wondering

[KnowItAll]

why didnt Vancouver apply to host summer olympics instead?

wouldnt it have cost less?

is it not as popular?

Whats more likely, too much rain in the summer, or not enough snow in the winter?

[Rammer]

why didnt Vancouver apply to host summer olympics instead?

wouldnt it have cost less?

is it not as popular?

Whats more likely, too much rain in the summer, or not enough snow in the winter?

Vancouver isn't a large enough centre to be considered by the Olympic committee for a Summer's Olympics. Besides the cost factor would have had you busy writing the local and federal politicians and you wouldn't be to post on LB'ers.com.

[KnowItAll]

why didnt Vancouver apply to host summer olympics instead?

wouldnt it have cost less?

is it not as popular?

Whats more likely, too much rain in the summer, or not enough snow in the winter?

Vancouver isn't a large enough centre to be considered by the Olympic committee for a Summer's Olympics. Besides the cost factor would have had you busy writing the local and federal politicians and you wouldn't be to post on LB'ers.com.

writing policitians is as about as pointless and pissing into the wind.

How could it possible cost more than what has been spent on this olympics??

How large does a city have to be?

[Rammer]

why didnt Vancouver apply to host summer olympics instead?

wouldnt it have cost less?

is it not as popular?

Whats more likely, too much rain in the summer, or not enough snow in the winter?

Vancouver isn't a large enough centre to be considered by the Olympic committee for a Summer's Olympics. Besides the cost factor would have had you busy writing the local and federal politicians and you wouldn't be to post on LB'ers.com.

writing policitians is as about as pointless and pissing into the wind.

How could it possible cost more than what has been spent on this olympics??

How large does a city have to be?

If you haven't noticed, the Olympics are on a grand scale, and the Summers have to be about 10 times as large as the Winters. Think about actually building a facility to host the Summers Track and Field events alone, it has to be current and able to hold 100K approximately. After that there are many rowing/kyacking events that require seperate water systems, the cycling needs an up to date velodrome and the swimming pool also has to be the latest technology to help break records and such. If you aren't ready to step up to that level, you won't get a sniff, let alone the housing of the athletes.

[KnowItAll]

actually, I hadnt noticed, hence my wondering. The only winter olympics I ever pay attention to is Hockey, except for ice skating from the time Kerrigan was atttacked til the time Scott Hamilton retired. The only summer olympics I pay attention to is Soccer. I actually thought we would need to do less for summer olympics.

[David]

Conversely Phil, one could say Vancouver/Whistler is too LARGE of a venue for the Winter Games. When I think of the Olympics in winter, I think of quaint, faraway villages such as Innsbruck Austria, Lake Placid NY, Lillehammer Norway. I don't think of a center of 2 million people!

The whether is far too 'iffy' this time of year to pull this off. I was shocked when Vancouver was awarded the 2010 Games. Really. Olympic parkas, wool hats and red mittens for a city that seldom dips below freezing in February and sees plenty of rain? It made little sense from the start. It been much more sensible for Vancouver and Seattle to co-bid on the Summer Games in the month of July, as had been talked about several years ago.

DH

[TheLionKing]

If you haven't noticed, the Olympics are on a grand scale, and the Summers have to be about 10 times as large as the Winters. Think about actually building a facility to host the Summers Track and Field events alone, it has to be current and able to hold 100K approximately. After that there are many rowing/kyacking events that require seperate water systems, the cycling needs an up to date velodrome and the swimming pool also has to be the latest technology to help break records and such. If you aren't ready to step up to that level, you won't get a sniff, let alone the housing of the athletes.

Concur, if you think the winter olympics is expensive, the summer one is even more costly.

[Rammer]

Conversely Phil, one could say Vancouver/Whistler is too LARGE of a venue for the Winter Games. When I think of the Olympics in winter, I think of quaint, faraway villages such as Innsbruck Austria, Lake Placid NY, Lillehammer Norway. I don't think of a center of 2 million people!

The whether is far too 'iffy' this time of year to pull this off. I was shocked when Vancouver was awarded the 2010 Games. Really. Olympic parkas, wool hats and red mittens for a city that seldom dips below freezing in February and sees plenty of rain? It made little sense from the start. It been much more sensible for Vancouver and Seattle to co-bid on the Summer Games in the month of July, as had been talked about several years ago.

DH

IR when Calgary was thought to be too big for the Winter Olympics. Just like the World Juniors, I think the Olympics is finding that their event can get larger International exposure than the quaint intimate setting of a ski resort area, with a larger centre. If these games go well, I don't expect many small cities to get ahold of a Winter Olympics in the future.

As for the Seattle/Vancouver Summer bid, the co-ordination between the nations would be something to see from a financing perspective.

[sixbeamers]

Bob Walsh, a king pin behind the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, originally proposed having Seattle and Vancouver stage a joint bid for the Summer Olympics. But the idea was nixed by the International Olympic Committee because the IOC doesn't believe in the concept of shared civic responsibility. There is, however, talk of a joint Pacific Northwest bid for the 2028 Summer Games, shared by Vancouver and Seattle, in the hope that the IOC will soften its stance by 2021, when the '28 Games are awarded.
After Walsh's original concept died, the idea of bidding for the Winter Olympics was picked up by Tourism Vancouver, which basically was looking for a way to fill hotel rooms during a slack time of the year in January-February-March. One of the criticisms of the Vancouver Winter Olympics bid is that it was not sports-driven. Indeed, the need in the Lower Mainland is for a large outdoor stadium for football and rugby, Olympic-sized swimming pools, a new baseball stadium, a tennis facility that could play host to an ATP event, a basketball centre, velodrome and any number of other summer sports venues which are lacking.
In reality, Vancouver is much more identified as a summer sports city -- golf, sailing, jogging and running, beach volleyball, baseball, field and box lacrosse, outdoor basketball -- than it is with sports of the winter variety. That's why Whistler exists -- for alpine, freestyle skiing and snowboarding and, to a lesser extent, cross-country.
On a national level, it would have made more sense to have a speedskating oval, ski jump, bobsleigh and luge track in eastern Canada, rather than duplicate the same training/competition facilities which already were in place for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
Vancouver, however, won the Canadian Olympic Association endorsement over Calgary and Quebec City in 1999. The COA delegates believed that the IOC would not re-visit Calgary so soon after the '88 Games. Quebec City's bid was a good one -- except the skiing venue at Mont Ste. Anne failed to mass muster with FIS, the world governing body for skiing, for the men's downhill, a key centrepiece of the Winter Games.
So that's how we ended up with the Winter Olympics, a mega-project that was originally budgeted at $660 million and now will probably come in at 10 times that amount.
Let's hope Canada wins lots of gold medals. Because the cost for 17 days of fleeting glory on the world stage is going to be enormous.

[Rammer]

The cost is going to affect the potential of a Seattle/Vancouver bid down the road, people won't be so quick to forget. This Olympics doesn't have the same ability to turn a profit ala the Calgary games.

As for Canada and the gold count, I expect it to be on a grand scale, but the question is will the men and woman's hockey teams pull the feat. If they do, these games will be remembered in a positive light, bar the cost.

[MacNews]

This Olympics doesn't have the same ability to turn a profit ala the Calgary games.

They are doing a good job considering the recession, having locked in their sponsors during the 2004-2006 boom years.

As for the Seattle/Vancouver Summer bid, the co-ordination between the nations would be something to see from a financing perspective.

How the border issue would be resolved would be interesting, would you have a temporary Olympic Visa issued to ease border-crossing?