The Only 2 Cities That Want To Host Olympics Have Problems

[summer]

Business Insider


After several potential host cities with a democratically elected government pulled out of the running for the 2022 Winter Olympics, the only two candidates left are Almaty, Kazakhstan and Beijing, China.


On Monday the International Olympic Committee released a 137-page evaluation of the two bids, and while it's generally positive, it's also open about the numerous problems the two cities face.



Since 2013 cities in Poland, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Norway all dropped their bids, many over concerns that spending millions in public money on the Olympics isn't worth it.



Oslo was the last of these European cities to stay in the competition. Last year an IOC working group graded all three bidding cities (Oslo, Beijing, Almaty) in a wide range of categories. Oslo was the runaway winner, with Beijing second and Almaty a distant third. In a sign of just how much the IOC needed Oslo to stay in the running, the organization released a blistering statement slamming Norway when they pulled their bid.



As the IOC outlined in its evaluation Monday, Almaty and Beijing are far from perfect host cities for a big winter sporting event.



Beijing is the favorite to win when the IOC announces a 2022 host at the end of July, but it faces one significant problem: there's no snow.



"The mountain venues would rely completely on artificial snowmaking for the Games," the IOC report says.



In addition, the evaluators concluded that Beijing's bid underestimated the amount of water it'd actually take to make all the snow necessary for competition. Since that part of China is "increasingly arid," the report says, diverting so much water for snowmaking could impact regional water resources.



It's also going to look bad on TV.



"Due to the lack of natural snow the ‘look’ of the venue may not be aesthetically pleasing either side of the ski run," the report says. "However, assuming sufficient snow has been made or stockpiled and that the temperature remains cold, this should not impact the sport during the Games."




Other problems involve air quality and the construction of the two mountain clusters, which are located 55 miles and 100 miles outside the city.



Here are the biggest "risks/challenges" with Beijing, according to the IOC report:



There's no snow at the mountain venues, so it'd have to be all artificial, which would require so much water that it could impact regional water resources.

There's no snow, so it will look awful. From the report: "There could be no snow outside of the racecourse, especially in Yanqing, impacting the visual perception of the snow sports setting."

They'd have to relocate 400 people to build the ski jumping venue, and 1,100 people for the Olympic Village in the mountains.

The air quality issues are "very significant."

The alpine skiing venue is right next to a nature reserve.

The two proposed mountain venues are 80 and 140 minutes from the Beijing airport, respectively, so it'd be an incredibly spread out event. There would also be three Olympic villages.

The bid also calls for a speed skating venue, alpine skiing venue, sliding center, biathlon venue, cross-country skiing venue, ski-jumping venue, three Olympic Villages, and media center to be built from scratch.



Almaty has snow, but the IOC pointed out some issues with its bid as well. Evaluators stressed risks with hotels (there aren't enough yet), venues (will the sliding track be ready in time?), security (they don't all meet international standards), and the government's ability to pay for everything if the economic conditions change.



Here are the biggest "risks/challenges" with Almaty, according to the IOC report:



The sliding track would only be completed 16 months before the Olympics, which might not be enough time to properly get it tested and approved..

Limited hotel space for spectators in Almaty means people would have to consider staying in "alternative accommodation facilities such as unclassified accommodation; student accommodation; and family home accommodation.

"Low oil prices and exchange rate issues" could hurt the government's ability to deliver the $1 billion in public money needed to stage the event.

The Olympic Village and other buildings will be turned into 5,000 housing units after the games, but it's unclear if those could be absorbed into the city if the economy tanks.

"Not all security personnel meet international professional standards."

The bid calls for a figure skating venue, three Olympic Villages, two media centers, sliding center, and alpine skiing center to be built from scratch, in addition to numerous hotels and transportation projects.



While it's ultimately a good thing that the IOC is releasing all this information, it does show how the backlash against hosting the Olympics has affected the pool of candidates.

[iammalcolmx]

Isn't Kazakhstan where that dude says MH370 is?

[downtoearth]

Man, when are they going to build a single or maybe two winter Olympic parks somewhere that we can just alternate going to each Olympics and the Olympic Committee can maintain and ensure that the properties are suitable for competition and move on? We could still have a host country who did ceremonies and such, but without all this crazy idea of not actually having winter for the Olympics.

[simpsongal]

Jun 2, 2015 13:53:42 GMT -5 downtoearth said:

Man, when are they going to build a single or maybe two winter Olympic parks somewhere that we can just alternate going to each Olympics and the Olympic Committee can maintain and ensure that the properties are suitable for competition and move on? We could still have a host country who did ceremonies and such, but without all this crazy idea of not actually having winter for the Olympics.

Or just use the existing facilities?  Does the Olympics even have to be in 1 country?  Events could be in various European countries with the right facilties. 

I'm glad to see countries are getting wise to this black hole of public funds.  Seeing the empty World Cup stadiums in Brazil made me ill.

[sparkythelawyer]

The inner "Chicago got screwed" conspiracy theorist in me wonders if part of a big city's concern about even bidding for the games anymore (other than Beijing. Do the Chinese just bid every time and hope something sticks?) is that when they awarded the 2016 games to Rio, the IOC basically said in their final report that "Chicago is the most ready now is most likely to be able to BE ready at the start of the games, but OMG guys, we've never done South America!" In essence, why bother bidding if the IOC already knows where it wants to go?

[LoveTrains]

In other news, the people of Boston are increasingly saying "NO" to the olympic bid.

www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/sports/olympics/details-uncovered-in-bostons-2024-olympic-bid-may-put-it-in-jeopardy.html?_r=0

[MixedBerryJam]

Jun 2, 2015 14:57:38 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

In other news, the people of Boston are increasingly saying "NO" to the olympic bid.

www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/sports/olympics/details-uncovered-in-bostons-2024-olympic-bid-may-put-it-in-jeopardy.html?_r=0

Every time I'm stuck in some random non-rush-hour traffic jam (so basically any time I'm on 93) I'm all, "Nope. No Olympics for you." My brother says I'm crazy and that I'll make a ton of money renting my house for a month, but I don't want some rando puking in my bed and peeing in the corner. 

Boston Olympics committee, count me out!

[zoegirltx]

Houston has tinkered with hosting a summer olympics & nobody here wants it- it would be too dang hot & it's already too crowded. We'll stick to a superbowl TYVM.

It's kind of crazy taht russia is going ot host it without any snow...really sucks for those athletes & probably much more dangerous than real snow.

[AJL]

Everything comes to an end. Maybe it's time for the Olympics to take a break?

[sparrowsong]

I've kind of wished Denver would host it so that we could get a high speed train up the I70 corridor from Denver to the ski resorts that we could use forever after. I love snowboarding but HATE the drive and the icy roads in winter.

I do not remotely understand why they would have the winter olympics in a place that doesn't have snow. What?

[Velar Fricative]

I would still wayyyyyyyy prefer Almaty as host even though the Kazakhstan President is Putin Junior. No to Beijing again.

But cue 7 years of Borat jokes if they win.

[origami]

Damn Kazakhstan. That is just sad when you can't beat a smoggy communist city with no snow. And they just had the Olympics! You need to just reevaluate yourselves at this point. When nobody wants the Olympics, there's a good reason. If you being like "but we have snow!" doesn't help, maybe you just concentrate on more pressing needs.

[Velar Fricative]

Jun 2, 2015 21:03:28 GMT -5 origami said:

Damn Kazakhstan. That is just sad when you can't beat a smoggy communist city with no snow. And they just had the Olympics! You need to just reevaluate yourselves at this point. When nobody wants the Olympics, there's a good reason. If you being like "but we have snow!" doesn't help, maybe you just concentrate on more pressing needs.

I bet Almaty just thought "Shit, we're actually a finalist?" I doubt they expected to be in the running lol.

[Velar Fricative]

I vastly prefer the Winter Games to the Summer Games and even I would be okay with Scandinavia hosting every 4 years.

ETA: Actually, maybe something closer to my time zone. Montreal every 4 years, please!

[lg28]

Vancouver should just do it again.

[ttt]

Jun 2, 2015 21:03:28 GMT -5 origami said:

Damn Kazakhstan. That is just sad when you can't beat a smoggy communist city with no snow. And they just had the Olympics! You need to just reevaluate yourselves at this point. When nobody wants the Olympics, there's a good reason. If you being like "but we have snow!" doesn't help, maybe you just concentrate on more pressing needs.

I have heard some insane stories from people trying to do business in Kazakhstan. Let's just say that rule of law is...not exactly highly respected there.

I did a whole project in b-school about exploring the possibility of opening an international branch of a company in Kazakhstan and my ultimate conclusion was...don't.

[ttt]

So basically, let's just switch back and forth between Vancouver and Lilllehammer for the next 20 years or so, agreed?

[pugz]

Fucking IOC

[Velar Fricative]

I have a lot more to say about this (surprise, surprise).

Kazakhstan may be Shady McShady when it comes to business and might have infrastructure issues. However, one thing I love about the Olympics is learning about the host cities/regions. It will be nice for Kazakhstanis to have their biggest city (and the whole country too) on the map for something besides Borat. See, this is the second time I've mentioned Borat in this thread so it really does prove that they have an image problem and this would be a nice way to address that. Plus, there's a lot of fascinating history in Central Asia.

China has no shortage of fascinating history itself but Beijing is just old news. Only 14 years separate 2008 and 2022. I have no problems with 14 years between different cities in the same country though, but Beijing has been there, done that and they don't have any fucking snow! Stop picking cities where you have to make snow!!!!

I wish China put forth Harbin as their city instead of Beijing. Harbin is known within China for its winter sports and it's a city few people have heard of, so even if China will have hosted an Olympics twice in 14 years, at least Harbin offers something new.

And finally, I think it's risky for the IOC to pick Beijing anyway. Remember all the hoopla about how 2008 was wonderful for China and would open them up and rah rah democracy? They obviously can't spin 2022 this way if Beijing is chosen next month. But then again, having only two cities left after the rest dropped out is already bad press for the IOC so they must not give a shit about picking Beijing again.

[ttt]

Jun 3, 2015 8:11:06 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I have a lot more to say about this (surprise, surprise).

Kazakhstan may be Shady McShady when it comes to business and might have infrastructure issues. However, one thing I love about the Olympics is learning about the host cities/regions. It will be nice for Kazakhstanis to have their biggest city (and the whole country too) on the map for something besides Borat. See, this is the second time I've mentioned Borat in this thread so it really does prove that they have an image problem and this would be a nice way to address that. Plus, there's a lot of fascinating history in Central Asia.

I actually agree with this. But at the same time, it sounds like security is a major issue (along with human rights although that's clearly not a major concern of the IOC) and just from my limited understanding, there are just some inherent issues that can't be resolved in such a short period of time. 

[LoveTrains]

Jun 3, 2015 13:19:13 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Jun 2, 2015 15:21:09 GMT -5 MixedBerryJam said:

Every time I'm stuck in some random non-rush-hour traffic jam (so basically any time I'm on 93) I'm all, "Nope. No Olympics for you." My brother says I'm crazy and that I'll make a ton of money renting my house for a month, but I don't want some rando puking in my bed and peeing in the corner. 

Boston Olympics committee, count me out!

I think I'm the only Bostonian who is all "OLYMPICS? YES PLEASE!", both for selfish reasons  (money from renting out my place + I freaking love the summer Olympics and think it would be awesome) and because I think it would force the MBTA to invest heavily in its infrastructure so they don't repeat what happened this winter in front of a global audience.

Who is going to pay for said Mbta infrastructure? IMO the reason the t is broke is because baker screwed them years ago on this big dig debt.

[Deleted]

Jun 3, 2015 8:11:06 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I wish China put forth Harbin as their city instead of Beijing. Harbin is known within China for its winter sports and it's a city few people have heard of, so even if China will have hosted an Olympics twice in 14 years, at least Harbin offers something new.

Really, China? You have this


 
in Harbin and you put forth Beijing for the Winter Olympics? Go home, China. You are drunk.

[wise_rita]

I third Harbin. That would be SO COOL!

[mrsbro]

Jun 4, 2015 4:54:20 GMT -5 tillie said:

Jun 3, 2015 13:19:13 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

I think I'm the only Bostonian who is all "OLYMPICS? YES PLEASE!", both for selfish reasons  (money from renting out my place + I freaking love the summer Olympics and think it would be awesome) and because I think it would force the MBTA to invest heavily in its infrastructure so they don't repeat what happened this winter in front of a global audience.

I'm m in the "No" camp for Boston. I would never rent my house to strangers, so that's not such a big deal. My qualms are the financial impact to the state. We couldn't even run public transportation in snow this winter, never mind build and prepare for the Olympics. Our track record in regards to building anything efficiently isnt too shiny either, lol. 

Bite your tongue! The big dig is almost done!

[NewOrleans]

Guess they will just have to send the games back to Sochi. Maybe those dorms will be finished by then!