Questions About Knoxville

[theurbanfiles]

From looking, Knoxville is 52/32 in Feb, Sochi is 49/37, so it's close. As per indoor facilities, I'd imagine UT's still trump all the money spent (or embezzled during the Sochi debacle. However, I'm not sure how Gatlinburg (Ober Resort, I believe)? Is and whether or not it'd be capable of handling that undertaking from an event perspective. From a tourism perspective it seems more than ready, and it would be closer than many winter events cities were to the actual city (i.e., Whistler is 90 minutes from Vancouver, and I believe Sochi's winter site was further than Knoxville to Gatlinburg. Again though, I don't know how ski facilities are in the TN/VA/NC area and if there are any elite enough to host. The UT Basketball stadium and minor league stadium would seem to be alright for hockey, scheduling aside, and apart from keeping demand and tickets scarce if that is an interest, Neyland would be a good opening/closing spot.

The other place I thought about for this was Blacksburg VA, since those two college towns have a significant chance of already having an athlete's village and stadiums in place, and also being close to mountains.

[hiknapster]

Ober Gatlinburg is on a hill compared to most ski resorts.

The higher mountains are in a national park.

This is simply not ski country.

[TheShadow]

Originally Posted by cavsfan137

Thanks for all advice. Just out of curiosity, what would stop Knoxville from
making a push for the 2026 Winter Olympics? Just throwing out there:

-Pretty good airport
- Decent sized city
-UT Athletic Facilities (Neyland for opening/closing ceremony, indoor events)
-Ski Resort(s) in Gatlinburg for events like that
-Already built visitor infrastructure (hotels/roads/attractions)

Am I missing anything? I feel like it'd be a relatively low budget olympics also, since facilities already in place are better than many cities could hope to have.

I'm laughing hysterically at the thought of any Olympic type ski events being held at Ober Gatlinburg. It is a TINY, tiny ski hill. There is just not enough mountain. I learned to ski at a teeny, little 1960's day resort (in CA) and Ober Gatlinburg is even smaller than that. They also have insufficient natural snow most years and it would have to be 90% manmade stuff. Also there is no way to get the crowds into that mountain on the one, tiny, 2 lane, winding road that leads up there. We rode the tram on one normal (no special event) weekend and had to wait over 90 minutes to get on the 10 minute tram ride to the top. Imagine that with hundreds of thousands of out of town spectators and participants. It just doesn't get cold or snowy enough for the many outdoor snow events (luge, cross-country skiing, down hill, slalom, giant slalom, and super-g, bobsled, biathlon. The elevation is far too low, and the latitude too far south, for the amount of snow and cold temps required.

The airport is also far too small to handle that type of traffic. It has only one concourse with a total of 12 gates. It is served mainly by smaller jets via connections through the major hubs. Most people would have to fly into Atlanta, or at least Nashville, and then drive for 3+ hours to Knoxville.

Don't get me wrong, I love Knoxville and will live here for many years to come, but it it's far better suited to the summer Olympics and it's many watersports. The airport would still be a problem though.