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03.03. Bosphorus Stadium [opening & closing ceremonies]


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Gorgeous setting, but the most problematic: The main thing the Committee has NOT thought out is transporting the 10,000 athletes from the Village & back after the Ceremonies. The Ceremonies stadium is on the Asian side, so that'll be a MAJOR logistical challenge. In addition, you have to factor in the 75,000 spectators, maybe the 12,000 cast and security. And you will have to at least feed the athletes, performers and Security one meal...so something like 23,000 hopefully, warm meals will have to be prepared, served (on site) and the trash collected in that area for the est. 4.5 hours it'll take to assemble, run and disband the Ceremonies. (That'll probably mean having an additional 800 food service personnel there on site for that; whereas, like London, where the Village was 10 mins walking distance, they didn't have to worry about the supper challenge -- even if only box meals AND drinks are to be served. )

They'll have to start the Ceremonies early...in order to get the Athletes back to the Village NOT TOO late.

Of the 3 bids, this will offer the MOST photogenic Ceremonial setting...but the most problematic. I am sure many teams will NOT be happy with the late hour and wait times they will have to endure for the Ceremony. See, that's why they should hold the Paralympics before; so they can learn from the mistakes & problems presented by an earlier Para Opening...and then the actual regular OC will run smoothly -- and not the other way around.

I betcha all these problems will cost the Committee $50 million for Ceremonies than they budgeted. They are trying to cram too many people in one corner for a compressed 3.5 hour event...and then get nearly 100,000 people out in one stroke. They're going to have to start sending cast members home as soon as they are done with their appearance...just to get the outbound exodus going.

But then again, see, the IOC hasn't consulted with me. If the Evaluation Committee doesn't catch this early in time, and if Istanbul wins the Games, this concept will be radically changed! The problem will be more apparent to the organizers as they study the crowd flow problems in Sochi, Rio and PyeongChang.

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If Istanbul gets 2020, and the IOC okays the strictly ceremonial Bosphorus stadium idea, I would immediately hire Ceremonies people to conceive the show and THEN work with architects to design the stadium (which needn't have VIP boxes, etc., etc.) but have all the show pieces in mind -- IF I WERE the Istanbul organizers.

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Another way to make this distant scheme viable is to reduce the # of spectators. Instead of accommodating 75-80,000. Why don't they just build a 40-50,000-seater; reducing the no. of bodies gathering there for that evening by 30,000? Also, institute the 50 per team limit that I've suggested all along. You'll still get about 7,000 or so athletes on the field. Taking some 35,000 bodies out of a possible 105,000 people is 1/3 in size; That'll cut wait times by 1/2 hour - 45 mins at least.

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Another way to make this distant scheme viable is to reduce the # of spectators. Instead of accommodating 75-80,000. Why don't they just build a 40-50,000-seater; reducing the no. of bodies gathering there for that evening by 30,000? Also, institute the 50 per team limit that I've suggested all along. You'll still get about 7,000 or so athletes on the field. Taking some 35,000 bodies out of a possible 105,000 people is 1/3 in size; That'll cut wait times by 1/2 hour - 45 mins at least.

NO.

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Bravo Istanbul, what a setting that venue may be... And I love the idea of having a very little roof, it gives better views of the Bosphorus.

However they are really gonna have a bad time transporting athletes there, I hope they will bring a great solution.

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Even if they only transported 9,000 athletes, div by 45 (per bus load) = 200 bus trips. With 100 buses, that would be 2 trips per bus; so, if the ceremony started at say 7:00pm, they'd have start hauling people at like 5:00 pm, to hopefully get them all in there by around 7:30. Going back, if the Ceremony ends at 11:00 pm, the last bus to return to the OV would be like 1:15 :am. Are those hours acceptable to the NOCs?

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Even if they only transported 9,000 athletes, div by 45 (per bus load) = 200 bus trips. With 100 buses, that would be 2 trips per bus; so, if the ceremony started at say 7:00pm, they'd have start hauling people at like 5:00 pm, to hopefully get them all in there by around 7:30. Going back, if the Ceremony ends at 11:00 pm, the last bus to return to the OV would be like 1:15 :am. Are those hours acceptable to the NOCs?

here's a idea: a barge or a boat

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Very impressive. Istambul ceremonies could be one of the bests ever if this setting ever happens. The biggest problem, though, will be the transport and the huge distance between the venue and the Village (remember that certain parts of London's OC had to be cut so athletes could get to the village in time, back then).

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55,000 was what Salt Lake had; but the Village was right there. And if they use the 50-person limit per team, that's still MORE than a Winter Games. So why not?

Summer Olympics the main stadium has a min. capacity at 60,000. For Winter its 40,000. Also these are games for athletes, so let them march and not the coaches.

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here's a idea: a barge or a boat

Nope. NYC 2012 had proposed the use of ferries to take athletes to the West Side stadium. The IOC's security experts shut that down early as a security risk. So if that killed that part of NYC's plans; I don't see why it would all of a sudden become acceptable in Istanbul's case when Istanbul is even physically closer to the flashpoint that the Middle East is...than NYC is? :blink:

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Olympic park and Haydarpasa will be connected by metro in 2014 (with two transfer points: yenikapi and sogutlucesme)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transport_in_Istanbul

They may close middle stations for faster transportation during ceremony days.

Could be; but what about the 70,000 spectators, the 10,000 cast, hundreds of other Olympic workers on that & other Ceremonial nights? How will they get to the site? Surely, the metro was one, quick, cheap means of transport for them. If you commandeer that just for the athletes, the traffic repercussions on the surface will be unimaginable. I hope the Evaluation Committee seizes on the impracticality of this concept of theirs -- all just to have old Istanbul serve as a backdrop to a fireworks show. They better bring in traffic & crowd control experts quickly & make realistic computer models of those 4 nights before the idea becomes an embarrassment.

But maybe, Istanbul won't get it anyway.

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Not to mention that it's really such a huge waste of money when it's only gonna be used for a few hours for a couple of nights. And no real plans for it afterwards. Istanbul 2020 should really just scrap considering the enormous logistical challenges. They could still use that area & take advantage of istanbul's beautiful scenery. Keep the rowing & archery over there & maybe move something else over, too.

They should really use that money to better the bid instead of making it much more complicated. Especially when Madrid 2020 is preaching that the IOC should be focusing on more "fiscally responsible" Games. Choosing Istanbul with the Bosphorus plan doesn't exactly send that message. The Ataturk main cluster can do the job just fine. No need to further make things difficult when there's a simple & effective solution.

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Not to mention that it's really such a huge waste of money when it's only gonna be used for a few hours for a couple of nights. And no real plans for it afterwards. Istanbul 2020 should really just scrap considering the enormous logistical challenges. They could still use that area & take advantage of istanbul's beautiful scenery. Keep the rowing & archery over there & maybe move something else over, too.

They should really use that money to better the bid instead of making it much more complicated. Especially when Madrid 2020 is preaching that the IOC should be focusing on more "fiscally responsible" Games. Choosing Istanbul with the Bosphorus plan doesn't exactly send that message. The Ataturk main cluster can do the job just fine. No need to further make things difficult when there's a simple & effective solution.

I do think they can use that venue afterwards...Istanbul like most major international cities does get regular visits from international stars...there are also many outdoor events...During the summer months i think the venue would be used quite regularly...instead of transferring a football stadium for a Madonna concert and destroy the turf (as was done on her last visit) why not use a purposely built entertainment venue.

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