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    Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

    Who does OTF fancy for 2024?

    Personally, I thought the 1984 Olympics was one of the worst of all time, so would hate to see it go back there. And I can't imagine Hamburg giving it much of a go - that would be like, I don't know, Newcastle chucking their hat into the ring. Rome won't make any real concessions to its transport infrastructure, so between the final two I'd give my vote to Budapest, simply on the basis that it's never had it before and it's a lovely city.

    #2
    Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

    In a country run by Fascists.

    No thank you.

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      #3
      Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

      I was thinking Budapest would be nice as it is time for an eastern European country to have it again but I did wonder about the current political situation there.

      Hamburg might be excellent and Germany deserves an Olympics untainted by the awful events of their previous ones. There is talk of a carbon neutral games with all the venues within walking distance though I think the city still has to hold a referendum to confirm they want to host.

      Anywhere in Europe I'll be happy with as I want to go.

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        #4
        Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

        For the same reason Harry wants Europe, I'd be quite happy with LA getting it because it would be fairly easy to get to, and I might get tickets to more high-profile events than I did in London.

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          #5
          Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

          Of the contenders, Hamburg would be by far the best choice for the reasons Harry notes, particularly if the hosting committee is willing to stand up to the IOC's insistence on Pharonic projects and make sensible use of existing venues (like treibeis' crazy golf course).

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            #6
            Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

            A Hamburg Olympics would be wonderful. I love Hamburg.

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              #7
              Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

              I know all of Dave Zirin's reasons to oppose hosting the Olympics, and I'm not thrilled about Los Angeles hosting it, but the city would heavily push to finish our many rail projects ahead of schedule, so I'm all for that.

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                #8
                Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                Not Budapest. Not LA (because it's been there recently). Not Rome (my favourite city in the world but doesn't need the games). Hamburg.

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                  #9
                  Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                  Actually, thinking about it, an Olympics would probably ruin everything I love about the city. So, errr, give it to someone else.

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                    #10
                    Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                    It's rare a thread about Olympic bids can get this far without anyone posting the Stoneybridge bid video.

                    I'm not going to cave in.

                    But yes, not LA, Budapest has a myriad issues and Rome got other things to worry about. Hamburg would be good by virtue of it giving a non-world city a crack (not meaning to detract from Hamburg, more that if Germany gets it then you'd expect it to be Munich/Berlin).

                    It'll be Paris though.

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                      #11
                      Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                      My vote goes to whichever city has been added as the token candidate to broaden the debate.

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                        #12
                        Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                        gavc23 wrote: Hamburg would be good by virtue of it giving a non-world city a crack (not meaning to detract from Hamburg, more that if Germany gets it then you'd expect it to be Munich/Berlin).
                        There's something about the position of the words "Hamburg" and "Munich" in that post that makes it sound vaguely ridiculous.

                        Mind you, it's not as silly as:

                        And I can't imagine Hamburg giving it much of a go - that would be like, I don't know, Newcastle chucking their hat into the ring.
                        I know size isn’t everything, but Hamburg is one of the ten biggest cities in the EU. Newcastle doesn’t even make the top 100.

                        I’d be in favour of holding the Olympics here only if the government pledges to spend ten euros on social housing for every one euro they spend on the Olympics. Which they won’t do, not least because, when it comes to public spending, they’re fucking useless.

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                          #13
                          Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                          I honestly never knew Hamburg was that big. Why doesn't it get more of a mention, more often? About the only time it ever comes up on British TV is when someone mentions that the Beatles went there. Maybe it should get the Olympics, then, to put it on the map, so to speak.

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                            #14
                            Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                            Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote: I honestly never knew Hamburg was that big. Why doesn't it get more of a mention, more often?
                            When German Tourist Boards outside of Germany flog the country, they usually promote the south (mountains, Rhine boat trips, Bavaria, skiing, snow, Oktoberfest, sausages, leather trousers, buxom barmaids).

                            Photos of the north would show .. errr ... marshland, grey skies, pickled fish, blokes in fisherman's sweaters and, maybe, a pair of illuminated knockers above the entrance to a boozer in St. Pauli.

                            I prefer the latter, of course, but I can understand why many people would prefer the former.

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                              #15
                              Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                              Has the Budapest bid said where they would hold sailing events? Lake Balaton would be the obvious choice, but I don't know if inland waters are suitable for Olympic sailing. If not I presume they'd have to go outside of the country, possibly somewhere along the Croatian coast.

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                                #16
                                Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                                Inland waters would be fine. It's all dinghies and small keelboats at the Olympics.

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                                  #17
                                  Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                                  When she was about 12, my mother (and a couple of her sisters, and my grandparents) went on a caravan holiday to Lake Balaton, as part of some sort of international caravan convention that my grandad was taking part in.

                                  We're talking about the early-to-mid-1960s here, so she remembers it as quite an experience (and we assume there was rather a lot of red tape to get through).

                                  Whilst there they befriended a youngish couple from New Zealand who were camping in a tent, and when the convention ended it transpired this couple had managed to get into Eastern Europe without actually having the right papers. Mum has vague memories of her family helping them get back out from behind the Iron Curtain by hiding them somewhere in the caravan.

                                  Er, oh yes, the Olympics. Buenos Aires is hosting the World Youth Olympics in 2018 (I'm not quite sure why the word 'World' is in that title). That should be fun.

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                                    #18
                                    Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                                    The last city to make money on the Olympics was Los Angeles because they were really the only bid (Iran had bid as well, but apparently that got nowhere.). I'm tired of seeing the cities fleece themselves by spending millions just to bid. I get spending money once a bid has been accepted but not for a shot at hosting.

                                    I would like to think I will be living in LA again in 2024 and selfishly would hope they get it, but who knows. I might be frozen in my apartment if Chicago keeps getting these brutal winters.

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                                      #19
                                      Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                                      LA largely made money as a Games by using existing stadiums (well, that and being the first games brought to the world by McDonald's). Would the Coliseum still be up for the job in 2024 or would they need to build new? Paris, I assume, would simply employ the Stade de France?

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                                        #20
                                        Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                                        An Olympics needs a significantly larger number of venues than simply an athletics stadium

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                                          #21
                                          Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                                          (I was pondering on this question for Budapest earlier in fact, and my initial thought was that they'd have to build everything new - the national stadium in the city is a fucking dump, for example. But then I realised that almost certainly they have all the infrastructure they need for the the aquatic events (indeed I think the European swimming championships have just been held there).

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                                            #22
                                            Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                                            I've developed a bit of a fascination for visiting old Olympic stadium complexes in cities that have held a games, when we visit, ever since we went to the London games. We went to the ones in Munich and Barcelona when we recently visited them, and next year we're going to Helsinki. Barcelona's is stunning, and looks like an alien cityscape imagined for a Star Trek episode.

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                                              #23
                                              Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                                              Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote: LA largely made money as a Games by using existing stadiums (well, that and being the first games brought to the world by McDonald's). Would the Coliseum still be up for the job in 2024 or would they need to build new? Paris, I assume, would simply employ the Stade de France?
                                              The Coliseum would need some big renovations, but I think that those might be planned anyway. At any rate, it would be updated by then either specifically for the Olympics, or by USC for their uses.

                                              ad hoc wrote: An Olympics needs a significantly larger number of venues than simply an athletics stadium
                                              Which Los Angeles has. There are all of the arenas and venues at UCLA and USC, which are mostly unused during summer months. Plus, the Rose Bowl, Staples Center, the Galaxy's stadium in Carson which also has a velodrome there (it's where track racing was held in 1984), and other places that held events in 1984.

                                              Here are LA's proposed venues for 2024:

                                              http://www.latimes.com/visuals/graphics/la-sp-g-la-olympic-venues-20150826-htmlstory.html

                                              The venues are there, the big hurdle would be how people would get around. Public transportation is light years better now than when LA hosted in 1984, but it's still not ideal. The idea of having clusters of events in different parts of the area is a good approach.

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                                                #24
                                                Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                                                This weekend just gone, I witnessed, at close quarters, loads of money being tossed around in the name of the Olympic Games. It was ludicrous.

                                                As part of Hamburg’s attempts to host the Olympics, between 10,000 and 15,000 people gathered on the big patch of grass near the golf hut. They were all given different-coloured rain capes and then huddled together to form the Olympic rings. This was filmed from above and then, allegedly, broadcast on television in all four corners of the globe.

                                                They started setting up this shit at midday on Friday. It took 36 hours, with about 500 people working in four shifts. The ‘event’ lasted three hours. They’re still dismantling everything as I write. I don’t know how long it was on the telly, and in which countries, but I’d bet my bottom euro that you could count the air time in seconds on the fingers and toes of one person.

                                                The television gantry was directly in front of the hut, meaning that people either thought the hut was closed or couldn’t be bothered to walk around the barriers to find out. I’d been told the gantry would be ‘somewhere else’ but they’d had a ‘change of plan at short notice’.

                                                After everything was over, the homeward-bound cape-wearers, after having been on the verge of wetting themselves in excitement at having been given a plastic mac for free as well as the chance to stand around looking gormless on a patch of grass for hours on end, wanted to use my lavatory (there were portable toilets, but they were full of shit and piss after about an hour).
                                                I told them it would cost ten euros a go. When people argued the toss - after all, everything up till then had been free, because everything costs nothing anyway-, I informed them that, if they were willing to agree to the local government paying silly money to host the Olympics, then they should also be prepared to pay silly money of their own to have a dump.

                                                A couple of people actually paid it as well, the fucking idiots.

                                                Apart from anything else, I’m not entitled to vote in the referendum to decide whether the city should apply to host the whole shebang or not. Only German citizens aged 16 or over who are registered in Hamburg are allowed to vote.

                                                Everybody else, regardless of how long they’ve been here and whether or not they’re helping to finance the biggest and bestest international – international – sporting spectacle in the whole wide world, doesn’t have a say in the matter.

                                                And when you ask the authorities why, when we’re all Europeans and all in it together, your right to vote in a city-based referendum depends on your passport, they come out with shit like, “You’re not German. Living in sin’s not the same as being married, is it?” And they think that’s a really clever thing to say as well.

                                                The Olympic Games can fuck off.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Hamburg, Paris, LA, Budapest or Rome then?

                                                  .

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