Dallas Readies 2024 Olympic Bid

[Panteran]

I don't know if you Texans know this but one of your cities is planning on bidding to host a summer olympics! I think Dallas is a great choice, very sport centric and flashy. NYC, Chicago, LA are natural favorites as well but two of the three have failed at recent bids and the populous there are bitter. Texas economically is one of the few regions able to support financially such an endeavor due to the bad economic times (though it will still be a burden). If Atlanta can do it why not Dallas or Houston?

Fair Park is a potential GEM. Been to the fair once visiting family and has a lot of opportunity.

http://www.wfaa.com/sports/more/Dallas-gears-up-for-2024-Olympic-bid

DALLAS - Now that the London Olympics are in the rear-view mirror, there's talk of bringing the games to Big D in 2024.

And Matt Wood is the man behind the scenes, leading Dallas' Olympic bid for something 12 years away.

This is his fourth Olympic bid he's worked on around the world, including a previous bid for Dallas and a winning bid for Sydney, Australia.

[desertpunk]

Could be great!



image hosted on flickr

Dallas Skyline on a Friday evening... by chrisjonesfoto, on Flickr

[TampaMike]

I'm in all support for pretty much any US city hosting it, so I hope Dallas can put out a great bid. Of course, the only thing holding them back is temperature. The max. temperature in Dallas on the opening day for the London Olympics was 105 degrees. If Dallas really wants to host, their Ceremony stadium is going to need a retractable roof.

[diablo234]

I don't see Dallas hosting the Olympics anytime soon, if any US city has a remote chance of hosting the event Chicago would win hands down.

Actually I remember a few years back when the IOC was scouting potential cities in Texas to host the 2012 games, that Houston actually had more points then Dallas overall despite the lack of transit infastructure.

[TampaMike]

Originally Posted by diablo234

I don't see Dallas hosting the Olympics anytime soon, if any US city has a remote chance of hosting the event Chicago would win hands down.

Actually I remember a few years back when the IOC was scouting potential cities in Texas, Houston had more points then Dallas overall despite the lack of transit infastructure.

And since Houston is moving forward with their light rail system, not much is holding them back from bidding again.

[diablo234]

Still Chicago has an advantage over most US cities since unlike some cities like New York for example, you have both politicians and business leaders who would support the bid not to mention numerous venues and transportation infastructure already in place. The city was even selected by the USOC to be the US candidate city host the 2016 games over Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco before the IOC decided to award Rio De Janeiro the games, so in many ways Chicago already has a head start relatively speaking.

[desertpunk]

Illinois is broke. Chicago is broke. There is no support for another Olympics bid there. LA, Philly, Dallas and (possibly) NYC are on tap for 2024 bids. The winner is the city that can finance a $10-20 billion effort, not necessarily the city people would most like to see an olympics or the city that seems higher up on the list because of past proposals. Chicago is such a disaster right now that the USOC would probably discourage them from a bid.

[diablo234]

Originally Posted by desertpunk

Illinois is broke. Chicago is broke. There is no support for another Olympics bid there. LA, Philly, Dallas and (possibly) NYC are on tap for 2024 bids. The winner is the city that can finance a $10-20 billion effort, not necessarily the city people would most like to see an olympics or the city that seems higher up on the list because of past proposals. Chicago is such a disaster right now that the USOC would probably discourage them from a bid.

Nearly all cities in the US are having financial stress right now thanks to the global economy not just Chicago. Even Texas is affected by this so under your logic the IOC would probably discourage any US city from hosting a bid. Regardless the IOC is so heavily politicized and biased against the US, that I don't see the US hosting the Olympics for a while in any case, which honestly isn't a bad thing in my opinion.

[desertpunk]

Originally Posted by diablo234

Nearly all cities in the US are having financial stress right now thanks to the global economy not just Chicago. Even Texas is affected by this so under your logic the IOC would probably discourage any US city from hosting a bid. Regardless the IOC is so heavily politicized and biased against the US, that I don't see the US hosting the Olympics for a while in any case, which honestly isn't a bad thing in my opinion.

I pretty much agree with the second part of your post but even though all cities and states have tight budgets, the outlook for Texas is still much better than Illinois which faces a real risk of default. And while 2024 is a ways off, it's critical to have the early support of leaders in cities, states and the business community to move proposals forward. To this end, Dallas has many benefactors that are missing from the scene in Chicago.

What could sink a US bid from any city is the fact that the IOC frowns upon the use of existing stadiums unless they are sufficiently transformed for the games. Few US cities can compete against other countries that happily stump up national treasuries to the task.

[Panteran]

Yeah, as great as a Chicago or New York win would be, the bidding process is expensive, lengthy, and heartbreaking. Both of these cities not too long ago got stunned. The population in Chicago have pretty much stated they do not like funding the games in the last bid.

Only a handful of cities have formally stated they would like to bid and Dallas is one of them with real plans and not just speculation. It's not important which city is a better bid but that we look at what cities we are sure will likely bid and what they can put forth to make it successful to bring it back to America. During it's last attempt Dallas did not focus on fair park rejuvenation instead tried to spread the events throughout the north texas region which was a mistake since USOC and IOC likes compact games.

[Dale]

Heh, Chicago got beaten down last time. Nobody likes a loser. Dallas would do a bang-up job.

[1772]

Cool idea, to bad Cowboys Stadium cant have tracks. That'd be a great track & fields stadium/opening stadium.

[diablo234]

Originally Posted by desertpunk

I pretty much agree with the second part of your post but even though all cities and states have tight budgets, the outlook for Texas is still much better than Illinois which faces a real risk of default. And while 2024 is a ways off, it's critical to have the early support of leaders in cities, states and the business community to move proposals forward. To this end, Dallas has many benefactors that are missing from the scene in Chicago.

What could sink a US bid from any city is the fact that the IOC frowns upon the use of existing stadiums unless they are sufficiently transformed for the games. Few US cities can compete against other countries that happily stump up national treasuries to the task.

While Texas is doing relatively well compared with most states including Illinois, there is still a budget crisis taking place here for example many ISD's had to layoff teachers and TxDot has no money left to build or even maintain existing highways. Thus with so many existing problems here, this is why I don't see Houston or Dallas or any US City to realistically be able to host the Olympic Games, especially when you take into the costs involved. Unless the situation dramatically changes within a few years I don't expect any US city to be able to afford this given obligations being shifted to the state/local governments, out of control pension obligations, and the fact that there is little to no revenue coming in to the state government, etc.

[JJG]

Originally Posted by Dale

Heh, Chicago got beaten down last time. Nobody likes a loser. Dallas would do a bang-up job.

Cotton Bowl would probably be the best shot at that....

[diskojoe]

I could see Houston or Dallas being able to handle an olympic games if they really got things in gear. Both have major international airports and plenty of Hotels. Public transit would need to be beefed up a lot. But this would be good. It would give them a good reason to actually do it.

[jonathaninATX]

If Houston ever did get the Olympics, The Astrodome would be a great spot.

[JJG]

Originally Posted by jonathaninATX

If Houston ever did get the Olympics, The Astrodome would be a great spot.

And a great excuse to actually DO something with it.

[Strykr]

Reunion Tower would be great as part of the City's Olympic logo.

[desertpunk]

Originally Posted by Strykr

Reunion Tower would be great as part of the City's Olympic logo.

Maybe they could build a much taller updated version for even more impact.

[Dallas star]

It would be interesting, Dallas does have the space to build a Olympic park. I just hope they can muster up a meaningful bid attempt.