Burlington with a population of 42,000 people and a metro population of 208,000 is the largest city in Vermont.
According to Google Autocomplete, a term used to describe Vermont is AWESOME
http://www.dailymail...U-S-states.html
Burlington itself only has a single minor league baseball team, but it is also the location of the University of Vermont and their athletic Catamount teams.
The following facilities exist in Burlington:
Patrick Gym - a 3266 seat Basketball arena used by the UoV
Gutterson Fieldhouse - a 4,035 seat Ice Hockey arena used by the UoV
Cairns Arena - an arena with two rinks of 600 seat and 400 seat used by Saint Michael College Purple Knights, the Green Mountain Glades Junior A Ice Hockey Team as well as High School Teams
Burlington Memorial Auditorium - a 2,500 seat arena previously home to the Vermont Frost Heaves and a convention centre
Ross Sports Center - a 2,500 seat arena used by Saint Michael College basketball teams
Barre Auditorium - a 1850 seat arena 40km to the east
Centennial Field - a ballpark holding 4,415 seats home of the Vermont Lake Monsters
Of course, none of these facilities meet IOC requirements so there would need to be some developments.
10,000 seat arena - replacing Patrick Gym and Gutterson Fieldhouse for the UoV (IceHockey1)
6,000 seat arena - replacing Ross Center and partially Cairns Arena for Saint Michael's College (IceHockey2)
8,000 seat arena - major East Coast speed skating rink similar to the Richmond Oval that could also be used for community use replacing the Memorial Auditorium and Cairns Arena. (Speed skating)
3,000 seat arena - replacement for the Barre Auditorium (Curling)
there are precendents for downsizing arenas in America. The 2nd Hockey facility in 2002 was downsized from 8,140 seats to 2,300 seats post games.
12,000 - 15,000 seat arena - this could be a temporary structure like the Basketball arena of London dismantled after the games.
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and I think the No1 IceHockey arena in 2018 is a temporary structure. Alternatively due to the lack of pro teams, an AHL/ECHL/D-League team could be attracted to be a tenant.
As for the opening ceremones, in 1994 the Victoria Commonwealth games temporarily increased their 5,000 seat stadium to 30,000 seats through temporary stands. These stands could be used to provide seating post games at some of the high schools and college football field in Vermont.
As for mountains, there are two mountains within 75km (Sugarbush and Smugglers Notch) that have the 800m vertical, another at 140km with 930m at Killington and the closest resort to Burlington with 720m (Stowe) but which can potentially find the extra 80m - different mountains could be used for downhill, slalom and snowboarding events.
With bobsleigh and ski jumping, new facilities could be built, and a small hill in the south of the state is already part of the international ski jumping circuit. Alternatively, the bob run and ski jumps at Lake Placid are within 90km of Burlington and could be reused to save costs
As for transport, Burlington has an airport capable of taking A320/B737 aircraft with flights to NY, Toronto, Boston, Detriot, Chicago, Washington and Philadelphia. The Vermonter Amtrak service extends as far south as Washington. Burlington is 155km from Montreal.
In my opinion, Burlington could host a Winter Olympics in the North East as it is big enough, meets the physical requirements for a bid, and facilities built could have positive post games usage. It would also be far more compact than what the likes of Denver are offering.
Of course sponsorship by Ben and Jerry's would not hurt either.
