 

Fred not Lynn

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Well, for what it’s worth, Calgary is out - 56% - 44% against bidding. IOC Needs to do more than just re-tool. They’re going to have to stop having a bid process, and approach desirable hosts with deals...and hope someone bites.