urbanMSP

Doesn't Denver seem like a much better option than MSP?

FYI... Salt Lake City is putting together a 2030 bid. They hosted in 2002.

Yup, they'll have a strong bid, and IIRC Boston is planning a bid as well. I'm not saying Minneapolis will bid, just making an argument for why local leaders should consider at least doing research on alpine sites and putting an organizing committee together.

Doesn't Denver seem like a much better option than MSP?

Denver could be a good host too. The US, by virtue of being a massive country, has a lot of strong candidate cities. In one sense we're in a tough spot because, unlike Europe where you used to see several countries that have about the population of a US state each make a competitive bid, we would have to beat a dozen other cities in the USOC process just to get a bid in front of the IOC.

Re: Denver hosting the whole thing rather than just having a satellite site in the Rockies for the alpine events, that's a possibility too. I don't think they'd muster the same local support for hockey, figure skating, curling, or nordic ski, and although I'm not super familiar with the Denver area I'm reasonably confident they don't have the same caliber facilities ready to go for those events. That's why I thought a bid leveraging us as arguably the strongest existing flat-land sites in the country and Colorado as one of the strongest existing alpine sites might appeal to the IOC's apparent desire to use sensible, pre-built facilities and make investments that would be useful beyond the context of the games.

There's also a concern about their ability to actually organize an event like this; they actually won the bid for the 1976 games and then withdrew, and the IOC would probably look very skeptically on them even all these years later. Meanwhile right now, Minnesota looks about as good as it ever will at organizing a world-class midwinter event.

If we’d make a bid and leverage a distant alpine site, picking a site unrelated to Denver would need to happen. Look further north to Wyoming or Montana.

So, bullet train to Jackson Hole?

In all seriousness, the lack of mountains is probably a killer. Summer games however...

If we’d make a bid and leverage a distant alpine site, picking a site unrelated to Denver would need to happen. Look further north to Wyoming or Montana.

Really good point. It takes away the obvious question of "but why not just Denver"; it enables the participation by a site that might have world-class skiing but none of the other venues or infrastructure needed for the rest of the events; and it could feel like a unique opportunity for that site, rather than like they're being short-changed.

So, bullet train to Jackson Hole?

In all seriousness, the lack of mountains is probably a killer. Summer games however...

We could hold Summer Games, but it's an order of magnitude more investment and hassle, all for something that's IMO a less special cultural fit and has way more other willing--and larger--bidders.

We wouldn't be the first want to build our own mountain...

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/man-made-mountain

If people were unhappy with how disruptive the Super Bowl was, I can't imagine they'd like either Olympics any better.

If people were unhappy with how disruptive the Super Bowl was, I can't imagine they'd like either Olympics any better.

They'll be hugely disruptive. But they'll also be more accessible for locals to enjoy the action.

It would be almost unthinkable for the Winter Olympics to go anywhere in the U.S. but Salt Lake City in the near future, and SLC is very likely to get the 2030 Olympics (with 2026 possibly in Calgary).

The Twin Cities offer a pretty ideal setting for the ice events but really nothing else. Besides the aforementioned alpine skiing hills we don't have, we also don't have a bobsled track or a ski jump, and there's no reason to consider building any of those facilities considering the U.S. already has them in Salt Lake City and Lake Placid. There's no international demand for more bobsled tracks, and the U.S. teams are already based at the existing facilities.

Denver in theory would be a fine host city, but Salt Lake City already has the facilities, and the facilities are much more accessible than they'd be in Colorado. Denver also has the distinction of being the only host city to relinquish the rights, so there's still some bad blood about that.

Minnesota's importance to the Winter Olympics is also skewed somewhat by our large number of hockey players and, more lately, curling. If you strip them out, we don't produce all that many Olympians. This year, for example, the only notable Minnesotan outside those two sports is cross-country skier Jessie Diggins. We don't have any downhill or freestyle skiers, speedskaters, snowboarders, figure skaters, sliders, etc.

In other words, don't worry about the Winter Olympics ever coming here.

We'll be better off putting the resources into our states many existing needs and potential.

Maybe we can hold off on another round of corporate welfare for at least a decade?

I just saw this discussion. Surely there aren't people who've paid so little attention to the Olympic bidding process as to think it's a good idea to submit an Olympic bid, are there?

What specifically? There's inherent sketchiness whenever bidding for something like this, but there's also a lot of variation between individual Olympics. The absurdly expensive state-sponsored Olympics in places like Sochi and China, or the disorganized Olympics in corrupt and imploding Brazil, are overall pretty different from what they did in London and especially for what's planned in Los Angeles. The IOC just looks particularly bad lately for so many recent hosts being along the totalitarian/expensive/corrupt genre.

Pretty much bankrupted Greece.

Well the good news is that MSP won't have to worry about hosting the Summer Games until about 2040 at the earliest with the rotation the IOC is wanting and who knows what the games look like then.

What specifically? There's inherent sketchiness whenever bidding for something like this, but there's also a lot of variation between individual Olympics. The absurdly expensive state-sponsored Olympics in places like Sochi and China, or the disorganized Olympics in corrupt and imploding Brazil, are overall pretty different from what they did in London and especially for what's planned in Los Angeles. The IOC just looks particularly bad lately for so many recent hosts being along the totalitarian/expensive/corrupt genre.

Yeah, Developed World games have been a lot more reasonable in terms of venue costs and choosing productive infrastructure investments to prioritize for the games. LA supposedly made a profit last time, which is why they're doing it again. Vancouver hardly built any venues at all--and anything they did build is still in use as public recreation facilities--and the transit and housing they built were things the city desperately needed anyway. And after China, Russia, and Brazil, the IOC is at least paying lip service to the idea that they're evaluating venues on cost-effectiveness and likelihood of having useful lives extending past the games.

On the flat-land venues side, we could host just about the most cost-effective Winter games imaginable. We'd build some new LRT and some new housing, but we need those things anyway. It's only the alpine events which would give us trouble, which is why I suggested having a satellite site in a place with good downhill venues already in place. The two obvious problems are the cost of shuttling alpine athletes and media between them, and convincing the IOC.

Duluth (and apparently Minneapolis) submitted bids for the 1932 Winter Olympics.

Interesting story.

Here's a database with past bids, showing that Minneapolis actually formally bid three times for the summer Olympics.

http://www.gamesbids.com/english/archives/past.shtml

This doesn't include 1996, when the USOC picked Atlanta over Minneapolis as its candidate city. Here's a story about that.

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-04-30/ ... ic-academy

The Journal also had a story a couple years ago about Minneapolis' bid for the 1952 summer Olympics.

http://www.journalmpls.com/voices/histo ... pic-dream/

That second article (from 1988) mentions Belgrade, Yugoslavia could be bidding... Guess the IOC lucked out there!

Also like Frankfurt, West Germany. It's already easy to forget they were two countries until I was in middle school

and then there's this nugget:
"Atlanta won the vote because of its "organizational ability, quality (sports) venues, hotel accommodations, airline availability, an in-place rapid transit system and its proven ability to handle large numbers of people"

I also enjoyed the link to HHH’s letter to the UN advocating the organization build its new HQ in Minneapolis! That got my nerd mind going in all sorts of what if scenarios lol.