gromit

As with many Olympics, the awarding of a Games is often the impetus for the development of facilities. It is mentioned the British Alpine Championship is held in Tignes, but who heard of the course in Pyeongchang, Sochi or even Kvitfjell before the games were awarded and there was then a driving need to develop the facilities? Despite individual successes, it takes the award of a Games to move associations away from being 'lazy' and using existing facilities. There are a number of potential opportunities that exist ... the SECC could be redeveloped and at the same time be the site for Speed Skating, the Emirates Arena could be expanded, a new arena could be built in Edinburgh to offer the capital the equivalent of the SSE Hydro. It was an irony that the snow causes havoc in recent weeks but again being awarded the Games would lead to infrastructure improvements With so many traditional Alpine nations running shy of the games, the IOC would bite the hand of any democratic Western nation enthusiastic about hosting the Winter games

You could argue the same for Sochi, for Beijing .... Winter Sports have not been a major event in the UK and as others have mentioned, with the closeness of European resorts there has always been chronic under investment. However that does not mean that an event could not be hosted ... especially with the Winter Olympics struggling to find bidders .... Scotland has passed Step1 .. does the physical geography exist ... Step1a is whether a course could be built of sufficient difficulty because this is where Quebec fell down

Glencoe is 106 miles from Edinburgh and about 82 miles from Glasgow The summit I believe is 1108m. In Norway one of the biggest verticals is Norefjell, which has a comparatively low total height. And a lot of the Scottish mountains do have a significant prominence The biggest issue is irrespective of height, could any piste be sufficiently difficult to satisfy the FIS? Ultimately a Glasgow-Edinburgh bid would be the way to go IF there was a bid There are several venues already in Glasgow which MIGHT be adaptable for several sports or be in need of replacement .. Braehead Arena, the SECC There are teams in Edinburgh would could become the principal tennant in any new areas - Murrayfield Racers, a BBL team There are teams where if a facility was built to be convertible could utililise the redeveloped arena - Scotstoun Stadium If temporary facilities are used, they could be relocated throughout Scotland - Dundee, Aberdeen Considering the recent British success in the sliding sports a sliding track could find use, the jumping hills less so. Ultimately, most of the Scottish resorts - Glencoe, Nevis Range, Aviemore, Glenshee and the Lecht would need to be involved across many of the outdoor sports

I am not so sure that Denver would need to build much. Considering how spread out the games have become it shoud be remember that there are 127m and 100m hills at Steamboat Springs which is 150 miles approximately from Denver. There are a number of existing arenas in and around Denver and Colorado Springs including the Broadmoor World Arena, the Pepsi Center, Magness Arena, Denver Coliseum and without doubt a speed skating track could be designed with an alternative future use plan. And there is considerable thought going into the development of temporary bobsleigh tracks

Birmingham 2022 seems like an excellent opportunity to present a medium sized multi event games. There are plenty of excellent facilities in and around the city, and even where there may be a need to create some facilities like a velodrome, acquatic facilities etc, there are options like the Derby Velodrome or and the ability to drop acquatic facilities into an existing arena means the expense of a new facility may not be required.

I did mention 'temporary' London 2012 had a temporary basketball arena quickly taken down after the games holding 12,000 people The Shayba Arena is Sochi is designed to be temporary and moveable. One of the arenas in 2018 was designed only to be temporary Lillehammer, Hamar and Gjorvik are three individual settlements with Lillehammer and Hamar over 35miles apart with their own teams. Clearly over the last 23years they've had no difficulty in effectively operating such large venues The original idea in 1994 was to have all the ice arenas in Lillehammer and the relocate two of them after the games. Nordlyshallen was originally planned as a temporary structure. There is no reason that it cannot be rebuilt for the games and then have it's capacity reduced - the Peaks Ice Arena had a capacity of 8,400 for the 2002 games since reduced to 2,300 seats

According to the Norwegian media, Lillehammer is considering a bid for the 2026 or 2030 games ... if the IOC do a double bid then Lillehammer would look at 2030 only with the possibility of some events being held in Bergen, Stavanger, Oslo or Trondheim http://www.vg.no/sport/idrettspolitikk/lillehammer-utreder-ny-ol-soeknad/a/23967192/ Whilst the practicality of transportation links across Norway make the difficulty of adding extra cities unlikely, Lillehammer already has a number of existing facilities in place. Bobsleigh tracks, Biathlon/Cross Country stadia is still in place as is the Ski Jumping Hill and Arena As for the other venues there is: Hakon Hall (10,500 seats) - Ice Hockey1, Nordlyshallen in Hamar (7,000 seats) - a wooden structure, potentially expandable to 12,000 seats temporarily for Figure Skating Gjovik Olympic Hall (6,000 seats) - Curling, the Vikingskipet (10,600 seats) - Speed Skating. Kristins Hall (4,000 seats) in Lillehammer could be used for Curling The Briskeby Arena in Hamar might also have a potential use It would seem to be already better placed than the likes of Innsbruck

(cont) 3. Indoor venues - new ASVEL Arena (minimum 10,500 seats) - Palais des Sports, Grenoble (12,000 seats) - Patinoire Pole Sud, Grenoble (3,496 seats) ... Bruleurs de Loops Ice Hockey - Patinoire Charlemagne (4,200 seats) ... Lyon HC - Palais des Sports de Gerland (5,910 seats) - Halle Tony Garnier (concert hall 17,000 capacity) ... 210m x 84m so potentially big enough to host a speed skating rink plus 8,000 seats 4. Outdoor venues - Stade de Gerland (43,000 seats) or Parc Olympique Lyonnais (59,186 seats) for ceremonies - Bobsleigh at L'Alpe d'Huez ... track closed but never demolished so potential to be upgraded and reopened? - new refrigeration technology could help overcome the problem of the south facing aspect - Ski jumping at Autrans which has a 97m hill already and the potential to be expanded - the Chamrousse hill which has a vertical of 850m and the Le Recoin with a 600m vertical So a mix of old and new, modernised for the games all within a maximum radius of 108 miles making it comparatively compact by modern standards ... even using existing modern facilities like La Plagne (bobsleigh) and Courcheval (Hills) would only add an extra 30miles to the radius of all the venues.

By the time of the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, it will be 30 years since the French will have hosted the Winter Olympics. Whilst an attempt was made with Annecy and there were murmurings from Nice, the size of the Winter Olympics has reached such a level that it might be difficult for small Alpine towns and cities to economically host the games and not have a series of white elephans afterwards. Temporary facilities can only provide a limited option as the lack of legacy provides a stumbling bloc. A possible option might be to use an older host which has some of the venues in placed but tied to a larger metropolitan area which could utilise any legacy buildings. Therefore could the next French bid be ..... Lyon-Grenoble 2030 In it's favour distance between the two major centres is under 70miles two airports - Grenoble, and Lyon-Saint Exupery indoor venue

"Where are you getting 17,500 from? That number isn't accurate. The number of seats lost isn't based on a percentage of capacity. The number of seats you lose is due to the size of the playing surfaces. That doesn't change based on the overall size of the arena." If you look at Page 94 of the document link you have attached you'll find the following statement Gross Capacity: 17,500 So you are quoting me accurate figures from a document you claim is not accurate ...?? Interesting

You are assuming that any alteration for hockey would involve the same percentage reduction in seats? The Delta Center as hosted the Figure Skating with a reduced capacity of 17,500 seats from 19,911 seats had a drop of 12%. For Ice Hockey you lose 30% down to 14,000 seats. However the Barclay Center in Brooklyn only loses 11% of their seats when hosting the Jets instead of the Islanders. If you were to say it is somewhere in the middle for The Pit ... say a 20% loss of seats you'd get a capacity of 12,323 or 30% you'd still get a capacity of 10788 seats IOC skating capacity requirements Figure Skating 12,000 seats Ice Hockey No1 - 10,000 seats So with a 30% seat loss at the Pit you have 10,788 seats so whey for Ice Hockey1 or 20% loss you'd get 12,323 seats so whey for both Figure Skating/Ice Hockey1

You could argue to same about the Alps this season

Albuquerque Branch Field - 39,224 seats (Ceremonies) The Pit - 15,411 seats for baseball - Figure Skating @ 12,000 seats Tingley Coliseum - 9,286 permanent seats - Ice Hockey1 @10,000 seats Albuquerque Convention Centre - 9,048 seats in Fran Hill Exhibit Hall Johnson Gymnasium - 4,000 seats - Curling Santa Ana Star Center - 6,000 seats - Ice Hockey2 so in fact several stadiums close to the requirements the IOC need for the Winter Olympic Games. A speed skating arena is missing but this is an issue for all US bids bar SLC

The way the Winter Olympics are going, thinking 'outside of the box' may have to be the norm ... these are some of the options 1) Reduce the size of the games, number of events but correspondingly the amount of sponsorship and financial income 2) Accept increasingly spread out bids where spectators have to travel ridiculous distances to see a variety of events 3) Admit there is a limit number of repeat venues with the required facilities and just repeatedly host at these locations or 4) Consider those sites that would not normally be considered traditional locations but have the i) political will to do this, ii) have some of the facilities, the desire to build them and some real practical usage afterwards and iii) distances between event sites which more traditionally conform with the IOC requirements. after all, in 2014 who thought Beijing was really considering to host the Winter Olympics?

Albuquerque, New Mexico. If Seattle can enter the conversation, why not Albuquerque? The Taos Ski Valley with sufficient vertical is 150miles north, and the city has several suitable venues. It would offer a contrast to the Cascades as a North American options