I love the boneless guy in second to last shot. Classic LA.

So many bankrupt cities. If they were in the middle of a population boom at the time, most of them were bust a decade later.

I expected more Athens sites, but I was surprised by the Beijing ones.

My favorite was the 1984 Sarajevo Olympic Stadium, which was turned into a graveyard during their war.

Walker: My favorite was the 1984 Sarajevo Olympic Stadium, which was turned into a graveyard during their war.

Some of those images are haunting.

SnarfVader: I expected more Athens sites, but I was surprised by the Beijing ones.

I'm only surprised they didn't tear them down to build something else.

So I'm guessing beach volleyball hasn't taken off in China?

Or baseball in Greece?

I'm surprised those sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina are in that good of condition. Ditto Mexico.

NowhereMon: I love the boneless guy in second to last shot. Classic LA.

Boneless?!

/one hell of an auto-correct...

Nadie_AZ: SnarfVader: I expected more Athens sites, but I was surprised by the Beijing ones.

I'm only surprised they didn't tear them down to build something else.

I actually think that was originally the plan (except for a few that are used as tourist attractions) they may just not have gotten around to it yet.

This is why more cities should consider building temporary venues. London did this to an extent. More importantly the Olympic stadiums should be designed with future use in mind. An 80000 track and field stadium doesnt attract large crowds post Olympics - but a soccer/ football stadium might. Sydney and Paris did fantastic jobs with this via retractable stands and renovation post Olympics. As did Atlanta via turner field despite what critics may say about that stadium in Olympic mode - fact is its still used a ton during the year.

aevorea: NowhereMon: I love the boneless guy in second to last shot. Classic LA.

Boneless?!

/one hell of an auto-correct...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin e.php?term=boneless

For the record, the Grand Olympic Auditorium wasn't built for the '32 Olympics, although the city's Olympic Committee *did* lease it during the Olympics. My guess as to why it was called that is because it was built right after the selection of LA for 1932 had been made. But it was built privately, for private use.

i didnt know fark was german...

Forgot to add - London really farked up with their Olympic stadium. It's too large to make a practical soccer stadium and cannot be massively altered because it's dug Into the Terrian. It's a beautiful stadium but it's doomed to be a white elephant I think.

Lumber Jack Off: Forgot to add - London really farked up with their Olympic stadium. It's too large to make a practical soccer stadium and cannot be massively altered because it's dug Into the Terrian. It's a beautiful stadium but it's doomed to be a white elephant I think.

From what I saw on some random National Geographic Channel documentary, the stadium can be altered to create a 20,000 seat soccer stadium or something to that effect.

great way for a country to go bankrupt-just host the Olympics

Lumber Jack Off: Forgot to add - London really farked up with their Olympic stadium. It's too large to make a practical soccer stadium

When it's turned over to West Ham in 2013 it won't even be the largest soccer stadium in London...FWIW West Ham claims they'll be able to fill it regularly.

The biggest problem is the lower bowl is to far from the field - even when extending the field over the track area. By English standards it will be rediculously far with bad sight lines. Unless they do a rebuild on site (which would be pointless as west ham already have an awesome home) then not much can be done. The only sport I could see using the field size is maybe cricket or some kind of motor sport.

wait.....the swimming events were held outdoors in Finland? what the hell?

Shocked at the lack of Turner Field jokes.

/Atlantan

SnarfVader: I expected more Athens sites, but I was surprised by the Beijing ones.

Why a lot if their country seems half constructed, Atlanta just used the Olympics to revitalize their ghettos.

The Third Man: Lumber Jack Off: Forgot to add - London really farked up with their Olympic stadium. It's too large to make a practical soccer stadium

When it's turned over to West Ham in 2013 it won't even be the largest soccer stadium in London...FWIW West Ham claims they'll be able to fill it regularly.

Estadio Azteca seats 104,000 and it's filled regularly for the national team games. If they manage to take hte maximum capacity to around 80,000 and the team that plays in it is decent I don't see how it can't be filled regularly.

ddam: The Third Man: Lumber Jack Off: Forgot to add - London really farked up with their Olympic stadium. It's too large to make a practical soccer stadium

When it's turned over to West Ham in 2013 it won't even be the largest soccer stadium in London...FWIW West Ham claims they'll be able to fill it regularly.

Estadio Azteca seats 104,000 and it's filled regularly for the national team games. If they manage to take hte maximum capacity to around 80,000 and the team that plays in it is decent I don't see how it can't be filled regularly.


I should add that while I do what some EPL I'm not too familiar with how many people attend their games on a regular basis. However in Latin America big stadiums get filled even for non-national team games.

I remember seeing a news report on the Sarajevo ones about how they were damaged during the war. It seems kinda wasteful they a lot of these places didnt just think about what these places could be used for after the olympics.

I was in the Atlanta convention center they built as part of the olympic village a few years back. It's all glass on the outside and they've boarded up quite a few of the windows. Seems they don't have the money to fix or maintain all that stuff they built. Also heard they were still paying for some of it. Not sure if that is true or not.

the solution to the stadium problem is to build it as a regular stadium, then have an artificial ground raised up to accommodate the larger track & field needed that can be taken down later

ddam:
I should add that while I do what some EPL I'm not too familiar with how many people attend their games on a regular basis. However in Latin America big stadiums get filled even for non-national team games.

West Ham currently plays in a stadium with a capacity of 35K, and in their last season in the Premiere League they averaged about 33K.

Fisty Bum: Lumber Jack Off: Forgot to add - London really farked up with their Olympic stadium. It's too large to make a practical soccer stadium and cannot be massively altered because it's dug Into the Terrian. It's a beautiful stadium but it's doomed to be a white elephant I think.

From what I saw on some random National Geographic Channel documentary, the stadium can be altered to create a 20,000 seat soccer stadium or something to that effect.

On the London 2012 website, it says the following about the Olympic Stadium:

The Stadium is designed to be flexible enough to accommodate a number of different requirements and capacities in legacy. It will retain athletics at its core, and also be a venue for other sporting, cultural and community events.

It will be the venue for the 2015 IAAF World Championships

The London Legacy Development Corporation and Mayor of London Boris Johnson have taken the decision to keep the Stadium under public ownership.

There's also this article from yesterday's Telegraph with more on post-Olympic and Paralympic plans.

Fark tossed my link for the London 2012 site, but go there and look up venues and you'll find your way to the proof.

/for those who'll demand citations

rtaylor92: I was in the Atlanta convention center they built as part of the olympic village a few years back. It's all glass on the outside and they've boarded up quite a few of the windows. Seems they don't have the money to fix or maintain all that stuff they built. Also heard they were still paying for some of it. Not sure if that is true or not.

Yeah they were moronic in their planning and then didn't take offers to revitalize the area into a work/shopping area because they didn't have enough minority investors in their group. Now places sit empty, sometimes jobs are more important than making sure everything is equal...

rtaylor92: I was in the Atlanta convention center they built as part of the olympic village a few years back. It's all glass on the outside and they've boarded up quite a few of the windows. Seems they don't have the money to fix or maintain all that stuff they built. Also heard they were still paying for some of it. Not sure if that is true or not.

There was a tornado that ripped through there in March 2008.

There are no useful activities going on in the place where figure skating was held in 2002.

The Utah Jazz play there.

Anonymocoso: There are no useful activities going on in the place where figure skating was held in 2002.

The Utah Jazz play there.

Put the Columbus Blue Jackets there? They can be renamed, The SLC Magic Underpants.

rtaylor92: wait.....the swimming events were held outdoors in Finland? what the hell?

Athens 2004 had an outdoor swimming and diving venue too.

desertgeek: rtaylor92: wait.....the swimming events were held outdoors in Finland? what the hell?

Athens 2004 had an outdoor swimming and diving venue too.

I think the surprise was less at the outdoor aspect and more at the Finland part. I don't know that I'd want to be outside swimming in 60-degree weather, either.

Expect to see a few from Barcelona if this article ever gets repeated. Some of the the aquatics venues are already in a state, Montjuic Park is already largely deserted and, now that RCD Espanyol have left the Olympic Stadium, that will probably suffer a similar fate.

The London stadium shouldn't be a problem. There are enough sports to make a multi-use venue work. West Ham would make a good anchor tenant and then there is bound to be interest from other sports - athletics and non athletics - in a smaller venue. There's no reason why a rugby union club (and heck, with the right marketing, even the London Broncos) couldn't make a 20,000 stadium in Stratford work.

Lumber Jack Off: As did Atlanta via turner field despite what critics may say about that stadium in Olympic mode - fact is its still used a ton during the year.

Just not during October anymore.

/farewell, Chipper

I wonder if Chicago got the 2016 Olympics would we had to have had to build anything new.
4 major stadiums
All State Arena
Universities near Chicago by public transportation like Northwestern University in Evanston
Beaches

drjekel_mrhyde: I wonder if Chicago got the 2016 Olympics would we had to have had to build anything new.
4 major stadiums
All State Arena
Universities near Chicago by public transportation like Northwestern University in Evanston
Beaches

The only major new venue in the plan would have been the main Olympic Stadium in Washington Park. Most of the indoor sports would have been inside McCormick Place and the United Center.

Part of what pissed me off so much about the conservatives sabotaging the bid was that the Chicago plan had by FAR the most efficient venue plan with the fewest legacy issues to take care of later. Almost everything was either existing or had a clear plan for usage afterward.

drjekel_mrhyde: I wonder if Chicago got the 2016 Olympics would we had to have had to build anything new.
4 major stadiums
All State Arena
Universities near Chicago by public transportation like Northwestern University in Evanston
Beaches


One stadium, that's it.  (And maybe some minor renovations to existing places).  It was an efficent plan in that regard.

drjekel_mrhyde: I wonder if Chicago got the 2016 Olympics would we had to have had to build anything new.
4 major stadiums
All State Arena
Universities near Chicago by public transportation like Northwestern University in Evanston
Beaches

Wrigley Field? Really?

Other than that you are right in that Chicago's proposal seemed to make a lot of sense; and that's why it wasn't chosen.

I wasn't unhappy for Chicago to lose the 2016 Olympic bid considering how they typically impoverish their host cities in the fallout from the zombie venues. Also the amount of palm grease needed to be applied just to even sniff the Olympics is sickening in itself.

/you have to be one corrupt MFer in order to attract the Olympics to your town anymore
//how else did SLC get the '02 winter games?

rugman11: desertgeek: rtaylor92: wait.....the swimming events were held outdoors in Finland? what the hell?

Athens 2004 had an outdoor swimming and diving venue too.

I think the surprise was less at the outdoor aspect and more at the Finland part. I don't know that I'd want to be outside swimming in 60-degree weather, either.

To be fair, while southern Finland doesn't have super hot summers, they're not exactly chilly either. According to the climate table on Helsinki's wiki page the average for July (when the 1952 games took place) is about 70F and can get up into the 90s. I suppose how you perceive that is relative.

I think more interesting is that the actual Olympic swimming stadium, different from the one pictured and mislabeled in TFA, was actually heated and is still in use today. The abandoned pool was used for the modern pentathlon. I couldn't find if it was heated or not. I'm guessing not because it was kind of a big deal that the main Olympic swimming pool was. The ship transporting the heater to Helsinki was sunk during WWII!

shroom: drjekel_mrhyde: I wonder if Chicago got the 2016 Olympics would we had to have had to build anything new.
4 major stadiums
All State Arena
Universities near Chicago by public transportation like Northwestern University in Evanston
Beaches

The only major new venue in the plan would have been the main Olympic Stadium in Washington Park. Most of the indoor sports would have been inside McCormick Place and the United Center.

Part of what pissed me off so much about the conservatives sabotaging the bid was that the Chicago plan had by FAR the most efficient venue plan with the fewest legacy issues to take care of later. Almost everything was either existing or had a clear plan for usage afterward.

And that's got to be the future ideal for the IOC in selecting future hosts- have a clear plan for all the venues after the Games end. If a venue is temporary, say it. If you want to keep it up, have a plan in place that keeps it active for the next 10-20 years.

They also will probably want to avoid a city that has to build 14 new venues to host the Games too. Did London build anything new outside of the Olympic Park for these Games?

rtaylor92: wait.....the swimming events were held outdoors in Finland? what the hell?

The first Basketball gold medal game was outdoors in a rainstorm in Berlin '36.

Also, LA isn't really that fair. They sold the venue to a church, not the cities fault the church doesn't take care of the place. If anything LA is an example of how you should build for an Olympics.

SnarfVader: I expected more Athens sites, but I was surprised by the Beijing ones.

Considering that China has built entire cities that sit empty, I'm not surprised at all.

12349876: rtaylor92: I was in the Atlanta convention center they built as part of the olympic village a few years back. It's all glass on the outside and they've boarded up quite a few of the windows. Seems they don't have the money to fix or maintain all that stuff they built. Also heard they were still paying for some of it. Not sure if that is true or not.

There was a tornado that ripped through there in March 2008.

This. Most of the village is also used as college dorms and one of them was renovated recently as well, which also could have been what you saw.

desertgeek: shroom: drjekel_mrhyde: I wonder if Chicago got the 2016 Olympics would we had to have had to build anything new.
4 major stadiums
All State Arena
Universities near Chicago by public transportation like Northwestern University in Evanston
Beaches

The only major new venue in the plan would have been the main Olympic Stadium in Washington Park. Most of the indoor sports would have been inside McCormick Place and the United Center.

Part of what pissed me off so much about the conservatives sabotaging the bid was that the Chicago plan had by FAR the most efficient venue plan with the fewest legacy issues to take care of later. Almost everything was either existing or had a clear plan for usage afterward.

And that's got to be the future ideal for the IOC in selecting future hosts- have a clear plan for all the venues after the Games end. If a venue is temporary, say it. If you want to keep it up, have a plan in place that keeps it active for the next 10-20 years.

They also will probably want to avoid a city that has to build 14 new venues to host the Games too. Did London build anything new outside of the Olympic Park for these Games?

The white water rafting and the mountain biking was built just for the games, but those will be used as both are popular enough to sustain those.

The only issue with legacy is the main stadium. Everything else is either going to be used a lot, was temporary or was an existing venue that was used.


The reason that i heard that Chicargo didn't get on the short list was that they didn't have a plan for the para-olympics. The current IOC has a real push on the para-olympcs to show they are now not the most currpt sporting body in the world.

rtaylor92: I was in the Atlanta convention center they built as part of the olympic village a few years back. It's all glass on the outside and they've boarded up quite a few of the windows. Seems they don't have the money to fix or maintain all that stuff they built. Also heard they were still paying for some of it. Not sure if that is true or not.

Not sure what you are referring to. If you mean the Atlanta Civic Center Link, that predates the Olympics and is still in regular use for exhibits like King Tut and Bodies. If you mean the World COngress Center Link, then that also predates the Olympics and is still very much in use for things like car shows, boat shows, etc.
The huge athletes' village they built that faces I-75/85 is now dorms for GA Tech.

Surprised there weren't any Velodrome pictures. If there is one venue that shouldn't get a lot of post race use, its that. Hell the Kayak and crew venues could be repurposed as a nice park with a little landscaping around them. God knows what you do with a Velodrome once its done and I can't see a lot of private use for such a specialized arena, unless you tear down the track and make is a auditorium or something.