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Contingency Hosts


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This seems to be a topic that upsets people for some reason, particularly in discussions in recent times about the back-up p;lans for Athens 2004 and the upcoming World Cup 2010 in South Africa. But IMO it is an interesting one, and it just stands to reason that not only are there back-up plans for any Olympics (orn World Cup), they also get used more often than we remember.

Take the Olympics. Already, back-up hosts have actually stepped in at least twice:

1908 London for Rome

1976 Innsbruck for Denver

Also, at least twice the back-up hosts have been named, though the event didn't go ahead as planned:

1940 Helsinki for Tokyo

1940 Garmisch-Partenkirchen for St Moritz for Sapporo

In addition, the ones that I have some idea about (but weren't eventually needed) are:

1956 Detroit for Melbourne

1976 Dusseldorf for Montreal

2004 Los Angeles or Seoul for Athens (based on sources posted here by Puppy (I think?)

As for the FIFA World Cup, we've already had:

1986 Mexico for Colombia

And it seems according to Blatter there's a wealth of contenders if 2010 doesn't happen in South Africa _ USA, Australia, UK, Japan, Mexico

Does anyone else know of any other contingency hosts for the major events? And who might be the current crop of back-ups considered if something happened to stop a hosting in the near future?

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I wonder if their was plans for a back-up for Beijing.

I think it would be harder for a city to step in for the Olympics compared to stepping in to host a WC. Germany, France, Spain, England, USA, China, Japan, Korea and Australia all have enough stadiums to host, but very few cities have enough venues to host an Olympic Games because of the shear number of venues needed and the Olympic Village.

My guesses would be Barcelona, Munich, Paris, Seuol, LA.

If Boston has a stadium within the city I would say them aswell.

The biggest problem in my mind is the salom course of kayaking, right after that is the rowing venue, most other things can be quickly put up or found a host for.

Of course any back-up Olympics would be a lot more low-key than a 7 year-planned one.

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Well, there's also one other big consideration as well _ that of the Olympic Village. Even if major cities have the venues in place, it's not that easy to find a village like accommodation structure at the last moment, especially considering the trend to redevelop Olympic Villages as new housing developments after a games. Sydney, for example, categorically ruled itself out as a back-up for Athens when that was suggested for exactly that reason.

I know it's been mentioned before, but the suggestion has been that large college cities and towns, especially in the US, are well placed in that regard because of their college dorms that are usually vacant during the summer months.

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I wonder if their was plans for a back-up for Beijing.

There would have to be. It's just basic good planning. You just can't predict natural disasters like earthquakes etc, or wider world developements etc. I'd really love to know what the current thinking would be, though. I probably lean to LA being the best placed _ now THAT would be ironic, if LA ended up hosting next year and so knocked Chicago out of 2016!

I think it's probably too late to go back on Beijing, though. That's probably the other thing about back-up hosts, there MUST be a point in time before a games beyond which a switch is impracticle and impossible.

I just get our conversation in my mind, that it isn't known, which team lived in which house in Sydney...

I'd forgotten about that! I must try and se if a google search yields anything!

BTW, my sister just recently moved out of that place!

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very interesting thread, roland,

well - I suppose all the Olympic Villages of these cities are "normal" residential areas today...

I know that for München and for Sydney for sure

I put Munchen in because it has all the harder to prepare venues.

Coastal cities would be ideal with cruise ships.

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Good point _ it's certainly a way to get over the problem if no other alternative presents itself. But then again, wasn't there some sort of issue with Vancouver over this _ Vanoc wanted to use cruise ships for journalist accommodation and the IOC scotched the idea. Though, I suppose if the IOC was desperate, beggers can't be choosers.

I suppose that's the other reason a World Cup is easier to switch _ no need for a village, the teams actually stay at hotels (when I was in Korea for 2002, I was at the same hotel as the US team).

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Gianna Angelopoulos said that in 2000 IOC was serious thinking to take the Games from Athens and organize them somewhere else.

And let's be realistic, only the previous host can really organize the Games because they have all infrastructure ready.

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Gianna Angelopoulos said that in 2000 IOC was serious thinking to take the Games from Athens and organize them somewhere else.

That's when secret talks were begun with Seoul and L.A.

Now...back-up sites for the IOC Session cities. You know those are even MORE top-secret than the Olympic host cities!! :lol:

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I think that the year 3/4 mark would be the only time a city can be switched, but the problems don't get really bad and worring until 4/5.

I think that a city would really need about a 3 year headstart, that would be enough time to build apartment buildings for the village and most venues would be in place.

I think that the look and feel of the games would also difficult, the winning and bidding cities have all that time to think about what the games would look like, I think that it is very, very difficult.

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