Texas Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Which Olympic sport do you think the United States will have a hard time hosting a World Championship? I think its track and field. We have some of the best track athletes in the world, many of them garnering recent successes like Tyson Gay, Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards. There isn't an adequate venue in the United States to host the IAAF World Championships. Eugene, Oregon is Track City USA, but the stadium there only seats 20,000 and while that's good for a Diamond League or US Championships, its not good enough for the United States to ever host a World Championship. It shows the relevancy of the sport in the United States. Any time a major American city hosts an Olympic games, the Olympic Stadium usually turns into a new stadium for one of the local teams (as was the case in Atlanta) or they do something else with it (such as shriking the stadium to host high school sporting events). I don't know about swimming. I don't know about whether or not it's much easier for the US to host a Swimming World Championship than it is a Track and Field World Championship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barcelona_'92 Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Indianapolis hosted the 2004 FINA World Championships for short-course (25m) swimming, and Long Beach bid for the 2005 FINA World Championships but lost to Montreal. If the U.S. is going to bid for and host a full FINA Worlds, now would be the time while the popularity of swimming is still growing. Indianapolis would be a great host for a full FINA Worlds--they could use the IUPUI Natatorium for diving and water polo and set up a couple of temporary pools in Lucas Oil Stadium for swimming, sychronized swimming, and water polo. Indianapolis always shows strong support for Olympic sports, so I'm sure they would get great crowds for the event. Right now, I think there are only two possible locations for an IAAF Worlds in the U.S.--Franklin Field in Philadelphia and Husky Stadium in Seattle. Franklin Field hosts the Penn Relays every year, and it seats close to 50,000 for track & field. With some renovations, I think it would be a suitable venue for Worlds, though it would be a different feel from the huge stadiums that the IAAF expects in Europe. Husky Stadium seats about 70,000, but it's being renovated in the next few years, and the track from the 1990 Goodwill Games is being removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneTimeOnly Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Swimming is another tough one for the U.S.A. to host. Since the World Aquatics Championships were established in 1973 the USA has never once hosted this event. A few reasons: money, facilities and interest. In terms of facilities, although the United States is blessed with a plethora of world-class competition pools, none are big enough to host an event this large, and large amounts of money would need to be spent to build both new and temporary facilities. You must remember (and people ALWAYS forget this), that the World Aquatics Championships are not just swimming, but water polo, diving, and synchro as well. You need several pools for the diving, swimming and synchro competitions, plus the water polo tournament. You also need warm up pools So that's at least two 50m pools (one competition, one warm up), a separate diving well, and a few temp pools also for some water polo and other uses. There's also the matter of interest. While just about every average Joe on the street in the USA knows Michael Phelps, just about as many will say "who?" if you mention Ryan Lochte's name, our country's next greatest swimmer (and one of Phelps' best friends). And while the profile of Swimming as risen, a *bit* in our country, since Phelps' performance in Beijing, national interest in diving and water polo and synchro are barely a blip at best. That also means less money. Montreal was a sort of test to gauge the success of a holding an Aquatics Championships in North America - and they lost money. And as you can see, interest and facilities are both tied in with money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiveRingFever Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 I'm not sure about aquatics/swimming, but track and field won't be happening any time soon, if ever. This has been discussed ad infinitum on the Track & Field News board. The problem is that no stadium in the US qualifies per IAAF standards (50,000+ seating and the ability to host all of the throws within the stadium), and the host has to pay for the world television field, which means that hosting the meet would be a money loser without Government assistance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Posted June 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Plus, any Olympic Stadium in any American city is likely to turn into a music venue or a new stadium for a local sports team, depending on the city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brekkie Boy Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 It's amazing really swimming or athletics hasn't had a World Champs in the States - surely one city could at least have some kind of temporary solution to holding the games. The World Athletics CXhamps too would be great for any US city with Olympic ambitions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intoronto Posted June 15, 2011 Report Share Posted June 15, 2011 Hands down has to be handball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quaker2001 Posted June 15, 2011 Report Share Posted June 15, 2011 Hands down has to be handball. The question was more what sport would the US have a hard time hosting, not what event are they least likely to get. Handball would be relatively easy in the US, it would just be a matter of securing facilities. The 2011 championship was held in Sweden in 8 arenas across the country ranging in size from 13,000 capacity down to 2,500. You could just about find that in a single city in the U.S. This in comparison to a sport like track & field or swimming which has a longer list of requirements in terms of facilities, most of which are in short supply in this country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Posted June 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2011 Hands down has to be handball. Facilites for Handball in the United States is much easier to get than Swimming and track and field. Securing venues for handball in the United States is as easy as securing venues for rubgy, football/soccer, basketball, tennis, golf, ice hockey and volleyball, all Olympic sports for which we have the venues to host major sporting events for. While its extremely easy to secure venues for those sports here in the United States (in the case of rubgy and soccer, we have American football venues for those), track and field and swimming may be the hardest to secure. However, I read a year ago that Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys state that his stadium could host swimming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barcelona_'92 Posted June 15, 2011 Report Share Posted June 15, 2011 Using temporary pools, almost any U.S. city with a 15,000+ seat arena could host FINA Worlds, provided that it also has an appropriate facility for diving. Indianapolis, for example, could set up 2 temporary pools in Lucas Oil Stadium for swimming and water polo, with the diving events at IUPUI Natatorium. When Long Beach bid for 2005 Worlds, their plan was to set up a temporary pool with 10,000 seats in the middle of a parking lot (this setup was eventually used for the 2004 Olympic Trials). Temporary pools are much more cost-effective in the end because they don't leave the host city with a massive aquatic center that sits empty most of the time. I think the biggest impediment to any U.S. city making a serious bid for FINA Worlds is hosting all of the athletes and officials, as well as finding a broadcaster to provide the World Feed. Both of those are extremely expensive to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intoronto Posted June 15, 2011 Report Share Posted June 15, 2011 I misread the question. I'd then have to say none. The USA should easily be able to host any world championship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barcelona_'92 Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 I misread the question. I'd then have to say none. The USA should easily be able to host any world championship. In terms of the facilities, yes. But it is very difficult to meet the financial guarantees that the sports federations require because championships in the U.S. are typically funded by corporate sponsorship instead of government guarantees. This recently cost Orlando the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships. Orlando was competing with Paris and Glasgow and should have been the favorite because the last four Worlds have been in Europe (including London in 2009), and the U.S. hasn't hosted since 2003. Plus, the U.S. typically hosts every 12 years (1979, 1991, 2003). However, Glasgow offered a $3.5 million financial guarantee as part of its bid, and it won. There's no way Orlando and USA Gymnastics could have matched that kind of financial guarantee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiveRingFever Posted June 21, 2011 Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 Here's an article that throws a Hail Mary regarding hosting the IAAF championships in the US. http://www.perelman-pioneer.com/?p=173 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barcelona_'92 Posted June 21, 2011 Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 It's a nice idea, but I can't see it happening there unless the IAAF is desperate or USATF throws a lot of money into upgrades. And even if the U.S. were to host, I'd think that attendance would be a disaster. Maybe they'd get decent crowds for the night sessions, but the morning sessions would be empty. The stadium was barely half full when Edmonton hosted back in 2001, and I doubt any U.S. host would do better unless they found a way to hold it in Eugene. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Posted June 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 It's a nice idea, but I can't see it happening there unless the IAAF is desperate or USATF throws a lot of money into upgrades. And even if the U.S. were to host, I'd think that attendance would be a disaster. Maybe they'd get decent crowds for the night sessions, but the morning sessions would be empty. The stadium was barely half full when Edmonton hosted back in 2001, and I doubt any U.S. host would do better unless they found a way to hold it in Eugene. Eugene would be too small at this point to host the World Championships. Adding another 40,000 seats will be difficult, especially if it's temporary seating for a week. Eugene already has Autzen Stadium, which holds 50,000. The University of Oregon won't fork over the money to add 40,000 seats to Heyward Field for a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barcelona_'92 Posted June 21, 2011 Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 And honestly, I don't think it should be in Eugene anyway. If USATF is looking to grow the sport in the U.S., holding every major event in Eugene is not the way to do it. They've hosted the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Trials, plus the 2009 and 2011 U.S. Nationals (which serve as the World trials). I know the venue options are limited, and USATF likes Eugene because they get sellout crowds, but they need to have some major events elsewhere to promote the sport in other areas of the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Posted June 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 And honestly, I don't think it should be in Eugene anyway. If USATF is looking to grow the sport in the U.S., holding every major event in Eugene is not the way to do it. They've hosted the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Trials, plus the 2009 and 2011 U.S. Nationals (which serve as the World trials). I know the venue options are limited, and USATF likes Eugene because they get sellout crowds, but they need to have some major events elsewhere to promote the sport in other areas of the country. It also would not hurt the USATF if they promote "The Big Four" of their sport with Jeremy Wariner, Tyson Gay, Sanya Richards and Allyson Felix. USATF is the only major sport in the United States without a home grown superstar (IE a face every casual sports fan knows). People may know Jeremy Wariner as "The White Guy Sprinter who wears Shades" and casual sports fans who are also fans of the NFL's New York Giants may know Sanya Richards as the wife of Giants DB Aaron Ross, but Aaron Ross isn't a superstar in the league, much less his own team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barcelona_'92 Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 It also would not hurt the USATF if they promote "The Big Four" of their sport with Jeremy Wariner, Tyson Gay, Sanya Richards and Allyson Felix. USATF is the only major sport in the United States without a home grown superstar (IE a face every casual sports fan knows). People may know Jeremy Wariner as "The White Guy Sprinter who wears Shades" and casual sports fans who are also fans of the NFL's New York Giants may know Sanya Richards as the wife of Giants DB Aaron Ross, but Aaron Ross isn't a superstar in the league, much less his own team. USATF needs to get stable leadership before they can do anything. They've had more than 3 years of disorganization since Craig Masback stepped down in January 2008. Sadly, the success and the little bit of notoriety that the top U.S. athletes have is in spite of USATF, not because of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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