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CAPITAL Cities


puxapiti

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HI all,

Capital Cities always seem to have an edge.  Not always, but in most cases when it comes to summer games.  Why is that?  They are not always the BEST city in a country or in many cases the BEST choice for a candidate.....but if you are running for a Summer Games and are the Capital.  You have a better chance of winning.....?

Since the beginning of the Modern Summer Games... there have been 28 summer games (including London 2012) and I think that 19 would be held in the Capital)  That would be 70%!!!!  Many others were the Largest city (Population) in the country at the time of the games....  Is this an advantage ????

The last bid election (2012) saw 4 of the bidding cities as Capitals.... the only one that wasn't was New York.  Did this help or not?

Let me know your opinions.....

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I guess that in most cases, they are the largest or the "signature" cities of their respective countries. Also being the seat of government, it is probably easier for such cities to get funding for games from their national governments.
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  • 3 weeks later...
as others said, in those nations those are the largest and most important cities....but in many other nations the capital is not, and they have many other cities that trump the capital city....so no it doesn't help in just the sense that it is the capital....
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I think it's for a simple reason: If you want to battle for the Games, you going to bid with your best option, and that is, obviously, your principal city (and in most of the cases, the capital. I think only US (and maybe Australia, UK and Germany) could have more cities than the principal to host the Games.

But, sincerely, I don't see Marseille, Seville, Curitiba, Córdoba, Durban, Ottawa hosting the games... There will be Paris, Madrid, Rio, Buenos Aires, Cape Town and Toronto. You just have to see the success of the bids of Lyon, Manchester or Leipzig in the last years.

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Since WW2 - Melbourne, Munich, Montreal, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney...none of them are national capitals.  That is 7 of 17 Olympic Hosts since WW2.  In many countries, capital cities are the largest or dominant city in the nation.  I can only think of countries like Australia, the USA, Canada, Brazil and Morocco where a dominant city (or cities) isn't the capital.
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Let's look at the countries that have hosted in the past (I'm only looking at the Summer Games because so far only one capital city has hosted the Winter Games (Oslo).  OK, Sarajevo, but it wasn't the capital in 1984.)

Greece - only capital has and probably can host, Athens is dominant.

France - only capital has and probably can host, Paris dominates the country.

USA - many cities to chose from.

UK - London has the most success, but some day another option could rise to the top, but the international prestige isn't there yet.

Sweden - really only Stockholm

Belgium - Antwerp will probably never get another Games, really only Brussels in the future.

Netherlands - Amsterdam is the lead city, but not the capital.  There are other options.

Germany - Berlin and Munich have both hosted, Berlin is the best option again but there is some room for the others.

Finland - really only a Helsinki thing.

Australia - Canberra never, but Sydney and Melbourne both have and could again.

Italy - Rome has and could again, although Milan could be an option

Japan - Tokyo has, possible again, but Japan has other options

Mexico - Mexico City has hosted but I don't think they will again for a long time

Canada - Ottawa almost never, Montreal did before, Toronto will be the next Canadian Summer Games.

Russia - Moscow did and could again, although I think Saint Petersburg offers a nice alternative.

Korea - Really only a Seoul thing.  The other cities don't have the international reputation.

Spain - Madrid could host, but Barcelona did.  These are their two options.

China - Beijing will but there are many Chinese cities gaining importance.  Shanghai is an obvious alternative.

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Netherlands - Amsterdam is the lead city, but not the capital.  There are other options.

Wich is the capital of the Netherlands? In my atlas says Amsterdam, in yous?  :sleepy:  :rock:

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I have The Hague as the capital, but apparently Amsterdam is the capital and The Hague is the seat of government.  I love these confusing countries with more than one capital.  Doesn't South Africa have 3?

SA has Pretoria as the admin. capital; Bloemfontaine as the judicial capital (I guess where their SUpreme Court resides); and Cape Town is probably where Parliement meets.

Bolivia also has 2: La Paz and Sucre.

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How many capital cities does South Africa have?

South Africa divides its governmental power among three capitals. Bloemfontein is the capital of the judiciary, Cape Town is the legislative capital, and Pretoria is the administrative capital.

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I have The Hague as the capital, but apparently Amsterdam is the capital and The Hague is the seat of government.

Ah, ok! :;):  :)

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I have The Hague as the capital, but apparently Amsterdam is the capital and The Hague is the seat of government.  I love these confusing countries with more than one capital.  Doesn't South Africa have 3?

They go and talk their sh*t in Amsterdam, but retire to the 'seat' of government and do the official act of 'seatin' n crappin' in the Hague - where BTW, the Int'l Court of Justice resides.   :wwww:

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Then the World has two 'capitals' (like Bolivia): a legislative one (NYC) where is the 'World's parliament': the UN, and a judicial one (The Hague) where is the 'World's Court of Justice': the International Court of Justice. :)  :;):
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I have The Hague as the capital, but apparently Amsterdam is the capital and The Hague is the seat of government.  I love these confusing countries with more than one capital.  Doesn't South Africa have 3?

They go and talk their sh*t in Amsterdam, but retire to the 'seat' of government and do the official act of 'seatin' n crappin' in the Hague - where BTW, the Int'l Court of Justice resides.   :wwww:

Nope, we go and talk our sh*t in The Hague as well :) Amsterdam is only the capital in name but has no role in national politics. The royal family does have a palace at Amsterdam's Dam Square (former City Hall) but they hardly use it.

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I felt sad that all finalist bidding cities for 2012 were big capitals or first cities. Are there in the world cities less exotic than NYC, London or Paris ??? Everybody went there, everybody knows those cities, there is nothing new there to discover.

I would have prefer some smaller interesting cities among them. Interesting because we don't know them, we don't visit them because they are only 2nd or 3rd cities of their country (Lyon, Valencia, Naples, Brisbane, Durban, Belo Horizonte, Manchester, Porto...) and Olympîc games are an opportunity for them to become more international and open to the world, to be known by the entire world. And for us to know them and want to go there...

I think we won't see again cities like Montréal, Atlanta, St. Louis, Munich or even Melbourne have the summer games ((I say summer games, because it's different for winter games: relatively small cities can have them, the important is not the city itself, but the natural site (mountains and things like that.)).

Like someone said, see what happened with bids from cities like Manchester, Lille, Lyon, Sevilla some years ago. Even capitals or first cities not big enough or from small countries (Lisbon, Dublin, Auckland, Brussels... Athens will have been the last one) don't have chances anymore to host summer games. From now on, only a club select of big megalopolis with population over 5 millions and international allure will have SOG. We must make our minds.

Isn't it sad ???? :cry:

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I felt sad that all finalist bidding cities for 2012 were big capitals or first cities. Are there in the world cities less exotic than NYC, London or Paris ??? Everybody went there, everybody knows those cities, there is nothing new there to discover.

I would have prefer some smaller interesting cities among them. Interesting because we don't know them, we don't visit them because they are only 2nd or 3rd cities of their country (Lyon, Valencia, Naples, Brisbane, Durban, Belo Horizonte, Manchester, Porto...) and Olympîc games are an opportunity for them to become more international and open to the world, to be known by the entire world. And for us to know them and want to go there...

I think we won't see again cities like Montréal, Atlanta, St. Louis, Munich or even Melbourne have the summer games ((I say summer games, because it's different for winter games: relatively small cities can have them, the important is not the city itself, but the natural site (mountains and things like that.)).

Like someone said, see what happened with bids from cities like Manchester, Lille, Lyon, Sevilla some years ago. Even capitals or first cities not big enough or from small countries (Lisbon, Dublin, Auckland, Brussels... Athens will have been the last one) don't have chances anymore to host summer games. From now on, only a club select of big megalopolis with population over 5 millions and international allure will have SOG. We must make our minds.

Isn't it sad ???? :cry:

Not really. Is this 'Joseph' in Quebecois clothing?  

Get real, will ya.  Like you didn't learn from Montreal's experience?  Do you really think staging a 21st Olympic Summer Games is some cheap and easy flight of fancy -- just so a smaller city can gain international prestige?   :rolleyes:

3 small countries that can probably afford -- notice, I said afford, NOT capable to stage a Summer Olympics are Bahrain, Switzerland and Taiwan -- yet they have wisely refrained from doing so.  (Altho, Taiwan has now said they might go after it -- all talk, of course.)  But why do you think it is?  :rolleyes:

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Like someone said, see what happened with bids from cities like Manchester, Lille, Lyon, Sevilla some years ago. Even capitals or first cities not big enough or from small countries (Lisbon, Dublin, Auckland, Brussels... Athens will have been the last one) don't have chances anymore to host summer games. From now on, only a club select of big megalopolis with population over 5 millions and international allure will have SOG. We must make our minds.

Athens will always have a chance of hosting the Games because the Games started there!!! Probably we will se Athens 2096 or another Games in the Greek capital before the bicentennial. :)

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