Fox334
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Posts posted by Fox334
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Thank you FYI and Quaker2001, for putting the whole issue into such an astoundingly clear perspective for me. However, I do believe the possibility of a "fear factor" on the part of the cities bidding for the 2022 Olympiad might be aligned to Beijing's bid and cannot be entirely dismissed. We will just never know for sure.
No, it can and should be entirely dismissed. Beijing's bid is not that strong. The distances between the city and mountain venues is ridiculous (not Stockholm/Are ridiculous, but still) and, more importantly, China has basically no experience hosting international snow events outside of aerials competitions.
Are is a major, well established alpine destination. So are Munich/Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Oslo/Lillehamer. Those cities all have a lot more winter sports infrastructure and experience than Beijing does. Not to mention that Western Europe is overdue for the Olympics while East Asia is already getting back-to-back Olympics.
Beijing had to feat the other bids, not the other way around.
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Would they even give the people arenas? I have this strange image of a gamecon like set-up.
Still, I don't think that video games should be in the Olympics.
Would depend on where it's held. But generally e-sports competitions work well in convention centres or a concert hall. You can also hold them in unconventional venues like airport hangars, beaches or war memorials.
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So, beyond how ridiculous the notion sounds lets list some actual problems:
- The popular eSports change pretty quickly. StarCraft: Brood Wars had a very long life for an eSport and it's time as a major pro eSport lasted just over ten years.
- League of Legends and StarCraft II are both dominated by South Korea. And by dominated I mean the top 30 players are probably all Koreans. Dota 2, to a lesser extend, is dominated by China.
- Female competitions are basically non-existent, as are female competitors.
- The IeSF (the group pushing this) has virtually no sway in the eSport world. Their tournaments have very little prestige and are generally not all that well organized.
- People within the eSports industry don't seem too interested in getting into the Olympics.
- There are also a bunch of copyright issues.
I guess if the IOC ever decided to create an Olympic games for mind sports they might want to make this happen, but I just don't see it working out.
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South Korea is also making amazing strides in men's bobsleigh. Wouldn't be a shock now if they managed to get a sliding sport medal in 2018.
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Okay, it's official. I want FIFA to move the 2022 World Cup to the United Kingdom, preferably with the finals played in Belfast or something like that, just to see Tony's head explode. Bonus points if FIFA forces the four home nations to compete as one team.
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It's interesting that the IOC would suggest moving the sliding events completely out of the country to avoid a $120 million white elephant that the Koreans at least say that they want, while there's no evidence of a similar suggestion regarding the relocation of speed skating from Gangneung, where they've declared an intent to demolish the $107 million facility after the Games, just a couple hours away to Seoul, where they have an existing facility.
A facility that also has the advantage of being in the same country, which avoids much of the political issues.
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Maybe a way for the IOC to make the investment worthwhile would be to ask the 2022 winner whatever it is to use the Alpensia/PyeongChang track ?
Then it would be guaranteed to be used at least twice.
I doubt either China or Kazakhstan is very interested in sharing any events they don't absolutely have to share. Not to mention the distances would still be an issue (especially if Almaty wins).
IMO using existing venues in neighbouring countries is something only Western democracies will really be interested in doing. Also, even *if* Almaty wins and want to use an existing track I feel they would prefer to use Paramonovo or Sanki anyway, due to closer cultural ties and a shorter flight.
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Quebec City could have it in Calgary. But I guess Lake Placid makes sense too.
I see this as just a lot of lip service by the IOC. Time will tell to see if anything comes of this. Moving the sliding events to existing facilities makes a lot of sense in practice, because there is just no way most countries can justify such a facility. Korea claims that it will become an important training facility in the future, but Nagano's track hasn't done anything to boost up Japan's performance, and its not even used on any of the World Cup circuits. There's no doubt in my mind that PC's track will be a waste too. All of this being said, seeing as construction has already begun and Korea is well on there way to hosting, it might be a bit unfair for the IOC and IF's to do this. I say wait until 2022 because it's a great idea theoretically, but if it happens right now it looks like nothing more than the IOC trying to cover their ass.
My personal guess is that Quebec City would only want to ship the speed alpine events elsewhere, since that has always been their biggest roadblock to hosting. They had previously toyed with the idea of having a bid with Lake Placid as the alpine venue but didn't go through with it because they didn't think the IOC would approve.
But of course I'm sure they would at least loot at either Calgary of Lake Placid as a venue for the sliding sports, too.
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I think it's sort of insane to think PyeongChang can cancel their sledding track. Perhaps it would make sense to host it in Nagano had that always been the plan, but I don't see the organizers shelving those plans after construction has started. I also don't see Korea wanting to share their second big international sporting event in a row with Japan.
As for hosting it anywhere but Nagano or PyeongChang... seriously, that's just insanity. IMO this is just a PR stunt from the IOC. Where it would make sense for Bobsleigh to be held in another country would be something like Are, Salzbourg, Krakow or Quebec City hosting.
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Does Korea even enter the 4-person bobsled teams....or are they going to have Jamaicans compete for them?
They did in Vancouver and Sochi, iirc.
And hey, if Canada can win a bobsleigh medal with a Jamaican on the sled then so can South Korea
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Anyone want to entertain the possibility that FIFA actually didn't do anything wrong?
If FIFA didn't do anything wrong they would release the full report and Michael Garcia wouldn't be publicly criticising FIFA for misrepresenting his report.
FIFA condems itself with it's actions.
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Ah, the IHF...another "corrupt bunch of weasels". These withdrawals may even help it saving face by letting Australia (that had rightfully qualified but was kicked out for obscure reasons to let non-qualified handball super power Germany in) and Iceland (that would have been first substitute instead of Germany anyway) take part after all.
Withdrawing Australia's place was so strange. I understand removing Oceania's automatic qualification spot and/or forcing Oceania to merge with either Africa or Asia. But rescinding the spot in the men's (but not the women's) Worlds after the fact? Coincidentally after Germany fails to qualify?
Ya, that doesn't pass the smell test.
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Oh so obvious that the IOC made the right choice three years ago!
(Bitter? Me, a Munich resident? No way!)
It's a good thing Munich is the heavy favourite in 2022. It's one of those things where I'm sure the IOC was convinced Munich would bid again. Hingsight being 20/20 that might have been a bit of a mistake.
I have an feeling that the PyeongChang South Korea 2018 Winter Games will be the worst winter games ever and the lowest turn out games ever.
TBH if nothing else they seem like Nagano 2.0. Not terrible, just not particularely exciting.
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Ground to be broken on new Pyeongchang 2018 speed skating rink
Ground is due to be broken by the end of the month, according to organisers at Pyeongchang 2018, as the last of six new venues finally gets underway. There had been considerable debate involving the 8,000-seater speed skating rink, which is expected to cost KRW₩131.1 billion ($107.4 million/£70 million), whether to use it as a water park after the end of the Olympics. Organisers have now revealed the 8,000-seat rink will be demolished come the end of the Olympics as it is more economical to do this rather than provide follow-up management, according to reports from South KoreaDear god this is disapointing.
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The IOC made an foolish choice in 2018 going to PyeongChang South Korea I think the 2014 Asian Games was an lead up to show what is going to be like in PC 2018 and that was an summer event. The IOC Should of gone to Munich Germany in 2018. South Koreans are not know as winter sports lovers even Australians are more into winter sports then the South Koreans. I have not an great feeling that the 2018 Winter Games will go to well at least with Sochi it was in an country which was an winter sports superpower.
Wut? South Korea is the biggest Short Track country in the world, at this point they are probably second only to the Netherlands in Speed Skating and Figure Skating is on the rise there.
They aren't Germany, but seriously. Australian winter sports has a long way to go to be competitive with South Korea.
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The IOC actually objected to it because it thought it would impact ski jumpers practice times (which is ridiculous, considering the facility isn't used everyday).
I also thought the venue was to seat 50,000 and be a temporary facility (like Albertville).
I mean gosh, there is how many days of competition at the Ski Jumping venue? Nine? You can even cut it down to eight if you double up the men's and women's normal hill qualification.
I agree with you, even if there where a couple of days blocked off there is no way the schedule couldn't be adjusted to make this work.
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I still wish they just used the Ski Jumping stadium for ceremonies. Would be both a nice cost saving measure and it would be a pretty old school move.
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That's irrelevant though. The IOC has already said that they don't want Almaty to Host. The Evaluation gave Almaty the lowest score. The only way Beijing won't Host in 2022 is if Beijing withdraws.
It is absolutely, 100% relevent. Hosting the ice events, like Beijing has done in the past, is frankly the easy part. I have full confidence that everything in Beijing proper would go swimingly in 2022. The problem is everything up in the mountains. Hosting Alpine events is a whole different animal. Hosting freestyle events is a whole different animal. Even hosting nordic events and sleeding events can get complicated. The snow venues Beijing plan to use have no experience hosting anything, summer or winter. That is very concerning, especially when it comes to Alpine events.
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Beijing has proven it can Host. Beijing successfully Hosted the 2nd Most Important Sporting Event in the World (So did London in 2012), second only to the Fifa World Cup. Almaty hasn't. CO-Hosting an Asian Winter Games with Astana proves nothing.
Beijing is the safe choice in this bad situation.
Problem with that is that Beijing has only ever hosted one snow event, and it was a city aerials event (basicly the easiest thing to organize out of the snow events). Zhangjiakou and the Xiaohaituo Mountain Area have zero experience hosting international events. At least Almaty isn't completly foreign to the idea of hosting snow sports.
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True, but I'm pretty sure Yugoslavia as a whole did not have a plurality, let alone a majority, Muslim population. Even today's Bosnia Herzegovina is less than 50% Muslim. Kazakhastan is 70% Muslim.
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I think that might be a selling point for the IOC. They get to have their forray in a Muslim country before FIFA does. And amazingly a less controvetial one at that.
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Almaty won't Host. Almaty = Sochi 2.0, Sochi caused all this, so choosing Almaty will make things worse. Beijing 2022 will happen.
Sochi was basicly Beijing 2.0 so...
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Hey, I'd take Almaty over Beijing. So it's more than two people
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Odds are if Canada would host 2026 (fat chance, IMO) the finals would be in Toronto and the opening match would be in Montreal. Vancouver and Edmonton would probably host either a semi or a third place match.
Having been to Moncton's stadium this week I really don't see it as worthy of holding a world cup match (as much as I'd love to see that kind of event in New Brunswick I think it's really unrealistic). Its not conveniently located and the permanent capacity is only 10,000.
I would personally go with twelve stadiums in eleven cities: Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto (x2), Hamilton, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
Qatar 2022
in FIFA World Cup / Bids
Posted
Well, the farce is finally over! FIFA has officially stripped Qatar of... the 2021 Confederation Cup. Because they finally realized it's too bloody hot during the summer and that moving the tournament to the winter is impractical. Now if only they had thought of that a couple of years earlier.