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State Wide Olympics


Mercator

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If there is one thing I hope will be in the future olympic games it's a state wide olympics.There could be one central city to hold the opening and closing cerimonies and then spred the events all around the state.This would be very useful for states like Tennessee,Ohio,and Pennsylvania.But there is the problem of transportation.Tell me what you think.
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Flanders came up with this idea a year or two back, but Jacques Rogge, who is from Flanders, quickly dismissed the idea as the IOC would only accept a city bidding. Even if Flanders chose a city (Antwerp, Brussels) it was too wide an area for the IOC to consider. Seeing as Flanders takes 2 and a half hours to cross on a train, I couldn't see them agreeing to a whole state. And to be honest, I don't think the IOC would consider anything less than a city known throughout the world. Most people couldn't name a single place in Tennessee, Ohio or Pennsylvania anyway!
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Flanders came up with this idea a year or two back, but Jacques Rogge, who is from Flanders, quickly dismissed the idea as the IOC would only accept a city bidding. Even if Flanders chose a city (Antwerp, Brussels) it was too wide an area for the IOC to consider. Seeing as Flanders takes 2 and a half hours to cross on a train, I couldn't see them agreeing to a whole state. And to be honest, I don't think the IOC would consider anything less than a city known throughout the world. Most people couldn't name a single place in Tennessee, Ohio or Pennsylvania anyway!

This whole idea would be really unfair on cities that have already bid and have been told that this venue is not close enough, etc... For example, London had some venues for the Olympics 2012 that by american standards are quite close, but by the IOC's standards were too far away and they changed the venues to please them.  The venues I am talking about are the shooting competition venue and the equestrian.  Bisley is a world-class shooting venue but seemed to far away by the IOC - although it was successfuly used for the commonwealth Games in Manchester 2002 and that is evern further away.  If you put your theory into practice, your statewide venues would be even furthe than that - the IOC would have a fit!!!!!

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Flanders came up with this idea a year or two back, but Jacques Rogge, who is from Flanders, quickly dismissed the idea as the IOC would only accept a city bidding. Even if Flanders chose a city (Antwerp, Brussels) it was too wide an area for the IOC to consider. Seeing as Flanders takes 2 and a half hours to cross on a train, I couldn't see them agreeing to a whole state. And to be honest, I don't think the IOC would consider anything less than a city known throughout the world. Most people couldn't name a single place in Tennessee, Ohio or Pennsylvania anyway!

This whole idea would be really unfair on cities that have already bid and have been told that this venue is not close enough, etc... For example, London had some venues for the Olympics 2012 that by american standards are quite close, but by the IOC's standards were too far away and they changed the venues to please them.  The venues I am talking about are the shooting competition venue and the equestrian.  Bisley is a world-class shooting venue but seemed to far away by the IOC - although it was successfuly used for the commonwealth Games in Manchester 2002 and that is evern further away.  If you put your theory into practice, your statewide venues would be even furthe than that - the IOC would have a fit!!!!!

Exactly.

This State-wide bid idea might work ONLY if thyere were absolutely NO other potential bids. But put that proposal up against at least one other semi-realistic bid with a centralised Olympic precinct and most sports based in a single city and the State games just aren't going to be picked.

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I quite agree roltel and, by the way, I forgot to add that the athletes themselves should have even more say than the IOC, e.g. if the IOC was a money-thinking only organisation...

The athletes' point of view is the most important and they would not care for travelling here ,there and everywhere just to compete!!!!

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I think this 'model' has already been seen with the Albertville 92 Winter Games...even though Albertville received the focus of ceremonies plus (from memory) indoor ice sports, the games were nominally those of the Savoie region. And even though they were generally well received contrasted with Lillehammer, Nagano and Salt Lake most folk thought the 92 games way too diffuse, with transport problems particularly for athletes, officials and spectators.

As for a summer model, again this could be said to have already happened. For example, Atlanta 96 had yachting at Savannah, and if memory serves me right football at Athens. Most games bids now talk about 'compactness', so there is no agenda to make the games more widespread.

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Atlanta also had softball in Columbus, over 100 miles from Atlanta.  Kayaking was in Tennessee.  Soccer was held in Athens as was volleyball and rhythmic gymnastics.    I believe rowing was held at Lake Lanier.  You could say the Atlanta games were more regional than compact.
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Atlanta also had softball in Columbus, over 100 miles from Atlanta.  Kayaking was in Tennessee.  Soccer was held in Athens as was volleyball and rhythmic gymnastics.    I believe rowing was held at Lake Lanier.  You could say the Atlanta games were more regional than compact.

Lake Lanier in the town of Gainesville(Poultry capital of America), just 45 minutes from the outskirts of Atlanta.

In about 5 yrs this town will look more like part of Mexico(third world country), than a small size American city.

How did Atlanta manage to land the Olympics in 1996, when just minutes outside of its city limits, IQs drop to single digits? :(

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Every games has a certain element of regionality, especially for equestrian, canoeing and kayaking, and soccer. But regionalizing everything would be a huge waste of money and effort.
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The only place this would work would be Rhode Island, where Providence practically IS the whole state. Anywhere else is either too big or not big enough (population wise).

Well, the Washington, DC bid included major clusters in Baltimore and Annapolis, VA.

Of course.. they're just within 1/2 hr's drive or so..

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The only place this would work would be Rhode Island, where Providence practically IS the whole state. Anywhere else is either too big or not big enough (population wise).

Well, the Washington, DC bid included major clusters in Baltimore and Annapolis, VA.

T

hey were all accessible by public rail links and def not 100 miles away

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The only state I could envision getting away with a state-wide games is Hawaii, but even then, the bid would just be centered around the city that has the main stadium (Honolulu obviously.)

As mentioned before, a problem would be holding football/soccer matches.

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The only state I could envision getting away with a state-wide games is Hawaii, but even then, the bid would just be centered around the city that has the main stadium (Honolulu obviously.)

As mentioned before, a problem would be holding football/soccer matches.

I have the same thinking here, too.

I mean, when Atlanta 1996 came to pass, where were the cities in the USA that held preliminary soccer matches? I heard that they went as north as Washington, DC, and as west as Texas.

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Preliminary soccer games for the Atlanta Olympics were held at RFK Stadium in D.C., the Orange Bowl in Miami, Legion Field in Birmingham, and the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.  The Finals were held at Sanford Stadium in Athens.
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But the point is, they were still the ATLANTA Games, not the Georgia or South-East US Games. Just as Sydney were the Sydney Games, not the Australia Games, despite having football prelims in places as far afield as Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne (which in geographical terms is much like a Paris Games having football matches in Rome).

The thing is, disciplines like football, sailing, and to a lesser extent rowing and equestrian are often shared out to nearby locations to help in the loigistics of running a games. But it is unlikely that you will ever get a situation where such blue riband events like athletics, swimming and gymnastics are farmed off from the host CITY (and as has been pointed out, the IOC awards the games to a CITY not a COUNTRY). The IOC will always try to get and favour hosts where the bulk of the events are in a compact location.

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