Poll: Who Should Be Awarded The 2026 Winter Olympics This June?

[english si]

Right now...the way I see it...the identity of the Olympics is that of wasted money by the millions on facilities that are never put to use after the games end.

Here we go with the nonsense that every Olympic host city is Atlanta - most facilities are put to use after the 5-ring circus packs up. It's something that the IOC specifically look for now, post-Atlanta.

A permanent Athenian complex would see as much use outside the games as 2004's does now - which as far as you reckon is not at all! The problem you allege is the case isn't fixed by your solution - just that a stadium gets polished every 4 years, sees a month of activity then rots for about 40 months before its time to give it a fresh lick of paint.

Certainly Athens' 15-year-old facilities could be used more, but it's not simply sitting empty - and a key factor in its underuse is the economic problems the country has suffered - unforeseen at the time (well, no - most smart economists could have told you that Greece in the Euro was an inevitable disaster, due to problems with both Greece and the Euro, but it wasn't cool to say it) and nothing to do with the Olympics.

[bing101]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forum_(Inglewood,_California)


The Forum in Inglewood was used for the 1984 Olympics and was the L.A. Lakers Home Court prior to moving to Staples Center two decades ago and Has been a Concert venue ever since.

For Winter Games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Winter_Olympics The Squaw Valley Resort is still used nearly 6 decades after the games were done.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw_Valley,_Placer_County,_California

[1995hoo]

I'm curious why you think Atlanta immediately abandoned all their Olympic facilities.

[Alps]

I've also read that Atlanta turned an overall profit, so who even cares if the facilities were permanent?

[english si]

I'm curious why you think Atlanta immediately abandoned all their Olympic facilities.

I don't.

The nay-sayers' narrative is this idea that the facilities turn into pumpkins as soon as that flame is put out:

facilities that are never put to use after the games end.

And Atlanta is Exhibit A for this nonsense:

"Olympic Plazas" that end up as abandoned ghost towns afterwards.

Go visit Stratford sometime...

And then go visit Atlanta.

Atlanta is, I agree with the naysayers, the paramount example of a bad legacy. The loss of the athletics stadium (even though there was a planned sports reuse for most of the physical entity right from the beginning of planning, with the conversion designed in mind) left egg on the IOC's face, and they reacted to stop that embarrassment happening again. That it's not really a bad legacy shows how wrong the naysayers are!

[bing101]

I've also read that Atlanta turned an overall profit, so who even cares if the facilities were permanent?

Also doesn't some of the Atlanta area stadiums get used for local events too like NFL, NBA and MLB games too along with Bulldogs games.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venues_of_the_1996_Summer_Olympics

[1995hoo]

^^^^

That was part of my point. Atlanta used the Olympics in part to build replacements for old venues that were past their time. For example, the Olympic stadium was designed from the very beginning with the intent that it would be converted to a new baseball stadium after the Olympics were over, and once that was done the old "concrete donut" style stadium (Atlanta—Fulton County Stadium) where the baseball and, formerly, football teams had long played was demolished. If you watched the 1996 Olympics you might recall how the main stadium was not a perfect oval–one end was a different shape. That's because that end was where home plate was after it was converted to Turner Field. (Now that it's no longer used for baseball it's been renovated again into a college football facility.)

To me, doing it that way makes a lot of sense. The city that by all accounts really got it wrong was Montreal in 1976, building a lot of expensive new facilities that didn't have many other uses. But apparently some of the Europeans got all butthurt about the Olympic stadium being converted for baseball instead of being preserved as a useless venue nobody would use, even though the Atlanta OCOG had made it clear from the very beginning that's what was planned.

[bing101]

^^^^

That was part of my point. Atlanta used the Olympics in part to build replacements for old venues that were past their time. For example, the Olympic stadium was designed from the very beginning with the intent that it would be converted to a new baseball stadium after the Olympics were over, and once that was done the old "concrete donut" style stadium (Atlanta—Fulton County Stadium) where the baseball and, formerly, football teams had long played was demolished. If you watched the 1996 Olympics you might recall how the main stadium was not a perfect oval–one end was a different shape. That's because that end was where home plate was after it was converted to Turner Field. (Now that it's no longer used for baseball it's been renovated again into a college football facility.)

To me, doing it that way makes a lot of sense. The city that by all accounts really got it wrong was Montreal in 1976, building a lot of expensive new facilities that didn't have many other uses. But apparently some of the Europeans got all butthurt about the Olympic stadium being converted for baseball instead of being preserved as a useless venue nobody would use, even though the Atlanta OCOG had made it clear from the very beginning that's what was planned.

Atlanta, Los Angeles, Squaw Valley and Salt Lake City has to be one of the few cases where the former Olympic stadiums being converted to either a winter ski resort or the home stadium for local teams and a concert venue in some cases.

[1995hoo]

Except, as is correctly noted earlier in the thread, the LA Memorial Coliseum was constructed between 1921 and 1923 and became the home of USC football at that time. It was later expanded to allow it to be used for the 1932 Summer Olympics. But it's not really a situation where a "former Olympic stadium" was "converted" for a local sports team–rather, a local team's existing stadium was modified for the Olympics and has continued to be used for its original purpose (as well as becoming the home for many other teams over the years, even a baseball team) through the present day.

I believe I read that the 2028 plans involve using the new NFL stadium (now under construction) as the primary venue, though it won't host track and field and will instead be used for the ceremonies and soccer.

[Bruce]

It doesn't help that the IOC are usually right behind FIFA in the sports corruption index. Salt Lake City, Atlanta, and Beijing all suffered from some degree of vote bribery.

Vancouver has done well for itself as a recent Olympic host. BC Place is thriving for soccer and CFL, the Whistler venues are thronged with people, the Olympic Village is one of the most livable neighborhoods in North America, and the Canada Line is pretty successful (but was built under capacity).

[Stephane Dumas]

Had Detroit hosted the 1968 Olympics instead of Mexico, I wondered what could had happened to their olympics facilities after?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc_vbDbC0to

If Salt Lake City couldn't host the Winter Olympics, maybe they could try to host the Pan-American games?