Winter Olympic Choices - Where do you want it?

MattB wrote:

Varanasi Benares wrote:
Walt wrote:

[snip]


Fortunately, the chances of the Olympics coming to Detroit is
vanishingly small.

I would love to see the Winter Olympics in Detroit! Or Chicago -
imagine the downhill at Mt. Villa Olivia:
http://www.villaolivia.com/html/ski_mountain.html

(Of course, what I would really like to see is a World Series in
Detroit.)

If they did it at Pine Knob they could use the ampetheater too!

Ok, as long as we're letting our minds run in fantasyland where the
Tigers win the World Series and Detroit get the winter olympic bid, I'll
chime in and say I'll support an olympic bid here as long as it includes
building the necessary facilities - i.e. a ski hill with at least 1000'
of vertical and state of the art snowmaking. *Then* I'd support it.


--
//-Walt
//
// Dream on...

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 20:11:00 CST, lal_truckee
wrote:

Varanasi Benares wrote:



Walt wrote:

[snip]


Fortunately, the chances of the Olympics coming to Detroit is
vanishingly small.


I would love to see the Winter Olympics in Detroit! Or Chicago -
imagine the downhill at Mt. Villa Olivia:
http://www.villaolivia.com/html/ski_mountain.html

(Of course, what I would really like to see is a World Series in Detroit.)

Seems less likely than hosting the Winter Olympics.

If that were true, there would have been at least three Winter
Olympics in Detroit by now (v. only 2 World Series).

b "GO PISTONS!" w

Walt wrote:
MattB wrote:

Varanasi Benares wrote:
Walt wrote:

[snip]


Fortunately, the chances of the Olympics coming to Detroit is
vanishingly small.

I would love to see the Winter Olympics in Detroit! Or Chicago -
imagine the downhill at Mt. Villa Olivia:
http://www.villaolivia.com/html/ski_mountain.html

(Of course, what I would really like to see is a World Series in
Detroit.)

If they did it at Pine Knob they could use the ampetheater too!

Ok, as long as we're letting our minds run in fantasyland where the
Tigers win the World Series and Detroit get the winter olympic bid,
I'll chime in and say I'll support an olympic bid here as long as it
includes building the necessary facilities - i.e. a ski hill with at
least 1000' of vertical and state of the art snowmaking. *Then* I'd
support it.

They last roared in '84, so wouldn't it be convenient for rhyming slogans in
they were to roar again in '04? Just watch out for the "celebration riot".
IIRC that '84 celebration killed 7.

Matt

bdubya wrote:
lal_truckee wrote:
Varanasi Benares wrote:
Walt wrote:

[snip]

Fortunately, the chances of the Olympics coming to Detroit is
vanishingly small.

I would love to see the Winter Olympics in Detroit! Or Chicago -
imagine the downhill at Mt. Villa Olivia:
http://www.villaolivia.com/html/ski_mountain.html

(Of course, what I would really like to see is a World Series in Detroit.)

Seems less likely than hosting the Winter Olympics.

If that were true, there would have been at least three Winter
Olympics in Detroit by now (v. only 2 World Series).

Only 2 World Series? Come again? Even the Cubs have been in more than
2 World Series. Check yer MLB history and you'l see that there have
been nine WS in Detroit with the Tigers winning four of them. Heck,
they've even played three WS against the Cubs!

But, alas, the question is not has it happened before, but the
likelihood of it happening again. The possibility just seems remote.

obski: How'd Mount Bohemia treat you last weekend?

--
//-Walt
//
// http://tinyurl.com/3gg3e

"Carl_M" wrote in message
om...
(SirJeffer) wrote in message
. com...
What makes a good Olympic choice? Where would you want the winter
Olympics and Why if you could have your choice?

The city that offers the biggest bribe :-P

Seriously I would look for:
1. Good access for spectators (both in terms of the roads not being
totally clogged up and in it being close enough to at least one major
city for day trippers.

2. A reasonably compact area to hold all the events

3. Likely good conditions for events. They had great trouble
finishing the ski events in Sapporo as the visibility often poor. I'm
not sure if they were just unlucky or if this was normal for the time
of year.

4. Facilities that will continue to be used after the olympics (eg Ski
jump, ice rinks with space for several thousand spectators)

5. A bid that looks as if they will be able to do what they say on
time and at least close to budget

You make a reference about Salt Lake offering some kind of bribe. Then you
go and list 5 criteria that describe Salt Lake. Do you think that the bribe
thing is just a little sour grapes? The case against the organizers has been
thrown out of court twice.

pigo wrote:
"Carl_M" wrote in message
om...

(SirJeffer) wrote in message

. com...

What makes a good Olympic choice? Where would you want the winter
Olympics and Why if you could have your choice?

The city that offers the biggest bribe :-P


CLIP


You make a reference about Salt Lake offering some kind of bribe. Then you
go and list 5 criteria that describe Salt Lake. Do you think that the bribe
thing is just a little sour grapes? The case against the organizers has been
thrown out of court twice.

I think the point was that the Olympic venues have traditionally offered
"bribes" - in most of the world back scratching doesn't have the
negative connotations it has in the good ol u s of a.

SLC didn't do anything untraditional.

You make a reference about Salt Lake offering some kind of bribe. Then you
go and list 5 criteria that describe Salt Lake. Do you think that the bribe
thing is just a little sour grapes? The case against the organizers has been
thrown out of court twice.

SLC was quite a good games although I would not class SLC as being
close to a large city (population of say 500,000). Denver would just
about be big enough (but 500 miles each way is a long way for a day
trip). Turin has a populaiton of nearly 2M. Nagano city has
populaiton of 350,000 but 2M live in the Nagano province (an area of
just 5000 sq miles)


I think the point was that the Olympic venues have traditionally offered
"bribes" - in most of the world back scratching doesn't have the
negative connotations it has in the good ol u s of a.

SLC didn't do anything untraditional.

I agree, while SLC did cross my mind it was not the SLC affair that
resulted in my answer. Until the uproar with SLC it was normal for
all the IOC members to go to all the candidate cities to evaluate the
bids. While there the host cities would put them in the best hotels
and give them suvenires of their visit which became more and more
valuable. This was done by all the cities and can be viewed as either
a bribe or corporate hospitality. Somebody decided at the time Salt
lake city won their bid that it wasn't acceptable and put it in print.
Court cases have shown what happened with SLC to be legal but IMO
immoral. The response of the IOC to change the bidding method implies
they are not happy for the old ways too. continue either.

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 22:39:00 CST, (Carl_M)
wrote:

I would not class SLC as being
close to a large city (population of say 500,000).

Certainly, Salt Lake City proper is not a "large city", however, the
Salt Lake Metro Area isn't exactly what I would classify as "small"
by any means.

In the year 2000, the population of Salt Lake County alone was
902,777.

And, in the year 2000, the population of the Wasatch front (which is
basically one big city including Salt Lake) was over 1.3 million.

-Astro

---
maximum exposure f/2.8
http://www.xmission.com/~hound/astro/03-04/index.htm
---

AstroPax wrote in message . ..
On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 22:39:00 CST, (Carl_M)
wrote:

I would not class SLC as being
close to a large city (population of say 500,000).

Certainly, Salt Lake City proper is not a "large city", however, the
Salt Lake Metro Area isn't exactly what I would classify as "small"
by any means.

In the year 2000, the population of Salt Lake County alone was
902,777.

And, in the year 2000, the population of the Wasatch front (which is
basically one big city including Salt Lake) was over 1.3 million.

-Astro

Ok it's not as bad as I thought I had 1980 figures of population of
SLC 163000 and Utah 1.46M (now 181000 and 2.3M) and I didn't realise
hjow much of the states populaiton was in the SLC urban area. While
some parts of Wyoming and Idaho are within daily travelling distance
(no large cities) IMO larger parts of Utah are too far away, ( I don't
have population figures by county) so I will assume that 2M people
were within travelling distance of the SLC games. This is tiny
compared to the olympics before and after it.

Nagano 1998

The Nagano and the surrounding prefectures (close enough for a day
trip) have a total population of 38.4M (the area is 32000 sq miles)

Turin 2006

The Italian regions close to the game have a total population of 14.9M
(area of 22000 sq miles). There are also areas in France and
Switzerland close enough for day trippers including the city of Nice
with maybe another 3M population.

Therefore the SLC games still had only 1/10 of the populaiton within
travelling distance as Turin and 1/20 of Nagano.

"Carl_M" wrote in message
om...
AstroPax wrote in message
. ..
On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 22:39:00 CST, (Carl_M)
wrote:

I would not class SLC as being
close to a large city (population of say 500,000).

Certainly, Salt Lake City proper is not a "large city", however, the
Salt Lake Metro Area isn't exactly what I would classify as "small"
by any means.

In the year 2000, the population of Salt Lake County alone was
902,777.

And, in the year 2000, the population of the Wasatch front (which is
basically one big city including Salt Lake) was over 1.3 million.

-Astro

Ok it's not as bad as I thought I had 1980 figures of population of
SLC 163000 and Utah 1.46M (now 181000 and 2.3M) and I didn't realise
hjow much of the states populaiton was in the SLC urban area. While
some parts of Wyoming and Idaho are within daily travelling distance
(no large cities) IMO larger parts of Utah are too far away, ( I don't
have population figures by county) so I will assume that 2M people
were within travelling distance of the SLC games. This is tiny
compared to the olympics before and after it.

Nagano 1998

The Nagano and the surrounding prefectures (close enough for a day
trip) have a total population of 38.4M (the area is 32000 sq miles)

Turin 2006

The Italian regions close to the game have a total population of 14.9M
(area of 22000 sq miles). There are also areas in France and
Switzerland close enough for day trippers including the city of Nice
with maybe another 3M population.

Therefore the SLC games still had only 1/10 of the populaiton within
travelling distance as Turin and 1/20 of Nagano.

But you can only get so many people in. The seats were full at SLC. All you
proved here is that the percentage of the total that gets to attend is
higher here.