Brisbane Olympics: Party like it's 2032

[arabiandoublefront]

Yeah, I’ve always thought South Africa and Egypt are options, but I think they would need a lot of support.

 

[makam]

Man, I got a bunch of cheerleading fans all het up at me because I told them they were wrong and cheerleading was not going to be in the Paris Olympics. And that it was incredibly unlikely to appear at the LA games because adding a team sport with the hundreds of athletes, coaches, and support people was counter the need for a smaller games. Whew, were they mad. And I actually think cheerleading is a sport (or at least athletic, more a sport than break dancing anyway).

Unless they spin some of the indoor stuff (martial arts, weightlifting, boxing, fencing, etc) off to the Winter Olympics, I don’t see any team sport being added to the program unless it is some how made from other sports/athletes that are already there. Like the figure skating team event. And a fully judged sport is always going to have a tougher time than a sport with more objective ways of determining a winner.

 

[JDB]

Weather is the elephant in the room. Tokyo, Paris, and LA are typically don’t have temperate summers. And heat waves in these cities are getting worse. Brisbane can host an Olympics in July-August without athletes getting heat exhaustion. Finding good hosts with temperate climates is getting harder. It’s hard to justify the southern US hosting an Olympics anymore (sorry Atlanta).

 

[Kittentoes]

Chiming in from CA, summers are turning into hellscapes here.

 

[Sasha]

As much as I enjoy the Olympics they need to die. The IOC is a corrupt (and apparently insanely entitled) POS, and the Games bring little net benefit to the communities that host them. Yes, it would be a loss for the athletes, but in time sports will develop an alternative “most prestigious” competition. It’s just become ridiculous.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I don’t think Egypt will be a popular option because of the heat in full summer and possible security issues.

 

[dweiss324]

I love the idea of Africa getting to a point where hosting is a viable option, but I fear we might be a ways out from that still. Morocco, Egypt, Kenya, and south africa have always been touted as the leading candidates, but I’m not sure we’ll see it any time soon.

 

[Denn]

I think that some of the indoor events, such as Gymnastics and basketball, should be spun off from the Summer Olympics. They don’t need to be during the summer.

That could split the Summer Games literally in half — Summer Olympics, Arena Olympics (at different times of the year), and Winter Olympics.

I think that the running these things in the span of less than 3 weeks causes a lot of problems, too. Splitting would help with that, too.

A permanent rotation system is stupid. The world is not a static place. Let it evolve and let new contenders jump in as they are ready.

In the meantime, the list @RedBirdie posted excerpts above is just a disgusting set of demands. It’s not corruption, but it’s close, in my opinion.

 

[RedBirdie]

Oh, the IOC is corrupt as fuck. They make FIFA look like a bunch of amateurs.

Every single sports governing body is corrupt and exists first and foremost to line the pockets of its leaders. The well-being of the athletes, who make it possible to have said governing body in the first place, is near the bottom of the priorities list. Some are just more openly brazen than others.

 

[Bob]

Very interesting idea splitting the summer olympics into indoor and outdoor. It would increase costs in that there would be an extra opening and closing ceremony but really they are way too long and over the top anyway. (apart from the London one which I love to bits of course haha). But otherwise I see this as a sensible option.

I also would support spreading the events across a country rather than a city and using existing arenas and stadiums.
I also would support moving some indoor sports to the winter olympics.

We are losing so many worthy gymnasts from the Olympics due to ratios , rules and qualification nonsense. We need 5/6 person teams, 36 in the aa, 2 per in AA or the event finals but not both. All in who q in the one not 2 per.

And I totally agree those demands are frankly offensive. Totally against the ethos of the Olympics in my eyes.

 

[RedBirdie]

The 2026 winter Olympics will be more spread out between Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. It will actually be spread among six clusters. We’ll see if more places decide todo joint bids and multiple clusters in the future to spread out the impact and reduce costs.

 

[blake]

I don’t see why they can’t have each event in a separate location with live streaming in the future. It would ease the cities burden of hosting and it would embrace the olympic spirit just as well I think. Anyone know when the Olympics became so commercialized or was it always that way?

 

[makam]

The athletes like being co-located to some extent though. it is one of your only chances to interact with other elite athletes from other sports. But I definitely think splitting the indoor stuff to their own games or to the winter olympics would help reign in the size/cost of hosting the games. And it would bring tourists in at an additional time if the same city/country is hosting both the indoor and outdoor stuff. Have the Track and Field be the lead event for the outdoor stuff and have it last for a week, repeat for the paralympics, take a break, have swimming lead off the indoor stuff, repeat for paralympics, soak the tourists twice. But it is probably nothing that could happen because NBC is struggling to get people to pay attention for two consecutive weeks, if they split it into two different months/seasons, well, that probably won’t bring in the mulah desired.

They also need to severely limit the use of single-sport specialized stadiums unless it is a sport that is popular in the country. Like, great, lovely BMX arena…that is used exactly 2 days of the Olympics. What an absolute waste. I love watching the whitewater stuff but man, that is an expensive venue to have to build for a few events. A host city should be able to decide if they want to build a velodrome, use one elsewhere in the country (which i think is what Japan did), or skip the event. Whitewater, BMX, Climbing, skateboarding… anything that basically needs a custom outdoor venue. At least Track and Field use the crap out of the same stadium. Heck, make it whitewater for the first week and drain the water and fill with mud to make it the BMX track the second week.

They Olympics have always been commercialized/politicized while pretending to be pure and neutral. And the IOC has always been damn corrupt and it is a testament to the athletes that they can make us forget about the garbage behind the scenes with their awesome performances. Now the question if FIFA or the IOC are the most corrupt is a difficult one. But god knows they are all about the $$$$ and not the athelets.

 

[RedBirdie]

Anyone know when the Olympics became so commercialized or was it always that way?

Los Angeles 1984. That’s the Olympics that established the modern model of selling huge sponsorship deals, big broadcasting rights, etc. Two big factors:

1. New leadership at the IOC that was over ideas like amateurism and athletics-not-profits. Juan-Antonio Samarach was all about the money and not ashamed of that.
2. The LA organizing committee’s needed to generate revenue to actually host the games (and not be hopeless saddled with debt like Montreal), but would not be getting subsidies from the US or California governments.

LA 84 made gobs and gobs and gobs of money. Like, obscene profits. Every Olympics since has been chasing that.

 

[dweiss324]

I could totally get into a split games where different sports had their time to shine and there was a rotating schedule that had limited sports competing but it happened once a year, and only lasted for a week.

I’m the biggest Olympics fan I know in person and ten days in, even im over it. This year, trying to follow and keep up with kids nearly permanently ruined my sleep schedule.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

The athletes like being co-located to some extent though. it is one of your only chances to interact with other elite athletes from other sports.

I don’t doubt that they like it, but if it eventually becomes unworkable there’s not a lot of other options. They’ll still come to split Games!

 

[Doug1233]

I think London did pretty well too. And Sydney.

 

[GymBeauty]

The Olympics will collapse under its own weight. I don’t see how it can sustain itself.

The biggest problem facing the Olympics, and many sports, is how fractured media has become. There used to only be a small number television channels to watch. When the Olympics were on, people saw it. Now the viewership is minimal in comparison. The 2018, 2021, and 2022 Olympics have all felt so small.

 

[irichluck21]

2021, and 2022 Olympics

COVID really had a lot to do with it IMO.

Plus, the trend for the Olympics is small venues, and also going “green” by using existing venues.
We will not see the same crowd in Paris that we saw in Georgia at the Georgia Dome.

 

[MaryClare]

Sigh.

Olympics held in Europe are not comparable to those held elsewhere. Organisers are expecting attendance to be above that of London. Something crazy like 50% of Europe’s population live within a 2 hour flight of Paris. From many cities across France, plus parts of England, Belgium, Holland and Germany it is possible to go by train for the day and not worry about accommodation