Five-ring circus: The Thread of the XXXIII Olympiad

How much do you think Snoop is getting paid by NBC?

 

It’s all paid out of The Voice promo budget, which is bigger than the GDP of Switzerland.

 

Moscow is a non-starter too. And will be for some time.

 

To some degree they have given up the bidding war, as most of the bookings in the 2020s and 2030s (as of last week, we're set through 2032 on the summer side and 2034 on the winter) have basically been kind of an application/interview process decided by acclamation. Your list is probably too expansive for a few reasons but it's not bad. The demands of a modern Summer Olympics are such that the number of world cities that can host one is 10 or less.

Here's what I'd say:
EUROPE: London, Paris, Rome, Madrid or Barcelona*, Berlin or Munich**
NA: LA, Toronto, Mexico City
ASIA: Tokyo***, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, somewhere in India****
SOUTH AMERICA: ??
AFRICA: Cairo, Cape Town?*****

*Madrid has wanted the Olympics for some time but kind of got hosed by the fact that Juan Antonio Samaranch was born in Barcelona and gave his hometown one. His son is also from Barcelona and is also an IOC muckety-muck.
**Between Nazis and terrorists (and their general unwillingness to pay stupid money to sports orgs like F1), Germany is probably pretty high on the list of places that should have one but probably won't. There's probably at least one or two other German cities that could do it, too
***Tokyo probably deserves a do-over for 2020 but I can understand if they want nothing to do with it.
****Read an interesting NYT article about that India finally seems to be somewhat interested in non-cricket sports after an Indian won the javelin last time out. As mentioned, the Games are booked out through 2032, but if and when the IOC starts giving out Olympics for "missionary" purposes like they did for Rio, India will be high on their list. They had a Commonwealth Games that were a total goat rodeo, and even if the development level improves, they'd have to find a location where it's not 110 degrees or raining an inch an hour, but it will be hard to resist a country with a billion people in it if they get their act together.
*****Speaking of "missionary" assignments, you know there are a lot of IOC people desperate to bring a Games to Africa. Cairo or the purpose-built capital they're finishing in the suburbs are probably the front runners, but Cairo's also pretty damned hot around Olympics time and Egypt has its own administrative challenges. Further, there are probably 30-40 IOC members who will insist that Egypt doesn't count. The World Cup went OK, but Johannesburg and Cape Town have their own significant social and infrastructure problems.

 

It would be funny if the hubbub about the opening ceremonies Dionysus bit made people realize that DaVinci was ripping off Greek history, that much of the Christian "tradition" and culture was based on earlier works and traditions - that just maybe the "Last Supper" didn't go down the way Christians believed.

 

That's part an omission on my part and part a recognition that Brisbane already has 2032 in the bag. We could probably throw Melbourne in there too.

 

“Here’s why the U.S. women’s gymnastics team winning the gold medal spells bad news for Joe Biden,” — Chuck Todd

 

I find it interesting that three Australian cities have the capacity to hold a Summer Games but the U.S. is sort of "well, there's Los Angeles .... again."

But there are issues with nearly every other option. Atlanta already whiffed. Boston would be awesome but where do you build facilities? New York already has the Yankees. Chicago, perhaps? Anywhere south of Nashville, brutal summer weather. Denver's altitude would be like Mexico City. The Bay Area is totally against anything fun.

Go totally retro with St. Louis!

 

Honestly, I think a lot of it is that LA is pretty good at it, everyone wants to go there and so why even consider alternatives. If for some reason it were disqualified, I think Chicago would be capable but maybe not that willing. I actually think Minneapolis could do it. Weather aside, Miami has tried to position itself as a global city of that magnitude, but the density of the BOS/NY/WASH area is almost too much.

 

Every four years I propose the following:

All future summer games to be held at Athens.

All future winter games to be held in Sapporo.

Does away with the graft of the bidding process and the graft of the construction process and the consequent headaches to every city everywhere that ever went bust hosting the Games.

 

As long as it doesn't interfere with the Dawgs' season opener. Oh, you meant Athens, GREECE. (And that was a shitshow because ... Greece.) Although I could probably rent out the cabin for two weeks and pay an entire year's worth of mortgage!