The Next US city to hold the Olympics (Winter or Summer) (sport, games)

[CMDallas]

I'm interested...self explanatory...
So it has been hosted by:
St. Louis
Los Angeles (2 times)
Atlanta
Salt Lake City
lake Placid (2 times)
Squaw Valley, CA

which City do you think might have a Chance of being an Olympic place?
Small or Big...Major City or not...Repeat or totally new city...it doesn't matter.
This isn't a poll since:
1) I'm lazy
2) too many obscure places I might miss
3) Limits options
4) I'm lazy

I think Seattle, Denver or Portland seem very Olympic-y especially for the Winter.
San Antonio an Denver do as well...for summer... I can vaguely see Houston, Miami, Chicago, and Dallas there. St.Louis doesn't seem like it, but ...its already happened...
But I don't see any of the Northeastern cities there unless it's for Winter...

Opinions?

[oakparkdude]

Well, Chicago is currently one of the finalists (out of seven cities) for the 2016 summer games. The final decision will be made by the IOC in 2009.

[missionhome]

Winter Olympics tend to be hosted at ski resorts or ski areas large enough to host the games. Hence, Salt Lake City (the largest city ever to host a winter Olympics) was able to host the games because the huge ski resorts of Park City were just 40 minutes up the road. Do you think an Olympics in Denver would be called the Denver Olympics? The events would all be in the Rocky Mountains, with the closest ski resort being Winter Park. Resorts like Vail, Aspen, Breckenridge, Steamboat Springs, etc... would all likely be called the Vail Olympics, the Aspen Olympics, etc... as opposed to the Denver Olympics due to the distance.

For Portland, I assume Mt. Hood would be where the games are held. Is Mt. Hood large enough and does it have the facilities to handle something like the Olympics?

Same question for Seattle, are the ski resorts large enough in size? I'm just curious, I'm not that familiar with ski resorts in the Pacific Northwest.

I personally think Mammoth Mountain in California could be a great mountain to hold the winter games on. It is huge, I believe the second largest ski resort in the country. The biggest problem is it is difficult to access by plane, with no airport and is six hours from airports in Los Angeles and like 4-5 hours from the airport in Reno, NV. I think the difficulty of access could be its downfall to winning.

[CMDallas]

^
Denver was supposed to host the winter games in 1976 actually... but after they won they got rejected.

[Gtownoe]

If Chicago hosts the Olympics in 2016 I expect the city to see a huge boom (if it doesn't experience one prior). The city has really done a lot in the past few years. With all of the massive projects being completed by the time the Olympics would arrive (including the 150 floor spire) I think the city would become an even bigger international destination.

I still feel like the city is an unearthed gem in this country. For diverse neighborhoods and living options (skyscrapers, high rises, row houses, single family units) the city really offers something for everyone.

[SouthCali4LifeSD]

considering san diego has the nicest summer weather in the world, and is a quintessential summer city, it would be nice if it came here some day. if not here, i would love to see a summer olympics in the bay area, boston, or seattle!

[downtownnola]

Originally Posted by CMDallas

^
Denver was supposed to host the winter games in 1976 actually... but after they won they got rejected.

Denver was originally supposed to host the Olympic games in 1976, but voters here in turn rejected the Olympics primarily due to rising costs that would make hosting the event unprofitable and environmental concerns.

I think that Denver would be a great city to host the Olympics in the future... our infrastructure is much more capable of handling such than it was in the 1970s and our convention/hotel facilities are more than capable of handling an event of this size. Although most of the events would actually be in the nearby mountain resorts, Denver would still likely be the "host" city much like Salt Lake City was for the 1998 Winter Olympics.

[vter]

I thought it would be cool to have a "joint" winter olympics between Lake Placid & Montreal. They are not far from eachother...LP has the boblsed, luge, etc and Whiteface for alpine, while Montreal has the stadiums for the skating events, etc. Logistically, it might be a nightmare, but it would be pretty cool IMO.

[18Montclair]

Chicago 2016 would be cool.

Also,
I'd love to see an Olympics in Hawaii. How cool would that be. But I dont think the Islands have the infrastructure to handle that many people at one time.

[PlanetMars]

Here's a link to see the final bidders left for the 2016 games: 2016 Summer Olympics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Baku, Azerbaijan
Chicago
Doha, Qatar
Madrid, Spain
Prague, Czech Republic
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Tokyo, Japan

It's also interesting to see all the cancelled bidders:

Bangkok, Thailand expressed much enthusiasm after their strong performance in the 2004 Games, but instead applied to host the 2010 Youth Games.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Cape Town and Durban, South Africa expressed interest.

Delhi, India was originally set to enter a bid; however, in April 2007 it announced it would bid for the 2020 games instead.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was also poised to make a serious bid, but in the end did not for unknown reasons.

Fukuoka and Sapporo, Japan were other internal candidates eliminated by the JOC.

Istanbul, Turkey broke with their standing policy to bid for every games, but vowed to try again.

Houston and Philadelphia were eliminated by the USOC, San Francisco withdrew when it lost stadium funding and Los Angeles lost to Chicago for the bid.

Lisbon, Portugal considered bidding.

Monterrey, Mexico The Mexican Olympic committee declined to place a bid.

Montreal and Toronto, Canada abandoned any plans for a bid after Vancouver won the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Nairobi, Kenya The sports minister expressed interest in a bid, but the Kenyan Olympics head said it was not the right time.

Rome, Italy was a leading candidate for a time, but they pulled out, preferring to wait for 2020.

San Diego, United States and Tijuana, Mexico (San Diego-Tijuana metropolitan area) discussed a joint bid. However, the IOC Charter states a single city is awarded the right to stage the games.