stryker

COVID19 is likely still going to be around come next summer, vaccine or not. If either the Tokyo Olympics get cancelled or go ahead with no fans in the stands, then I think you will see the Sapporo bid shelved. The Tokyo Olympics are costing billions of dollars and no one exactly knows what the final price tag will be if they are held even in a scaled down version next summer. A cancellation would not only doom Sapporo but it would probably take Japan out of bidding for decades to come (with all the money put into Tokyo 2020 if it was cancelled the financial fallout would be such that I would

A dry Asian Games (no booze). Can't wait to see how well that goes over.

Further venue changes to cut costs. It's not official yet but it looks like the temporary arena for volleyball in Le Bourget will be scrapped and volleyball moved to Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille. It makes sense given the economic recession. Frankly, no one has figured out how to repurpose a 10,000+ seat temporary arena anyway. Rio couldn't do it (they had one arena that was modular and was supposed to be converted into a school). Tokyo's gymnastics arena was supposed to be 100% temporary but it is being kept as a permanent venue. London came the closest. They just couldn't repurpose it (I thin

If the Tokyo Olympics get cancelled because COVID19 is still an issue in the summer of next year that will be an unprecedented financial loss with all the construction and logistics for Japan. IMO that would be more than enough for a Sapporo bid to be dead on arrival. Suddenly 2030 is wide open.

So there is some precedent for saying no to venue construction that would be too expensive. On the topic of the aquatics venues (problematic for the reasons highlighted in an earlier post) we're seeing some movement in terms of recent world championships and the Olympics away from the expensive permanent venue to existing stadiums/arenas that can be fitted with temporary pools (though I think London's as well as Sydney's have fulfilled their legacies well. I'd add Atlanta's to that as well). Kazan used a football stadium for the world championships. Fukuoka is planning to hold the world c

It's very premature for Coates to be talking about a Queensland Olympics being the catalyst to recharge the economy after the COVID19 pandemic. We're only scratching the tip of the iceberg in terms of the widespread economic damage that's going to result from this. I've mentioned in other threads about the prospect not just of a global recession (that's a given) but a second great depression and that would make Olympic bids a tough sell in countries who are hard hit with high unemployment rates. On the other hand, yes, Australia has done a better job than many others in terms of controlling t

This is where the host cities have to push back. With the limited number of bidders as it is, IMO the host cities have significant leverage over the IFs right now. Sure they might throw a fit over the use of an existing venue that's not in the host city limits(UCI did this when Tokyo declined to build a new velodrome) but eventually it's still the Olympics and they'd have no choice but to accept it. I can't think of any recourse an IF would have to try to get an Olympic host to build the venue they demand.

In terms of volunteers and organizers, well, its certainly not an ideal situation with spread out venues. On the other hand, IMO when you factor in the costs of construction plus annual upkeep, it's hard to see some extra shuttling and accommodations across the country being more expensive than constructing a new slalom canoe complex in L.A. If the IOC is willing to allow Paris to host surfing in Tahiti then I am sure they'd have no problem with L.A. hosting slalom canoe events in Charlotte. As for reducing the number of sports, I'd put slalom canoeing, golf, and modern pentathlon on the chopp

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1093758/paris-2024-aquatic-tender-award-costs-up Paris has chosen a tender for the aquatics centre and no surprise the costs have gone up. Still no word on the aquatic center that would host swimming. I assume it will be a temporary venue adjacent to the permanent one (water polo, diving, artistic swimming)?

A permanent host is a problem for the reason you've mentioned but I don't see why existing venues in a region couldn't be used. For example, Brisbane uses the Penrith Lakes course for slalom canoeing for a future U.S. summer bid uses the velodrome in Los Angeles. In terms of being spread and, yes, I agree about the transportation issues, but IMO this is something that the IOC and the respective IFs are going to just have to deal with. Drut also suggested the Games have too many sports (agreed but how do you reduce that number?) and I'd even add maybe it's time to consider smaller capacity venu

Apparently an idea being considered for saving money is to combine the Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies into one so there'd be two ceremonies (one opening and one closing) rather than four.

This reminds me of the race between Moscow and Los Angeles for the 1976 Olympics albeit on a smaller scale and there's no compromise candidate (I thought a city in India might fill that role this time around). Regardless, it's a no brainer. Doha should win in a landslide. Unless Saudi Arabia is going to dramatically liberalize even further (not likely in conservative Riyadh) is the OCA really going to award the Asian Games to a country where there will be gender segregation, strict dress code requirements for women including foreigners, and above all, no alcohol?

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1093623/pandemic-opportunity-to-reinvent-games I saw an article yesterday where Guy Drut commented about the Olympics needing to be "reinvented" in the post-COVID19 world and insidethegames picked up on it today. I was rather surprised at how he directly called out Paris 2024 as being "obsolete and outdated." The more I think about though, I think he's directly referencing the economic fallout that is sure to come that will likely have serious ramifications for the Olympics going forward especially in the bidding process. I've touched on the economi

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1093589/paris-2024-aquatic-centre-proposals This is a bit of a head scratcher but Paris is now planning to host all the aquatics events at one site? I didn't think this was possible with the addition of women's water polo which essentially required a second pool for the water polo competitions since one facility alone wouldn't be enough due to timing and scheduling constraints. If I'm reading this correctly, all the aquatics events will be held at one site but the pool for water polo/diving/artistic swimming will be kept permanently while the pool f

Speculation yes. No one really knows how the world economy is going to come back from the biggest crisis since the Great Depression. Regarding Italy and the Olympics, no it's not a foregone conclusion and I agree really the only way Italy wouldn't host would be for them to give it back. It's a longshot given it's still 6 years away, but I'm considering it as speculation based on the fact that Italy is broke. They are approaching an economic crisis along the lines of what Greece dealt with in the 2000s and still hasn't recovered from. Italy will not be able to repay the debt they are incurring