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What is it with you and gay slurs? Internalized homophobia? As a straight guy (even as one who likes cute animals) it would never even occur to me to say something like that.

It's a shame that there're basically no entries this year. Here are the 3 logo I managed to come up with (the links are for the logos on white background) http://www.up2me.co.il/imgs/72996411.png http://www.up2me.co.il/imgs/592757.png http://www.up2me.co.il/imgs/83887732.png

Are you OK with actually turning up now then? Ah, yes, here you are: Yes, Germany's most famous band have joined us as this is an announcement ceremony! And to conduct it, we have fahrt, fahrt, fahrted down the Autobahn to our host city, Frankenstein's hometown, DARMSTADT! We are inside whatever that tower is to crown our 13th Winter Olympic logo comp champion, & here in the heart of Germany, who could be better to do it than a man with years of experience in opening envelopes, the IOC President (& Olympic champion in fencing, 1976) himself - Thomas Bach! For once, he's not appearing via videolink - so over to you, Tommy: Bach: Danke schon - Guten abend aus alles. It is ein great honour to be here & see the athletes of [insert games here] gathered so peacefully in [insert city here]. I vish to give mein thanks to President Pu...I mean Chancellor Merkel for her support, & to Nik...I mean ze global sporting family for participating in zis great event. Ze Olympic Movement is...you know what, I do not need to do all zis. Let's get to ze point: Ze International Olympic Committee has ze honour of announcing that the 13th Gamesbids Winter Olympic Logo Competition is awarded to ze city of... PAUL! Yoshi: Danke Mr President. Your flight to Brisbane leaves soon, & Frankfurt Airport is next door. There we have it, proof that being late is not necessarily a bar on winning, as the logo comp colossus that is @paul takes title number 9! Apologies for the lack of a picture with Bach & the logo, that's due to the technical issues we've been having. Although I never heard anyone complaining that they didn't see Thomas Bach enough The result was clear after round 1, the scores were: A: 2 B: 1 C: 0 D: 4. That is Part 1 done, thank you to everyone who got involved, I know it wasn't a vintage comp with so little action on the board, but at least we had enough logos for multiple rounds. Theoretically, anyway. Thank you to everyone who submitted a logo, & also to all 7 voters. I was worried we might only get 3. Particular thanks to @Sir Rols for the admin help, poll starting, & even vote-getting thanks to his thread about old Tommy. Finally thanks to @paul for enabling us to survive Rols' Mac tragedy, & congrats once again on his latest win. And that's winter done! We will gather again tomorrow on a very special train to begin & maybe end our search for the summer champion. Until then, it's bier und bratwurst (yum) all round! AUF WIEDERSEHN!

QSAC Is too old for such a thing. They proposed to expand it to 90,000 for the 1992 bid, but how that was ever going to achieved was questionable (though I'm sure the bid team would have made a scale model on how they were going to achieve this). I'd expect a new stadium, somewhere near public transport and easy accessibility. It can be downsized post Olympics if need be, provided that no one wants to become a tenant. That's the Achilles heel of the bid. The main stadium is going to take a huge chunk of the budget, even if you get privatize the construction of the Athletes' Village and Media Village.

BOO! Getting close to midnight... With thanks (& apologies) to the holographic form of the late, great King of Pop/inventor of Halloween, Michael Jackson, it's time to say...WELCOME TO THE 13TH (wooooo) ANNUAL GAMESBIDS OLYMPIC LOGO COMPETITION! Before beginning, it is customary to acknowledge my fellow Nintendo legend @thatsnotmypuppy, the inventor, & my fellow womb...wait, no @Sir Rols who kept it going, & is again the general fixer-of-issues this time. Last year saw a decent turnout for a competition that took us around the world from Mexico to Mumbai, & once again in 2019, it is my/our pleasure to give the board permission to play Christmas songs all day. This competition is a little unusual, not because of the format (it's the same as last year) but because we have a theme that links the 4 cities. Since the days of Christ, 13 has been considered by many an unlucky/spooky number, so for this 13th competition, all 4 cities have that spooky touch. No need to make your logos spooky though! Let's get haunted... WINTER 2030 CITY ONE: DARMSTADT, GERMANY Located in the vicinity of Frankfurt, Darmstadt may not rank among the most famed German cities, but it's a very fitting place for a spooky excursion. High in the hills overlooking the city, you'll find Frankenstein Castle, said to have inspired the novel &, of course, the monster... A Winter Olympics here would be more surprising than seeing a bolt-necked monster roaming the streets, but how would you brand one? WINTER 2030 CITY TWO: BUCHAREST, ROMANIA Romania might strike as more of a summer sport nation, but they have begun to host & bid for winter events too. Plus anything goes in the logo comp - & you really can't do spooky without Romania. Its uniquely unfortunate history gives it TWO of the most terrifying people to rule in Europe, Vlad the Impaler & Nicolae Ceaucescu. And that's before you start on the whole vampire thing. How would you brand a rather different Winter Games? SUMMER 2032 CITY ONE: NEW ORLEANS, USA How could we not? New Orleans might not be one of the cities often talked about when Uncle Sam wants the Olympic rings again, but as the city of voodoo & jazz funerals, it's a true no-brainer for this one. Throw in all its other cultural specialities & it's frankly amazing it's never been here before. No shortage of possibilities, so how would you brand the Games in the Big Easy? SUMMER 2032 CITY 2: CAIRO, EGYPT (Yes, I know they're not technically in Cairo). We've only had one African city in 12 comps, so it's well past time for another visit. And as AFAIK, we've never had an Arab world city either, where better than the largest city of the continent? There's no shortage of design inspiration here, & from the film The Mummy to the curse of Tutankhamun, there's no shortage of spooks either. How would you brand the Games in the Middle East AND Africa? THE RULES/FORMAT We are, as ever, after logos that encompass the overall feel of the city and local influences that can be tied into a design concept. How can any of these cities articulate graphically what they could bring to future Olympics hosting? What flavour will they bring to the games? Will it inspire any of these to actually bid for the damn thing? The logos should be presented as full colour designs on white background. If you like, however, they can also be presented in black and white or utilised in forms like street banners, t-shirts, apps, vehicles, pins etc. For voting purposes, the main (colour) logo will be used on the polls, & extra stuff is not obligatory, but any extra material you produce may help you “sell” your design better to the wider GamesBids voting membership. Spookiness is not obligatory (the cities are the theme, it's a normal comp) but if you wanna go big on the whole 13 thing, nobody will stop you.  These logos are for the cities as they HOST the games. So you CAN use the rings, and don't need to include the words “Candidate City, Olympic Games 2030/32” or whatever the IOC want this week. Please post your preliminary submissions on this thread. If you want to hold anything back to be presented as a “surprise” when voting starts you can contact me or Rols via PM and I'll tell you where you can send the extra material. However, it would be nice to see as many on-thread submissions as possible for people to chew over in-thread, & to try & get the old buzz back. You can submit logos for any of the cities, & anything up to all 4 of them. However, you cannot enter more than one logo for the same city (see below). So entering one logo for each of Darmstadt, New Orleans & Cairo is fine, but two logos for New Orleans, say, is not fine. You are able, encouraged even, to enter for multiple cities. Feel free to post as many logo designs as you like, & to ask for feedback from our famously discerning electorate. If you really can't decide between your own designs for a city, feel free to start a poll (or to ask for one to be started). When the time comes for voting, however, you will be asked to settle on a maximum of ONLY ONE official logo per city as your official entry. The format depends on the numbers. Most likely, it will be the traditional exhausting exhaustive ballot preferred by the IOC, but if numbers fit & opinion ok, we may have the World Cup-style tournament system. Whatever happens, the winter & summer 'halves' will be entirely separate, there will be two winners in the Olympic comp tradition. The competition is open to all members of GamesBids, or to any new legitimate members who join before the end of the submission period. I, with consultation, will rule on the legitimacy of new members. As you would expect, I will rule on any disputes - always aiming to be as fair as possible in the process. As always, just remember, this is all meant to be fun. Olympic spirit, remember?. Hopefully this will spark up some action on the board. I'll be dipping in, keeping a close eye on things, but otherwise will try and keep my green yoshi-paws off until the polling stages. The deadline for submissions is 1pm London time (that is, midnight in Sydney, as per tradition) on NEW YEAR'S EVE, 31 DECEMBER 2019. Thus, GB will begin the new decade & Olympic year 2020 with the voting. And this is just to alert @Rob. to the existence of the new comp in the hope that he'll do his traditional bit of putting up links to various free design programs etc for the benefit of those who want to take part but may not have the facility at the moment. All that is left to say is thank you Rols once again, and to all participants for having the guts to put your logos up for the annual GamesBids dissection, & may the best logos win. There are too many languages involved to do this properly, so I'll just say GOOD LUCK! 

So it’s official: Munich is going to host 2022. Confirmed sports: athletics (Olympiastadion), golf (venue tbc), gymnastics (in new arena in Olympiapark), cycling (track in Olympiahalle as velodrome was torn down some years ago, rest Olympiapark/city), rowing (1972 regatta course), triathlon (Olympiapark). A seventh sport will be added, maybe swimming, but they’re still negotiating. Dates: 11-22 August

Finally we got a clear pic from the inside. Pretty much ready I say.

Really liking the dark mode version of the logo on the website, will be very interesting to see what path they will take when it comes to the look. Definitely a winner with producing a quality Worldmark as well which should work well with the branding. Reasonably pleased with this one.

The IOC, for all its faults, at least didn't sold itself to Qatar and killed off earlier their previous bids to the Olympics.

A bit of a head scratcher but if Doha is serious about this, then the sheikhs may have finally realized an Olympics isn't going to happen and the best they can hope for is the Asian Games (it would be their second go around as the host). As for the IAAF World Championships, it's a disaster. Crowds are sparse and there are serious concerns about the marathon in the humidity. Of course Qatar is blaming everything on the Saudi-led blockade as they do for everything that doesn't go there way these days.

New pictures released today by japanese newspapers. We have clearer shots of the running track. The stadium is officially 98% completed now.

The entire Olympic Village would end up in a Jakarta jail by the end of the games if this went ahead: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/anger-as-indonesia-moves-to-criminalise-sex-outside-marriage

I've often said going to the Olympics is unlike other trips. Usually, you plan out a trip, then decide if you want to go or not. With the Olympics, you decide "I want to go," then fill in whatever details you can get. Are you wiling to take that leap of faith. One thing people might not realize is how much of the "Olympic Spirit" does not involve going to events. As much as I love going to events, they can be a real pain. Lots of logistical headaches, lots of security to deal with, lots of waiting around. Many times is better to watch an event as a bar or "live site" than at the event itself. And, yes, watching in a bar in the host city is different that watching at home. Of course, you do want to go to some events. Of the events you list, Opening Ceremony tickets are very hard to come by. You might get them, but certainly don't count on it. Basketball prelims are usually available at some point, the gold medal match (mens) can be hard. 3x3 basketball tickets keep popping up, so I suspect that will be easier. Hockey is one of the easiest tickets to get. Football is the only sport where I can guarantee you'll be able to get tickets... though no guarantees on the gold medal match. Swimming and Women's gymnastics are some of the tougher tickets to get (and some of the sports that are much better on TV than in person). Beach Volleyball and Men's Handball are usually available. As far as planning, the first thing I always focus on in whether to target the first week or the second. That way I can book tickets and travel plans independently. Think about which events you most want to try for, and then look at the schedule to see when they are held. Lots of accommodations will have minimum stays, required deposits with no refunds. Always nice if you can book someplace that will be refundable, but don't count on it. As I said, you basically need to commit and just go for it. Mainstream hotels will either be completely book, or outrageously expensive. If you want to stay in one of those, either pay the $$$ or wait until the last month or so when they will inevitably free up rooms. The freeing of rooms happens every olympics, but I've never had the guts to wait. I always target non-traditional housing - hostels, dorms, airbnb, etc. Tokyo offers up another option in "businessman" hotels. Finally, there is always the operation of booking something out of town and commuting in. Tokyo has incredible train options for that. Plane tickets is usually the easiest thing to book. Mainstream airlines open up about 330 days ahead of time. Unlike hotels, they don't jack prices sky-high. Just don't count on a deal. Best of luck.

Simple but effective. I like the circle patterns around the logo, which I suppose are a reference to the sun and the whole Land of the Rising sun motif. No one has posted the medals yet with their ribbons and case though, so there you go. https://worldarchery.org/news/172956/tokyo-2020-unveils-olympic-medal-design-celebrate-start-one-year-countdown Japanese ash wood cases, dyed with the same colour as the Olympic emblem, will accompany each medal. Every case will be unique. A closeup of the medals, you can see the relief pattern much better here. The medals resemble rough stones that have been polished and now shine, with light and brilliance as overall themes. They reflect the concept that in order to succeed, athletes have to strive and sacrifice on a daily basis. More than 400 professional designers and students submitted proposals in an open competition. Junichi Kawanishi is responsible for the winning design. “I never dreamed that the design I submitted only as a memorial to this lifetime event would be actually selected,” he said. “With their shining rings, I hope the medals will be seen as paying tribute to the athletes’ efforts, reflecting their glory and symbolising friendship.”

Exactly. The Swedish bid was very weak, but the IOC needed to keep it alive and the SOK gamely went along with it. I don't think you can blame a NOC itself for being willing to bid if the IOC publicly states multiple times that they are willing to accept a low cost games with mostly private funding. And in the end I can't even really blame the IOC's members for not wanting a spread out games requiring ferry rides, night trains or whatever to get around, and for not wanting to wait in limbo to see if the Swedish public and government would pull the rug from under their feet like Denver did. I think the only fair criticism is to say the IOC shouldn't have been disingenuous with the Swedes, and should have been clearer about what they wanted rather than paying constant lip service to "Agenda 2020."

The odd thing is that the big winter IFs (FIS, IBSF, IBU) are run by northern Europeans who may want to see their home countries host someday. (This fact makes it even odder that the Swedes did not recruit one of them to help with the IOC politics; they paid more attention to their internal politics than the constituency that matters.) I also don't think the logistics are a dealbreaker; they just needed better answers (e.g. sleeper trains) than the ones they gave. In PyeongChang people rarely moved same day between the snow and ice clusters, and moving within the snow cluster was hard. Showing expected movement patterns and addressing concerns on things like hotel rooms would have gone a long way. Falling down technically was one of the ways they failed to reassure on risk. If you're going to go spread out at least show how that will work. Helsinki's failed 2006 bid (which proposed Lillehammer as the mountain cluster) had a transport plan involving flying between cluster--not sustainable, perhaps, but they had an answer. Calling yourself the most sustainable bid ever without acknowledging that many stakeholders will be flying was also a mistake; once again, talking mostly to themselves and about their own virtues rather than calling it what it is; Milan Cortina's transport plan is hours on coaches on mountain roads, but they admitted that at least. This all came down to hubris; the Swedes appeared to really think that Agenda 2020 / New Norm meant the IOC was desperate, not that Lausanne wanted its ego to be stroked. The Swedes did not want it badly enough to "do what it takes" politically. That is the issue with the lack of a story. The Brazilians sold themselves as a rising power that had never hosted, and look at where that got the IOC--a disorganised games in the middle of a political crisis. A sports power which has never hosted is not enough of a narrative, but the Swedes really appeared to believe it.

It's quite simple - if the event is going to divert significant financial resources from more pressing public needs then it won't get spent and alternate forms of funding has to be found. This is the right policy for Scandinavia right now. Sweden does not have the budget to spend on big events like Japan, USA, China etc. They saw what Agenda 2020 was allowing and put together a solid plan that would spread the effort across the country and internationally. The IOC had an alternative that while not ideal was at least in the same country and had Governmental support. Sadly the IOC is not as brave as their exhaustive press releases indicate.

She’s probably with AA ATM!

It was Milan’s extravagant shopping that won the day! And boy, AA must be stewing in his own juices, cuz he got yet another one WRONG!

So we really are seeing the end of the Olympic bidding process. Probably for the best in terms of the long-term health of the Movement, when you see the legacies of over-promising around the world. And if Coates is right (obviously there’s the caveat that he is Australian) there’s one thing for sure - Australia will be great hosts, they always are. I imagine this’ll mean Salt Lake 2030 will be confirmed at the same session if they get official quickly enough.

... and yet neither Melbourne, nor any other Australian city or region is making any moves toward a bid. So let go of Melbourne, they’re not bidding. End of story. I’m a Melbourne resident and I know Melbourne have not yet shown any interest in a bid for 2032 or any other games. We are now in the Agenda 2020 era. A 2032 Brisbane/SE QLD bid has been shown to be very feasible under Agenda 2020. In Australia, only Brisbane and South East Queensland are making any moves ahead of a possible bid.

Some new pics from the official game, showing how the venues will (probably) be dressed up.

Louise Martin interview on BBC radio said that the plan is to announce the 2026 & 2030 hosts at the General Assembly in October 2026 Adelaide 2030 Hamilton no other candidates expressed any interest, so lock them in Paris/LA style

I fail to see why you're all panicking. The chances of this woman or her party ever being elected to the Paris town hall are zilch! She belongs to a far left party called "La France Insoumise" (A Rebellious France) led by a fire breathing demagogue called Jean-Luc Mélenchon who still hasn't lived down the humiliation of having lost a presidential election he was probably the only one to think he could win! This call for a referendum is some last ditch & desperate call for attention. Nobody listens what she has to say and no one cares......

The Mario & Sonic games usually always show more or less the look the games they end up wearing (with some minor changes regarding its arrangement). And I kind of believe it since its pretty much using the Hanabi motif they said would be the main element of the look, which they're also using on the website. Some examples Vancouver 2010 London 2012 Sochi 2014 Rio 2016

Link to news announcement They will be using 5 colors for the look of the games.

4F has unveiled the Greek uniforms. https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/02/06/greeces-official-tokyo-olympics-2020-uniforms-unveiled/ Also, Nike has revealed the rest of Team USA uniforms for Tokyo 2020. https://www.standard.co.uk/fashion/nike-2020-tokyo-olympics-sustainable-kit-a4355331.html Basketball team Podium outfits Track and Field Kenya has also unveiled its outfits....which are not being very well received at all atm. https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/49449-ugly-kenya-olympics-kit-angers-kenyans

Ariake Arena, venue for Volleball and Wheelchair basket was finished and opened some days ago. https://tokyo2020.org/en/news/notice/20200203-01.html

Coronavirus outbreak poses a lingering threat to Tokyo 2020 From Sydney Morning Herald By Phil Lutton January 31, 2020 — 6.15pm https://www.smh.com.au/sport/coronavirus-outbreak-poses-a-lingering-threat-to-tokyo-2020-20200131-p53woa.html What had largely been a dream ride for organisers of the Tokyo Olympic Games has come to an end. Only a nightmare escalation of the coronavirus would cause the Games to be halted but even the potential of an outbreak has organisers on the highest of alerts ahead of the July 24 start date. By Friday afternoon, more than 200 people had died and almost 10,000 cases reported in China, with another 100,000 in observation with possible symptoms of the infectious disease. With hundreds of thousands of visitors, athletes and officials preparing to converge on Japan in six months, the potential dangers are clear. There were similar rumblings ahead of the Rio 2016 Games surrounding the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which caused a number of athletes to stay away from Brazil but turned into a minor issue once the Olympics started. Yet the severity and scale of the coronavirus outbreak, which has now been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organisation, makes it a far greater challenge to Tokyo 2020 and the International Olympic Committee than Zika four years ago. The Australian Olympic Committee has been following the outbreak closely and been in contact with the relevant health bodies to ensure the safety of all the athletes heading to Japan. "The AOC will continue to take advice from Tokyo 2020 and Commonwealth agencies as the situation evolves. Countermeasures against infectious diseases constitute an important part of Tokyo 2020's plans to host a safe and secure Games," a spokesperson said. "We have been advised that Tokyo 2020 will continue to collaborate with all relevant organisations which carefully monitor any incidence of infectious diseases and will review any countermeasures that may be necessary with all relevant organisations. "In addition, the IOC is in contact with the World Health Organisation, as well as its own medical experts." While suggestions the Games may have to be cancelled are fanciful at this stage, it's no exaggeration to suggest a case of coronavirus at the Olympics, especially within the confines and shared buffets of the Athletes Village, would be a potential disaster for Games organisers. Japan has time to build its defences but the sheer volume of visitors presents a daunting challenge for the hosts. Professor John McBride, an infectious diseases physician and professor of medicine at the Cairns Hospital clinical school, believes the next few months will be critical in terms of the risks posed at Tokyo 2020. If countries outside of China can halt the spread of the disease and new cases begin to diminish, the threat could subside to the point where there is little to no disruption of the multi-sport event. "It will be a lingering issue. It may well yet turn out to be another Zika but it may not. It really depends on how countries go with their efforts to contain the disease," Professor McBride said. "Countries have the opportunity of arresting the transmission and hoping that the travel restrictions and the quarantine that has been put in place do their job. "That’s fine in countries like Australia. I would be surprised if the virus was established on a broadscale, person-to person transmission, in countries with high quality levels of public health." China could be another story entirely, however, given the size of the outbreak and the task health officials now have to contain it before it spreads even further. In the very worst case scenario, that could see the Chinese team asked to withdraw from competing in Tokyo altogether. More likely, it would mean a period of quarantine for Chinese athletes ahead of the Games to ensure they arrived in Japan with a clean bill of health. "They really have a big challenge trying to put a lid on this in places like Wuhan province, where most of the transmissions have occurred, and good luck to them. But if they don’t get it under control a month or two out from the Olympics, you could see a spectre of Japan saying, well, China can’t field a team because China is still cut off," Professor McBride said. "I don’t think they [Tokyo 2020] will allow it to happen. Even if China still had problems, there would be ways around it. They might say the team had to spent two weeks in quarantine before Tokyo. That may be possible. "The next month or two are fairly critical. If countries are very successful at controlling it and it remains a China problem, you could see a scenario where the Olympics could go ahead without too many problems but China may need to go through some quarantine requirements. "It wouldn’t surprise me if there were one or two other countries over the next few months that could also have problems."

I still think one of, if not the main reason for the creation of YOGs was to use them as a consolation prize for countries that do not stand a remote chance of hosting the real thing. Sure the IOC started out with the likes of Singapore and Nanjing but this was more to give the YOGs a solid footing. Since then they've branched out to the likes of Buenos Aires and now Dakar. Going to Dakar means the IOC can finally say they brought the games to Africa, but it does not look as though Dakar is up to the challenge. I could definitely see the IOC calling on Morocco or perhaps Brazzaville which hosted the 2015 African Games and has the venues needed.

It films nicely!

I take it that approval from all relevant governments permitting, we can expect the confirmatory vote to be at the Session attached to Tokyo 2020? Can’t see any point in dragging out any more than that - from either party’s point of view.

So yeah, this just happened. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/dec/09/russia-banned-from-tokyo-olympics-and-football-world-cup?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The old 7 year time frame (ie 2025) has been thrown out- the IOC now solicits/ encourages bidders at a very early stage and will consider and award Games in a more free form way. They a are trying to lock in safe cities from a financial, government, popularity, preparation and controversy view as early as possible to ensure the future survival of the Games. It is all about minimizing corporate risk- that''s why we have a Japan/China/France/ Italy/ USA and maybe Australian Games. All as safe as you can get. The last I heard a decision could be made as early as mid next year..around the times of the Games I suppose.

The dots are clearly either the logo or they’re gonna form what forms the logo. Why else would they need all teams in their destinations? I’m pleased they’re doing something big like this though, it wouldn’t be properly French if it wasn’t artsy & slightly odd (see 92/98 ceremonies) :p

Oops, forgot the link http://www.francsjeux.com/breves/2019/10/09/annonce-en-vue/55860

OMG, they morphed Kenny! You bastards!

It's not just NBC. The calendars of every summer Olympic sport would have to be torn up and adjusted, and that would be a massive disruption. And it would be an even bigger problem for team sports as the IOC has either very indirect control or no control at all over the various sports leagues around the world.

Another pic: Oh right, I forgot to mention the medals were unveiled a couple of days ago:

IDK about that - it’s been really nice without you know who.

No drama - the IOC will just chuck a Winter Games their way. The IOC can offer Munich 2034, Barcelona 2038 etc etc. It'll just be like one of our fantasy future bidders lists! ULAN BATOR 2046!

Yes, it’s been noted that Brisbane’s main (& really only) plus is their weather during the Summer Games-time window. But that alone doesn’t justify the means to make it happen. Yes, Melbourne would be the smarter, much more Agenda 2020 compatible city, but there seems to be internal politics working against them, since John Coates is all too gung-ho for Brisbane for whatever his reasons. And of course don’t say that in the Brisbane thread, cuz there’s a certain element over there that is a lot like a certain you-know-who was about L.A. in the L.A. thread!

I think the Swedish government just let their Olympic/sporting community have a little fun in presenting and "backing" the bid so half-heartedly. It just didn't build the critical mass that the Italians were able to build (even to the point of pushing aside their last big-city Olympic host, Torino, just so Milano could finally add the nomenclature "Olympic City" to its resume). Rome finally allowed that opportunity since Milano had always been a frustrated Summer wannabee (and which slot CONI has always reserved for Rome).

I have to concur. The Swedes were so last minute on this, as if they were pushed/forced into this whole thing from all the proponents, & I wonder how much Gunilla had her hands on this, since she wanted this very much. Seems like Sweden just can’t ever get this right. They should’ve held on with 2022, they would’ve won that one hands down. Oh well.

Every major city has the same issues but I've never seen anyone wallow in it so much. Maybe a bit of perspective is needed here. The IOC literally changed the rules to nail down LA and Paris as hosts since they didn't want either to get away. You're doing just fine, cheer up. Nobody outside the US cares about NFL rivalries and who cares what other US cities think anyway? You've got the Games, they haven't. Any actual news?

it's also 3 different countries that could referendum this bid out of existence so i'm guessing the answer is probably no. 80 percent of winning a WOG is just staying in the race.

Absolutely horrible, and once again proof that hatred isn‘t specific to any religion. But of course fascists around the world will find ways to explain and excuse this terrorist act.

That goes without saying. And as an Australian poster already mentioned, 2032 would be the earliest a Melbourne bid could get off the ground anyway. And if Paris & L.A. host 2024 & 2028 respectively, I think a Melbourne 2032 bid would have a very good chance. Especially when it would mean three-consecutive strong & reliable, cost-effective Games; Paris, L.A. & Melbourne. That should give the IOC some real comfort for a long while. I think Berlin, as nice as it would be, is a non-starter, as some as our German fellow posters have attested to. There's been too much opposition in Germany lately against the Olympics, i.e. Munich 2022 & Hamburg 2024, & especially Berlin would be problematic if their 2000 failed attempt is any indication. So doubtful the IOC would want to deal with any of that. I think 2032 could position itself very nicely for Australia, providing the next two Summer Olympics go to where we think at this time are going. The time-window will come into question, but considering the alternatives that could likely be in play, Melbourne should have no problem. Doha will want to bid cause they'll say if Melbourne could bid with October dates, then why can't we. Fine, let them. They won't win anyway against Melbourne. Same with Baku. And the IOC will still want to take a break from Asia, especially China, so that puts Shanghai at bay (& Saporro could end up with 2026 if Europe doesn't come through again, so even more [east] Asian fatigue). Wouldn't worry too much about Russia, either.