stryker

Brisbane doesn't need a 60,000 seat stadium either. What sports franchise even needs a stadium in Brisbane? To my knowledge, the Gabba is supposed to get a 100$ million upgrade. The whole reducing a stadium to 15,000-20,000 from 60,000 has yet to be shown to be a viable option. It's a white elephant either way unless there's a permanent tenant.

Sure seems like the IOC is going with a targeted approach. Consider the options so far; Indonesia, India (the IOC isn't going to a developing country after the Rio debacle), China (hard to see them going back so soon unless there was no other option), a joint Korea bid (fantasy at best). Western Europe (Paris) has 2024 and the U.S. has 2028. Not many options left other than Australia so it makes sense to try to lock 2032 in. The problem is from a feasibility standpoint it's the wrong city. Yes Melbourne has shown no interest in bidding so I agree it's a non starter but compared to Brisbane it's far more ready facilities wise. Brisbane, in a time when the IOC is desperate for a PR win and keeping costs down, is looking at bid that could get out of hand cost wise very quickly. For starters, Brisbane has no need for a an 80,000 capacity Olympic Stadium that would become a white elephant afterwards with no permanent tenant. And I don't buy the argument that 85 percent of the venues are already in place when considering in the initial feasibility study so many venues were set to be constructed with the legacy "community centres." which sounds very similar to what Rio proposed. Then there's the whole matter of the needed transportation upgrades and hotel rooms. It can get very expensive very quickly. I could see a budget easily surpassing the 20$ million mark.

France is capable of hosting a WOGs on its own but there'd have to be an anchor city like Lyon, Marseille, or Nice. Switzerland is in the same boat, but much like Austria, it would have to be a country-wide bid. In terms of joint bids, the new rules could finally open up a Helsinki bid with maybe Are in Sweden for the alpine events (anyone remember their 2006 joint bid with Lillehammer?) While a joint bid might be viable, it's hard to see it winning in 2030 against a compact and moderately cost bid from Salt Lake or Sapporo. While we're on the subject, while Calgary crashed out of the 2026 race and the sliding track in WinSport at risk of closure, maybe Vancouver gives it another go the next time Canada wants a WOGs though I doubt for 2030.

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1084526/belarus-olympic-bid-russia-ukraine So on the heels of the European Games, Lukashenko wants the big prize, but recognizes that Minsk can't go it alone. Even with changes to the bidding procedure, why would Russia join up with anyone (Ukraine isn't an option). It's a pipe dream and I suspect we'll see more of these joint-bids, but I imagine very few, if any, are viable. I commented in another thread shortly after the end of the 2026 race that the SOGs, with their sheer size, now seemed to be limited to a handful of countries that can realistically host with minimal to moderate costs and sustain a viable legacy. The IOC is going to want safe hosts after the debacle in Rio and the costly overruns of Pyeongchang and Tokyo so I suspect they will take a targeted approach with the likes of the UK, US, Western Europe, Australia, Russia, China, Korea, and Japan along developing countries like Indonesia, India, Malaysia, along with all of Africa and South America. That leaves the likes of Belarus on the outside looking in unless they can co-host, but as I mentioned before, why would Russia do so when they could easily host everything themselves? Then there's the YOGs which is much more suited for Minsk.I expect you will see the IOC market the YOGs as a scaled down version of the big one in order to go to cities like MInsk and Dakar.

The ISU also requires a speed skating oval to have a roof for the Olympics.

Expecting Qatar to put aside any controversy is the equivalent of the thinking that giving the Olympics to Beijing in 2008 would improve China's human rights record. It's already practically going to be a "dry" World Cup, a far cry from Russia in 2018 when bars actually ran out of beer. I do wonder big the check is that FIFA will write to Budweiser for them to accept this for one cycle.

Granted Morocco was on limited time to put the games together following Equatorial Guinea's withdrawal, but the opening ceremony was done before a stadium that was half-full at the very most.

I'm skeptical of the whole large-scale temporary seating concept as so far it hasn't been shown to work (London, Incheon, Qatar's WC Stadiums). Even if a stadium could be scaled down to 20-30,000 seats, it's questionable whether Brisbane even needs that. Unless I'm mistaken, the much-talked about second NRL franchise, the Brisbane Bombers, are planning to use Suncorp Stadium. Carrara Stadium was temporarily expanded for the CWGs athletics competition, but at just 40,000 is too small for the Olympics. It's a conundrum to be sure for Brisbane.

I thought about this after my previous post. Olympic-sized venues often do not translate into community sports facilities. Rio's Carioca Arena complex was supposed to serve as the country's new Olympic Training Center, however most of it has remained mothballed. Different from a community sports center, but it shows the difficulty in converting an indoor competition arena into a facility with a completely different purpose (Hamburg also had the ridiculous idea of turning their proposed Olympic Gymnastics arena into a cruise ship terminal). A Brisbane bid would have the same problem. Did the Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre serve as the warm up athletics track for the Sydney Olympics?

Another step back for Sarajevo if they could pull this off. Not saying that it would make Sarajevo a WOGs contender but it would certainly be a plus for any Eastern European city that makes a play for the WOGs. having a sliding track in the region. https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1083544/sarajevo-1984-bobsleigh-track-re-build

The feasibility mentioned a lot of venues with temporary seating that would be termed "community sports centres" post-Olympics.This is a vague legacy. How many community sports centres does the Brisbane metro area actually need and community sports centres are not exactly known for turning in profits unless you have permanent tenant. Seems like they'd bleed money post-Olympics. This isn't even taking into account the need for an Olympic Stadium. Factor in transportation upgrades and this could get very pricey well beyond the initial figures.

Just yesterday I was touring Hard Rock Stadium with my father who's considering buying Miami Dolphins season tickets this year and I saw the tennis complex they've built on the parking lot including a grandstand with temporary seating (the Miami Open moved to the stadium this year from Crandon Park). Immediately saw it and thought the same thing about temporary seating. I based my thoughts on tennis being a problematic venue with the legacies of Atlanta (Stone Mountain Tennis Center closed), Rio (Olympic Tennis Center largely sits empty. Probably wasn't needed as the Rio Open is held on nearby clay courts) and Athens (largely empty although AEK Athens Basketball has kicked around the idea of buying it and putting a roof over it as their new home). On a side note, I read where Sydney's main court is set to receive upgrades including a canopy-style roof so the new stadium can be used for two local netball clubs, New South Wales Swifts and Giants Netball.. Same concept in the WOGs needs to be applied to the SOGs, but again, it comes down to how feisty the IFs are going to be over it.

If this ends up being built it brings home court advantage to a new level in the NBA. Would make a nice addition to the Olympics also. Now if they can just get through litigation with MSG it'll be a go. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27259348/clippers-unveil-renderings-proposed-arena

Interesting comparison with the Amazon HQ saga. In terms of a targeted approach, I think you will see the IOC greatly narrow the number of countries that can actually host an Olympics and target cities from that lot (UK, US, China, Australia just to name a few). This eliminates the likes of a developing country hosting for the foreseeable future so I would discount the likes of India, Malaysia, all of Africa and even all of South America. I just cannot see the IOC taking that risk after the debacle in Rio. The closest you'd get to a developing country hosting might be eastern Europe such as Budapest. Given that, I think the likelihood of something like London hosting again in 2036 or even 2040 is more likely. Consider the Youth Olympic Games. The most recent summer editions went to Buenos Aires and Dakar. I've questioned whether or not the YOGs are viable long term but now, in terms of brand management so to speak, I think you will see the IOC market them as sort of an Olympics-light and award them to host cities not capable of handling the full-fledged summer edition on their own.

I agree. The problem is the influence the respective sports federations have over the IOC and host cities and there does not seem to be any indication that has been put in check. I realize the Olympics are still over 8 years away for LA but as an example, how long before FINA complains about using Dedeaux Field for aquatics when there's no roof or the UCI says the velodrome is too small capacity wise? As for the number of sports it's getting bigger. I don't see why as a compromise the Olympics cannot do what the CWGs do; have a set number of mandatory sports and allow the host city to select a handful of additional ones. Of course then that leads to a fight among the sports federations over who gets on the mandatory list