2024 Olympic Bid?

[mattaudio]

I see Minneapolis bid for the 1932 winter games... Any idea what we would have done for alpine events? Without that hole, it seems Minneapolis would be a good winter host with multiple hockey arenas and stadiums.

- US Bank Stadium as the Olympic Stadium, possibly also an oval for longer speed skating.
- Target Center and Xcel Center for premiere arena events, such as figure skating or possibly hockey.
- Mariucci and possibly Ridder Arenas for hockey and curling.
- Urban alpline courses that use the riverfront but somehow connect into US Bank Stadium or CHS Field for nordic/biathlon/etc events.
- Ski jumping at Hyland
- Snowboarding or other short events at Buck Hill or Afton

It seems like the only big gap is a legitimate ski resort with enough vertical drop for longer ski events. Even Lutsen is woefully insufficient, and probably not acceptable given it is hours up the North Shore on a two lane road in the middle of winter. I've heard they need more like 4,000 ft of drop, not 700-800 ft.

[Mikey]

They didn't really have alpine events until 1936 I believe. At least not the long downhill stuff

[Minneboy]

They're building an Olympic Ski Jump south of Red Wing. http://www.postbulletin.com/news/local/ ... 096b3.html

[BigIdeasGuy]

We would have to build an indoor long track speed staking venue as well. Although if it's designed and planned well the facility could become a long term community asset and not a white elephant.

[dajazz]

It would be almost unthinkable for the Winter Olympics to go anywhere in the U.S. but Salt Lake City in the near future, and SLC is very likely to get the 2030 Olympics (with 2026 possibly in Calgary).

The Twin Cities offer a pretty ideal setting for the ice events but really nothing else. Besides the aforementioned alpine skiing hills we don't have, we also don't have a bobsled track or a ski jump, and there's no reason to consider building any of those facilities considering the U.S. already has them in Salt Lake City and Lake Placid. There's no international demand for more bobsled tracks, and the U.S. teams are already based at the existing facilities.

Denver in theory would be a fine host city, but Salt Lake City already has the facilities, and the facilities are much more accessible than they'd be in Colorado. Denver also has the distinction of being the only host city to relinquish the rights, so there's still some bad blood about that.

Minnesota's importance to the Winter Olympics is also skewed somewhat by our large number of hockey players and, more lately, curling. If you strip them out, we don't produce all that many Olympians. This year, for example, the only notable Minnesotan outside those two sports is cross-country skier Jessie Diggins. We don't have any downhill or freestyle skiers, speedskaters, snowboarders, figure skaters, sliders, etc.

In other words, don't worry about the Winter Olympics ever coming here.

Absolutely this 100%. It would be great to have the Olympics in our backyard but realistically SLC is so well positioned that they're hands down the best choice to hold any winter games in the next 20-30 years. Most of the venues are still in use, the infrastructure is in even better shape than 2002, their airport is undergoing a massive expansion that will increase capacity, snow won't be an issue unlike Sochi and Vancouver, and almost 90% of Utahan's support a bid for 2026/2030

[kirby96]

Even the nordic events would be dicey here, or at least less attractive than many other locales. Contrary to what we locals might think, Minnesota just doesn't get all that much snow (at least relative to true alpine environments, and a warming climate doesn't help). Sure they can make snow, but that is definitely not ideal on long cross-country loops. The Loppet is regularly hit or miss with regards to how long the course will be, or even if it will happen at all (even this year on the classic weekend).

We think we just had a big snow, but for comparison, local yokel Mt. Hood Ski Bowl (which I follow cuz I used to work there) has had a demonstrably lousy snow year due to high temps, and they just had a 2 ft. dump and have 45"-60" on the ground.

The only winter sport that the Minnesota environment is truly world class for is ice-fishing, and that season is shrinking year by year.

[grant1simons2]

Our state literally just won gold in curling and hockey. But yeah sure, ice fishing is what we're good at.

[talindsay]

On the folly of hosting Olympics: https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/23/170 ... yeongchang

[kirby96]

Our state literally just won gold in curling and hockey. But yeah sure, ice fishing is what we're good at.

Apologies if my references to nordic skiing, snow fall, and alpine environments wasn't enough for you to understand that when I was referring to the 'environment', I was referring to the outdoor environment. Cripes.