2028 Olympic Trials speculation

[rlayt]

Pretty far ahead still. But speculation is fun.

Birmingham says they have bid for the trials and it isn’t one of my choices of places to go. https://www.wbrc.com/2025/06/17/birmingham-finalist-host-trials-2028-us-olympic-gymnastics-team/

Any rumors on who else may have bid?

 

[MaryClare]

I really really want to go to this. I’ve always wanted to go to Olympic trials but they’ve always coincided with other things. I think I need to have a baby next year so that I definitely don’t have one in 2028. What’s the time line of nationals and trials? We normally spend the summer in France but maybe I can persuade Mr MC to spend the summer in the US instead

 

[rlayt]

The Olympic Qualifications start July 15.

 

[rlayt]

I had it pretty close. Maybe I looked it up once and remembered it.

 

[rlayt]

Trials dates:

 

[MaryClare]

Ah I’d forgotten how early in the summer the Olympics is.

 

[rlayt]

May 25 Nationals.
June 11 trials.
july 15 Qualifications.

 

[Hatsumomo]

I want to go to Trials but it's Birmingham and it's Birmingham in the middle of summer...

 

[rlayt]

Birmingham will suuuuuuucccckkkk.

 

[Sasha]

I was so confused about what country we were talking about for a minute...

 

[rlayt]

I wonder if there are more than two Birminghams? My ancestors who were deported to the colonies were homesick so they re-used names from home.

 

[RedBirdie]

There's a handful of other Birminghams, but the ones in England and Alabama are by far the largest.

 

[OnoNoKomachi]

The Birmingham being referred to is indeed in Alabama, but it has not been confirmed as the final choice. It's supposedly one of the 4 finalists.

https://alabamanewscenter.com/2025/...host-2028-u-s-olympic-gymnastics-team-trials/

I hope they pick somewhere else. That place will be miserable in the summer. I'd rather go to Phoenix.

 

[KorbutFan]

I was so confused about what country we were talking about for a minute...

For a moment there I thought this was a thread about Birmingham, UK, bidding on the next Olympics.

 

[RedBirdie]

Going to Birmingham would be a major step down, imo. Trials has been in very high profile cities. The last time trials was held in a city that didn't host at least 1 of the Big 4 North American pro sports leagues (NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB) was Jacksonville in 1984--and Jacksonville has grown considerably since then and gained an NFL team. I'm not seeing that in Birmingham's future.

1980: Jacksonville
1984: Jacksonville
1988: Salt Lake City
1992: Baltimore
1996: Boston
2000: Boston
2004: Anaheim
2008: Philadelphia
2012: San Jose
2016: St. Louis (MAG)/San Jose (WAG)
2021: St. Louis
2024: Minneapolis

The three "smaller" cities all are connected to some of the biggest metro areas in the county: Baltimore to DC and the greater Baltimore-Washington region, Anaheim to LA, and San Jose to San Francisco-Oakland. Birmingham has.........Birmingham.

I'm curious who the other 3 cities are. At least one of them has to be a more attractive option.

 

[Sasha]

What's the importance of it being in a bigger city? Is it about airport connections and airfares, or the attractiveness of the city itself. Personally, (if I were in the US) I'd be fine with a smaller city if it was an interesting/nice place to visit. Which a lot of smaller cities are. Birmingham in the summer sounds neither interesting nor nice.

 

[MaryClare]

What's the importance of it being in a bigger city? Is it about airport connections and airfares, or the attractiveness of the city itself. Personally, (if I were in the US) I'd be fine with a smaller city if it was an interesting/nice place to visit. Which a lot of smaller cities are. Birmingham in the summer sounds neither interesting nor nice.

I think it’s a case of USAG setting out their requirements for the host city, and then it goes to a bid process? Olympic trials will always fill the stadium so the location is less important than say nationals where they might want to go somewhere that has a number of local clubs or the hometown of a prominent gymnast to bring in the crowds.

 

[RedBirdie]

What's the importance of it being in a bigger city? Is it about airport connections and airfares, or the attractiveness of the city itself. Personally, (if I were in the US) I'd be fine with a smaller city if it was an interesting/nice place to visit. Which a lot of smaller cities are. Birmingham in the summer sounds neither interesting nor nice.

A place like Birmingham says "We can't get any high-profile cities to bid. We're a small time sport." It's about the prestige of the city, ease of getting direct flights, and size of the metro area.

To give you an idea of just how small time Birmingham is (imo, of course), there are only 20 airports with nonstop flights to Birmingham, and none of those are west coast cities. There's not a small number of current US national team members that would not have a nonstop flight, and its not like they live in Podunk USA with a tiny airport.

But any smaller city is going to have similar problems for the most part. There's a reason these are smaller cities.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

How large is the arena in Birmingham? I can’t imagine very large at all.

 

[rlayt]

It only holds 18,000.