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Slightly off topic alert: Inglewood stadium roof definitely looks like it won't be retractable.

Doesn't look like it fully encloses the stadium either. I wonder if the NCAA would allow the Final Four to be played there in that instance. And if not, would they change the design to allow for that

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Doesn't look like it fully encloses the stadium either. I wonder if the NCAA would allow the Final Four to be played there in that instance. And if not, would they change the design to allow for that

Doubt it. I think the reason it's being built like that is to cut costs on A/C usage since the design allows for natural air to cool down the spectators inside. To change the design just for one event that's not a permanent stadium event doesn't make sense in their eyes. What about the Olympic gymnastics and basketball organization? would they be ok with that design if they wanted to use the stadium and split it similar to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta?

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1) That is true.

2) The increases in cost are not really avoided with temporary venues.

If Los Angeles ends up spending $175 million to use a football stadium as an aquatics center (they've budgeted $100m just for the inconvenience payment to LAFC alone, before even beginning the work of converting the stadium) that is still a waste.

I was thinking they could maybe permanently renovate the existing swimming and diving facilities at UCLA or USC, but UCLA's facility was just built in 2009 and it doesn't look like it gets as much use as the USC one. The facility at USC is the one they used for the 1984 Olympics and they just finished renovating it a couple of years ago, but I can't seem to find any info on its new capacity. Doubt they would be willing to go through another renovation in such a short period of time, even for an Olympic games.

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Doesn't look like it fully encloses the stadium either. I wonder if the NCAA would allow the Final Four to be played there in that instance. And if not, would they change the design to allow for that

I don't pretend to really understand American sports, but an expensive redesign for a one off event in another sport? Would that really be likely? From what I've read about this stadium on SSC, the idea is the blurring of indoors and outdoors. Protection from the elements but the sun and sea breezes filling the stadium.

Anyway, this stadium is surely a slam dunk for the 2024 football finals if LA wins the bid and it blows Paris' equivalent venue (the small Parc de Princes) out of the water. Looks like an extraordinary project.

Edited by Rob.
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Doubt it. I think the reason it's being built like that is to cut costs on A/C usage since the design allows for natural air to cool down the spectators inside. To change the design just for one event that's not a permanent stadium event doesn't make sense in their eyes. What about the Olympic gymnastics and basketball organization? would they be ok with that design if they wanted to use the stadium and split it similar to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta?

So, you don't anticipate the stadium being redesigned to accommodate basketball, but you're asking if the stadium will be able to accommodate.. basketball?

Based on the design of the stadium in the renderings and the video, does it look like it will be easy to string a curtain across to do what they did for the `96 Olympics? Sure doesn't look like it. Remember most importantly.. this stadium does not belong to the state of Georgia like the Georgia Dome did. This is Stan Kroenke's stadium. He owns it. If he doesn't want to alter the design for the Olympics, it's not happening. If FIBA and/or FIG are okay with the stadium as it is, that's their choice. Same way the NCAA might have to make a similar choice.

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I don't pretend to really understand American sports, but an expensive redesign for a one off event in another sport? Would that really be likely? From what I've read about this stadium on SSC, the idea is the blurring of indoors and outdoors. Protection from the elements but the sun and sea breezes filling the stadium.

Anyway, this stadium is surely a slam dunk for the 2024 football finals if LA wins the bid and it blows Paris' equivalent venue (the small Parc de Princes) out of the water. Looks like an extraordinary project.

The trend these days is that when new stadiums are built in the United States, they want to find additional uses for it in order to fill it up with more events. Let's say there are 2 NFL teams playing in this new stadium (the Rams and maybe eventually the Chargers). That's only 20 home dates a year. Add in some concerts, maybe some soccer matches, probably some college football bowl games. Still not that much though.

Obviously we're in the early design process and in most places, the weather would prevent a design like this. Not sure they'll want to alter it significantly, but it'll give them a big edge to be able to host traditionally indoor events like basketball, particularly the NCAA Final Four which can only be held in a limited number of venues and currently only 1 of those venues (University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale) is out West.

I totally agree that for the purposes of American football, this is the way to go. Just not sure they won't eventually make some sort of provisions to host a sport like basketball. That's assuming the NCAA wouldn't be okay with this more open air design in the first place.

USC and UCLA's pools are only 8 lanes wide, so they would not be viable even if they had enough seating and a roof. It's requirements like these that makes hosting the Olympics financial insanity.

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First off, remember it's the individual sport federations that have some of these requirements. So that's on them as much as the IOC. They expect world class venues and little things like that might make a big difference to them. Doesn't the IOC normally frown upon using college dorms for the athletes village? Yet that's what LA is doing. Certain rules can be bent. Others can be broken. If the IOC has ever-so-slightly less than ideal bids from 1 or both of Paris and LA, I have no doubts they'll accept those slight imperfections because what choice do they have.

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So, you don't anticipate the stadium being redesigned to accommodate basketball, but you're asking if the stadium will be able to accommodate.. basketball?

Based on the design of the stadium in the renderings and the video, does it look like it will be easy to string a curtain across to do what they did for the `96 Olympics? Sure doesn't look like it. Remember most importantly.. this stadium does not belong to the state of Georgia like the Georgia Dome did. This is Stan Kroenke's stadium. He owns it. If he doesn't want to alter the design for the Olympics, it's not happening. If FIBA and/or FIG are okay with the stadium as it is, that's their choice. Same way the NCAA might have to make a similar choice.

Uh, no that's not what I was saying at all.

Never did I say that I expected Olympic basketball to require changes to the stadium. What I said was if Olympic gymnastics and Olympic basketball and those organizations would find the stadium in its current design acceptable enough to allow for a repeat of splitting the stadium like Atlanta did with the Georgia Dome in 1996. FIBA and NCAA are two separate organizations that have different demands. And of course if the stadium isn't suitable enough for Olympic basketball and/or gymnastics, they'll have to find a new place to host those events.

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Doesn't the IOC normally frown upon using college dorms for the athletes village? Yet that's what LA is doing. Certain rules can be bent. Others can be broken.

Likely less an objection to college dorms in and of themselves than concern that, almost invariably, the use of student housing results in significant disparities in the housing arrangements among delegations.

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All this talk about the openness of the ingelwood stadium seems overstated. It is open in some perimeter part but in summer it's not like it's super windy or even breezy that often. The field appears to be way below level of any area that is open, I'm sure they could find a relatively simple airflow solution if needed, it's not the biggest challenge. Seems the thing has several options for use in an Olympics, if this is LAs biggest problem, deciding what sports work best in their gorgeous and enormous new stadium and sport complex in the center of the city.....well, the are doing OK. #toomanygreatchoices

Edited by paul
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Likely less an objection to college dorms in and of themselves than concern that, almost invariably, the use of student housing results in significant disparities in the housing arrangements among delegations.

Fair enough. Point still stands though.. This is a less than ideal housing solution in the eyes of the IOC. But if the rest of LA's bid makes up for it, I'm sure they'll be okay with it

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Uh, no that's not what I was saying at all.

Never did I say that I expected Olympic basketball to require changes to the stadium. What I said was if Olympic gymnastics and Olympic basketball and those organizations would find the stadium in its current design acceptable enough to allow for a repeat of splitting the stadium like Atlanta did with the Georgia Dome in 1996. FIBA and NCAA are two separate organizations that have different demands. And of course if the stadium isn't suitable enough for Olympic basketball and/or gymnastics, they'll have to find a new place to host those events.

They already have a place to host both sports. The LA organizers can certainly tweak their venue plan with the stadium now in the picture, but the design doesn't look like it will allow an Atlanta-like solution to happen here, and I'm not sure it needs to

LA has enough larger arenas to handle all the indoor sports. Atlanta did not. So it was a creative and smart solution to use the Georgia Dome that way, especially since it was very centrally located. But remember.. The Georgia Dome was built as a public entity that could make provisions for an Olympic bid. That's not going to be the case with this new NFL stadium. Nor does it need to be. So I don't think it'll be the case where because that was done in Atlanta, it's likely to be suggested here. Doesn't make as much sense, IMO. I'm sure they'll find a use for the stadium in the bid, but I'd bet against that use involving basketball or gymnastics

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Kinda disappointed with the change, but UCLA and USC ain't too shabby :/

Also, since they plan to use UCLA's athletic facilities, would they also be using their cafeteria's and whatnot, or would they build a temporary venue for that nearby?

The Cafeterias would be in temporary tents because you expect to be feeding a few thousand people each time, probably 18/7. In 1984, they had to remove the orchestra section of the Shrine Auditorium because they needed that big area for the non-cooking food (salads, no stoves) prep staging area for the USC Village cafeteria. With 12,000 in one Village and what? 17,000 in the other one, that's like running a dozen behemoth 3,000 passenger cruise ships for 17 days + under the most intense security in EVERYTHING!!

Edited by baron-pierreIV
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Damn talk about cutting corners! Those London rooms are sad to look at! They look like student housing, but they were specifically built for the Olympics. The only thing they have that the student housing in LA doesn't is balconies.

I agree with Baron that the best solution for the cafeteria is to have it as a large outdoor tent area. It's what every large event does for their dining areas. The Houston Rodeo has this big long tent with a variety of vendors, as well as places scattered around the carnival area.

The only concern I have for USC and UCLA with the food situation is the current company that services the cafeteria and the rest of the campus, and it's probably Aramark. When I was in college a few years ago my fraternity had to get into contact with Aramark for any on-campus event we needed catering. They are pricey and they are strict when it comes to food on campus. Their contract usually comes with a policy that any and every event taking place on campus, in any building has to be catered by Aramark. You can't go to the grocery store and bring your own stuff. They even own every vending machines on campus, and they decide which vendors are allowed on campus. I'm grateful we had a Starbucks on campus, but alongside that we had a half-assed Chick-Fil-A, Pizza Hut and Burger King. Their cafeteria food was pretty decent though.

But there's still plenty of time to deal with that hurdle later on. And it's not something they have really worry about for awhile if they win.

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The Cafeterias would be in temporary tents because you expect to be feeding a few thousand people each time, probably 18/7. In 1984, they had to remove the orchestra section of the Shriner's Auditorium because they needed that big area for the non-cooking food (salads, no stoves) prep staging area for the USC Village cafeteria. With 12,000 in one Village and what? 17,000 in the other one, that's like running a dozen behemoth 3,000 passenger cruise ships for 17 days + under the most intense security in EVERYTHING!!

12,000 + 17,000 = more than 28,522

... which was the population of Philadelphia, second largest urban area and temporarily capital city of the USA, in the first US census, 1790.

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The point, though, is that athletes don't need much in the way of luxury or furnishings. In fact less is better since there's less for them to damage and/or destroy that way.

I think the issue with using campus housing is the campus, not the housing.

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