Faster

The political situation in China has radically deteriorated since 2008. Leading up to 2008 China was lead by someone hand-picked by Deng Xaiopeng in his efforts to mordernize and reform the CPC of the excesses of the Mao era. There is not going to be a transition of power in 2022/2023 like there has been since the end of the Deng era. Xi is dictator for life and every prominent old guard member is either behind him, or sidelined. That has lead to the excesses we have seen from what is happening in Hong Kong, to the Uighurs, to Pacific coast nations of the Americas shitting themselves over the

Rumor is the IOC has discretely told both the COC and the SOC that they will provide up to 1.4 billion in funding. Up from the 0.95ish that was originally reported. The IOC is desperate to get these games into Canada or Sweden.

Unfortunately the Richmond Oval will never be an oval again. It cannot meet ISU requirements now because of the same geological concerns that meant VANOC and Richmond had to spend an extra couple of million to stabilize the foundations between 2005 and 2008 when it opened. As for ski jumping. As far as I've read the plan is to use Whistler for ski jumping and nordic combined and use Canmore for cross country and biathlon. Similar plan is in place for the other FIS events with Nakiska being used for snowboarding and freestyle skiing and alpine being at Lake Louis. As far as I know the IOC

I’m uruguay and Argentina? **** that is some combination.

I think it is much more likely seeing a European model be more like what has happened previously with Rugby World Cups. Germany with Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Brussels or France with Antwerp, Brussels, Zurich and Geneva as examples.

There was some interesting votes. Venezuela voting for NA as did Russia. But out of the big European countries only Germany voted for NA. Italy France Netherlands voted Morocco and Spain didn’t vote.

I certainly hope you are right, because FIFA needs a stable host without issues in 2026. Plus World Cup games an hour away. I am a lot more hopeful than I was a couple of days ago considering what has shifted in CONCACAF. But we never anticipated Russia/Qatar. I remember the night before a lot of people thinking it would be Spain/Portugal and USA. So....

Surprising, because most indications a week ago were Morocco. Something must have changed to have turned the Americans into one block while the fragmentation of Africa and Asia stayed intake.

Montagliani looks to have gotten CONCACAF into voting as a block. So with the Americas voting as one continuous block, that is almost 50 votes.

Morocco by a mile. All of Africa and Asia are voting for Morocco and even some CONCACAF countries are voting Morocco. It is going to be probably 140-70ish for Morocco.

Nope, never is.

Did I ever get Italy? And let's be reasonable. If I get England............

Why not. I'll probably get stuck with Mexico again. And just because, I'm voluntelling Rob, Arwebb, CAF, Puppy, and Krow. So there is 11.

If the Swiss, Swedes, Austrians or Norwegians get to the finish line, the IOC would be stupid to not give them the games. To finally get one of them to the day of voting and hand the Games back to Canada or Italy would be worse than giving the World Cup to Qatar.

It depends on if Korea is serious about being a sliding country or just invested in the sport for the home Olympics. Canada wasn't a sliding country in 1988 and look at Canada now. Lots of people would have said looking at Calgary that it would be a white elephant and in 4 years time there will be three tracks in Asia relatively close together. Enough to make it worth the World Cup trip, just like having Lake Placid, Park City, Calgary and Vancouver make it worth the trip now.