Fox334

Kazakhstan hosted a very successful Asian Winter Games. They have one of the best speed skating oval in the world (it was recently ranked as the best speed skating venue in the world by a Dutch sports magazine) and they have experience hosting international competitions in every Olympic sport except the sliding sports. There is no question than the Kazakh government would deliver if they are given the games. Their real albatross is that they are another ex-Soviet state (8 years after Sochi) and in Asia (4 years after Pyeongchang). The timing is very bad. That being said, when it comes to winter sports I think Kazakhstan is as good a choice for the next winter host as China is.

Even without Oslo and Stockholm they have one good bid in Almaty, with Karkow's bid being solid even though there are some issues with the alpine venue. Not ideal but holding the games in Almaty or Karkow is hardly a disaster.

That's sort of nontrivial...

Lets be honest: Sochi is so expensive because because the Russian government wanted it to be this expensive. The IOC had nothing to do with it.

I would honestly be surprised Stockholm will even be shortlisted. The venue plan just doesn't work.

Exactly. I don't think a Munich bid in 8 years would suffer from this referendum the same way a Denver bid will always suffer. Voting to not bid is one thing. Voting to not host after winning the bid is quite another thing. From our point of view it is regrettable that Munich will not run, as it would have been the strongest technical choice and a sentimental favourite for plenty of us, but the IOC still has six bids to chose from, including very strong bids from Oslo and Almaty. The sky is not falling.

I don't think there is any way Almaty can actually win (3 games in Asia in a row, second game in a former Soviet country in less than ten years) but I am starting to wonder if they don't have the strongest technical bid. Much of the infrastructure already exists (I think only Oslo would have more existing venues) and it has by far the smallest distance between clusters.

Synchro, Water Polo and Diving if London is any indication.

To be fair to Blatter, my understanding is that has he had his way Qatar wouldn't have happened.

I actually don't think the venue is a real problem for Tennis. Not because it isn't expensive but because so many of the city who could potentially host already have existing facilities. Looking back at the last three cycles, the only cities to make the shortlist that didn't already have a suitable Tennis centre where Chicago and Rio. New York, Paris and London obviously host Grand Slams, but Moscow, Madrid, Tokyo and Istanbul also all have very good existing Tennis centres. The thing that is concerning is that host cities don't experiment with building a temporary centre court when they don't have existing facilities. But so far only Atlanta and Athens really got burned by it (and Athens got burned with all of its venues, so...). Seoul, Sydney and Beijing are the other cities that build new facilities and they are all still in use.

Well, that sure sounds like Dick Pound.

Replacing Football would be a bit daft I think. Its a major driver of ticket sales, it isn't too difficult to organize (typically its purely with existing infrastructure) and it allows to spread the games to different parts of the country. In most cases its probably a net positive in terms of money.

I'm not a fan of moving the venue so far away, but I presume that Beijing did something similar with Equestrian (granted it was a necessity due to quarantine laws) and Sailing and it didn't really cause any major issues. Ultimately, as long as it looks good on TV...

Baseball would have a good case if MLB players where available. They aren't and as long as they don't Olympic Baseball is DOA. Also, the "gender equality" line is pure BS. Playing two different sports (with vastly different roster sizes), one for men and one for women, is not equality.

Squash, not Wrestling, is the real victim of the EB's boneheaded move to kick Wrestling out of the games.

I think Man Afraid Soap, Almighty Voice and Rain in Face all want a word with you.

If you can't get the MLB on your side I guess a washed out movie star is the next best thing...

Wasn't lightweight rowing also on that list?

I think Slaloming might survive because it does make for decent TV, but I'd be surprised to see Synchronized and Rhythmic both survive all that long.

It might get awkward if one of the teams selects an out player. There aren't too many to go around now, but at the rate we're going its not unrealistic that at least one team will have an openly gay player in 2018.

I feel like the process was about protecting people's sacred cows (I am looking at you, Modern Pentathlon) more than doing anything regarding renewing the program. Not to mention than with the huge outcry that followed Wrestling being dropped it would be shocking to not see it come back.

Glad CBC is back. The style that CTV used rubed me the wrong way for some reason, and CBC does way more to promote amateur sports than any other network. Otherwise the extra coverage should be more or less the same with TSN and Sportsnet also in the mix. Hopefully TSN2 and Sportsnet One will also cover some hours. But overall I am not worried at all. CBC will do a great job.

One gold medal, and a somewhat lucky one at that, was pretty appaling though. We where one slip-up away of potentially not having a single gold >.>

Well, good try to the Baseball and Softball people, but the fat lady sang.

Well, the velodrome is named after him so...