I'd be shocked if Ohio saw any events from a 2016 Chicago Olympic.  Chicagoland-from Gary to MKE has no need from help for us.  Exhibition basketball and such, sure.  But I don't see how they'd want/need to include us in official events.

 

Do they really have the capacity in the immediate Chicago area to support all of the soccer prelims???  I know in China they are using 7 stadiums for soccer, all with capacities over 33,000.

 

If I remember correctly, my school's (Northern Illinois Univ) stadium was part of the plan as well as the a new stadium being built at the University of Minnesota; other stadiums too, I presume.

 

speaking of reports, does anyone have the chicago bid in detail? i wonder if anywhere in ohio was included for some event sites? 

 

Huh?

 

Well anyway, its amazing what 3 seconds of research will yield on the internet, http://www.chicago2016.org/why-chicago/Pages/ApplicantFileDownloads.aspx

 

 

 

no, what would be amazing would be you just posting a link w/o snark!  :laugh: :wink:

 

i see there that all the chicago venues are within a stone's throw of downtown chicago. who is gonna tell me that perk is not going to held against other cities with far flung venues? anyway, unfortunately there is no ohio on there.

 

the rio venues all appear to be within city limits as well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_de_Janeiro_2016_Olympic_bid

 

 

>Atlanta is 2.5 times the size of Cleveland in terms of population and is sprawled out to no end, so I could understand why they thought MARTA was lacking.

 

Actually Atlanta was much, much smaller than it is now when it made its Olympic bid, probably under 3 million metro.  When Marta started construction, Atlanta metro was the same size as Cincinnati is currently.   

 

Everyone needs to sit down and remember than Atlanta and every other city gets the games because they are corrupt and pay off the IOC.  That's why Cincinnati never had a chance, because Nick Vehr is a former altar boy and played by the rules. 

 

Also I have by chance been to a number of the dead Olympic facilities around the world and typically they are super-far-away from the city centers.  Except for bull rings in Spain, stadiums of any kind in Europe are typically on the edge of town.  The only Olympics that was close to its city was in Barcelona, because things were built on a big mostly undeveloped hill that overlooks the historic city center.  There the Olympic stadium was hilariously small, like the same size as Nippert Stadium.  There were weeds growing all over, paint peeling, faded wayfinding signs, etc.  From what I recall there was not direct metro service to that area, you had to ride a driverless funicular cable railway that left one of the metro stadiums, surfaced, then shot up the hill.  I think there were only two cars on this thing so the volume wasn't very high.  There was a presently under-trafficed four-lane boulevard built up the side of the hill where I'm guessing there were bus shuttles during the games.       

 

There is hardly any sign that the Olympics even happened in Atlanta, after 10 visits to post-Olympics Atlanta I finally saw the Olympic Park this past spring and only realized I was looking at it when reading the signs.  What a joke. 

 

Montreal is probably the funniest and deadest of all, since the Olympic stadium was trying so hard to shock and awe the world back in 1976 (not unlike the new stadium in China) and now it's just funny.  I don't remember why it took the Expos so long to move into that stadium but it didn't do anything for their cause.  The grounds have two metro stations so it's not like people had that as an excuse for not going to watch baseball. 

 

       

There is hardly any sign that the Olympics even happened in Atlanta, after 10 visits to post-Olympics Atlanta I finally saw the Olympic Park this past spring and only realized I was looking at it when reading the signs. 

Watching the Olympics the other night, a friend and I had this same conversation about Atlanta. If you didn't know where to look you wouldn't know.

^Is this a bad thing?  As has been discussed many Olympic sites become 'ghost stadiums' shortly after the events are over.  Maybe Atlanta just had a very good plan for every venue post Olympics... I think this speaks volumes for the planners of the Atlanta Olympics.  Maybe a better monument to the games would be nice, but I'm proud of the fact that they didn't let it become Athens, Barcelona, Montreal, etc...

 

Maybe this should be looked at more by the selection committee... that is, how well equipped is a city to utilize these venues after the Olympics without significant financial or social impact?

No, that is not a bad thing. That wasn’t what our conversation was about. It was about how extravagant the iconic structures are that were built in Beijing. What will they be like 12 years from now? That remains to be seen.

Oh, I see.  I guess I was responding to jmeck...

 

 

There is hardly any sign that the Olympics even happened in Atlanta, after 10 visits to post-Olympics Atlanta I finally saw the Olympic Park this past spring and only realized I was looking at it when reading the signs. What a joke.

 

I dug up some photos of the Barcelona facilities.  These are from a trip I took in 2005. 

 

This is the diving facility, obviously the setting is still spectacular but the pool itself is already looking worn out even though it's only 13 years old in this photo:

 

Here is the Olympic Stadium, a short walk away.  Hard to believe that something this small hosted the Olympics, but here it is:   

 

 

It's obvious that China threw a lot of money at the current Olympics and doesn't care about stuff sitting around getting no use. 

^It's surprising that Spain doesn't maintain some of those facilities (i.e. Diving) as training facilities to be used year-round for their Olympic athletes.

^It's surprising that Spain doesn't maintain some of those facilities (i.e. Diving) as training facilities to be used year-round for their Olympic athletes.

 

Sure, but countries don't train their athletes, rather private trainers that own and operate their own facilities do.  The diving area probably would not be a good location for a trainer in that rain days and cool weather would put a hamper on the workout. 

Looking at those facilities, perhaps Columbus can host the Olympics! LOL

Looking at those facilities, perhaps Columbus can host the Olympics! LOL

 

Hardy har har...

 

Aww, who am I kidding anyway... I thought the same thing.

 

But perhaps the stadium had much more temporary seating.  I came accross an old Enquirer artical the other day and they said something about the Cincinnati Olympic Stadium having a temporary capacity of like 85,000 and after the games it would have gone down to a capacity of like 15,000?  I can't remember the exact numbers but it was a signficant difference.

According to Wikipedia the stadium in Barcelona was built to entice the 1936 Olympics which ended up going to Berlin instead.  Its normal capacity is 55,000 but was temporarily expanded to 80,000 for the 1992 Olympics.  In another fun fact, its infield did not allow 10 yard end zones for NFL Europe games, instead they were 7 yards.

 

That's right the Cincinnati proposal was for more or less a temporary stadium.  That said there were major problems with that site...they would have had to relocate a ton of operations inculding the Queensgate jail and still would have had to contend with the 6th St. Expressway, I-75 bridge approaches, and C&O RR viaduct.  It was basically never going to look good there and was doomed to fizzle out into an industrial area.     

 

There was some talk I recall of the county wanting to build Paul Brown Stadium to slightly larger proportions to allow a running track and/or full-size soccer field.  Also, much of the Cincinnati bid depended on the giant expansion of the Convention Center over I-75 which did not come to pass.  They proposed to build the convention center expansion in such a way that it could host events with temporary bleachers.  That plan was scuttled by ODOT because the pillars would limit what could be done with the reconstruction of I-75. 

 

I think the answer to Cincinnati's logistical problem was to build a temporary Olympic Stadium at UC, where Sigma Sigma Commons and the 3 sisters dorms were (now 2 sisters).  This would have put the Olympic Stadium and whatever was to be held at Nippert Stadium and Shoemaker Center in one concentrated spot still very close to downtown and ideally connected directly with downtown by the never-built Mt. Auburn light rail tunnel.  Also would have put a concentration of people very close to the major hospitals.  Olympic Village stuff could have been built on the BASF property next to Xavier, along that same rail line, and actually within walking distance in a worst-case scenario.  There has since been another major arena built in town at NKU, which would have helped from events being spread out so much around the region.   

 

No. We could become the most Cycling and Pedestrian-Friendly City in the US much easier, it seriously could be done.