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It's the same with football. FIFA is so ridiculously corrupt it's actually jarring. Hosting World Cups in Qatar and now Saudi Arabia, running players into the g

It's the same with football. FIFA is so ridiculously corrupt it's actually jarring. Hosting World Cups in Qatar and now Saudi Arabia, running players into the ground by continuously adding more fixtures to the season, awash with gambling money, football clubs owned by nation states. I stopped watching football when the World Cup went to Qatar and I haven't watched any since, it turns my stomach now.

mikestew 2y ago
And it’s coming to Seattle in 2026. I would be more excited about it, except for the reasons you listed (and more). Thankfully we will both be retired by then and can just leave for a month. At least World Cup acts as the kick in the ass to finish that light rail to Redmond.
- PaulHoule 2y ago
  When they had the Olympics in London I heard tourism actually decreased because everyone was afraid of the crowds. [1] I'm thinking about going to the next Olympics in LA because I want to go back to LA and because LA has always been sane about it: the 1984 Olympics made money because they didn't build an Olympic village -- and they could talk terms to the IOC because no city wanted to host it after Munich. [1] I remember standing in front of the New Yorker hotel across from Madison Square Garden and some Londoners were complaining that NYC wasn't crowded enough. Crowds in London are intimidating under normal conditions.
  - dfxm12 2y ago
    FWIW, flights and hotels were unreasonably expensive, even for London. I was sort of relieved after I went through the ticket lottery and didn't get anything I had wanted. It was disheartening to later watch and see a bunch of empty seats on TV though! https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/jul/29/london-2012-empty-seats-trap https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/jul/29/london-2012-em...
- ethbr1 2y ago
  > At least World Cup acts as the kick in the ass to finish that light rail to Redmond. >> Fewer and fewer cities want to splash hundreds of millions on building stadiums that go to rust in a few years To me, this is the most important reform the IOC needs -- ensuring that any infrastructure built for a games has an ironclad post-games plan. If that requires multiple cities, then multiple cities it is. Atlanta 1996 is a solid example of it done right. Don't budget, spread facilities around, and have a reuse plan. Most of the infrastructure is still in use today. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Summer_Olympics#Venues_and_infrastructure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Summer_Olympics#Venues_... Typically, this goes off the rails when governments bid for games (Sochi, Beijing) and then drastically (10x norms!) the budget for minimal gains.
  - madcaptenor 2y ago
    For US bidders, I've heard people say that it's good to have a bunch of colleges nearby, because they can be built-in Reuters. You can see this in the list of Atlanta venues, and I've heard it pointed out in potential bids by Boston and Philadelphia. I'm not sure if this holds elsewhere since the connection between sports and education is stronger in the US than other places. And it's not obvious from the venue list for Atlanta, but Centennial Olympic Stadium is now on its second round of reuse - it was reconfigured for the Atlanta Braves baseball team after the Olympics, and now Georgia State uses it for football after the Braves moved out to the suburbs.

mikestew 2y ago

And it’s coming to Seattle in 2026. I would be more excited about it, except for the reasons you listed (and more). Thankfully we will both be retired by then and can just leave for a month. At least World Cup acts as the kick in the ass to finish that light rail to Redmond.

PaulHoule 2y ago
When they had the Olympics in London I heard tourism actually decreased because everyone was afraid of the crowds. [1] I'm thinking about going to the next Olympics in LA because I want to go back to LA and because LA has always been sane about it: the 1984 Olympics made money because they didn't build an Olympic village -- and they could talk terms to the IOC because no city wanted to host it after Munich. [1] I remember standing in front of the New Yorker hotel across from Madison Square Garden and some Londoners were complaining that NYC wasn't crowded enough. Crowds in London are intimidating under normal conditions.
- dfxm12 2y ago
  FWIW, flights and hotels were unreasonably expensive, even for London. I was sort of relieved after I went through the ticket lottery and didn't get anything I had wanted. It was disheartening to later watch and see a bunch of empty seats on TV though! https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/jul/29/london-2012-empty-seats-trap https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/jul/29/london-2012-em...
ethbr1 2y ago
> At least World Cup acts as the kick in the ass to finish that light rail to Redmond. >> Fewer and fewer cities want to splash hundreds of millions on building stadiums that go to rust in a few years To me, this is the most important reform the IOC needs -- ensuring that any infrastructure built for a games has an ironclad post-games plan. If that requires multiple cities, then multiple cities it is. Atlanta 1996 is a solid example of it done right. Don't budget, spread facilities around, and have a reuse plan. Most of the infrastructure is still in use today. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Summer_Olympics#Venues_and_infrastructure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Summer_Olympics#Venues_... Typically, this goes off the rails when governments bid for games (Sochi, Beijing) and then drastically (10x norms!) the budget for minimal gains.
- madcaptenor 2y ago
  For US bidders, I've heard people say that it's good to have a bunch of colleges nearby, because they can be built-in Reuters. You can see this in the list of Atlanta venues, and I've heard it pointed out in potential bids by Boston and Philadelphia. I'm not sure if this holds elsewhere since the connection between sports and education is stronger in the US than other places. And it's not obvious from the venue list for Atlanta, but Centennial Olympic Stadium is now on its second round of reuse - it was reconfigured for the Atlanta Braves baseball team after the Olympics, and now Georgia State uses it for football after the Braves moved out to the suburbs.