12 responses so far ↓

• 1 McFarland // Jun 23, 2008 at 6:10 pm

  Big talk from Larry, as always. It just seems like a big PR stunt whenever he makes an announcement.

  There’s really nothing here now that could sustain the Olympic events or crowds. So his 12-year plan would have to work out perfectly. Which taking into account his former plans (VisionLand, Computer Help For Kids, running Fairfield into the ground), is pretty risky. Really, what good has this man done?

  I’m not saying it can’t happen, but I don’t think Langford can make it happen. Although, it’s much better to see a headline about trying to get the 2020 Olympics in Birmingham rather than the abysmal crime/murder rates. So good job Larry, think positive. “Let’s do something” indeed.

  Oh who really cares? We’ll only make it another 4 years, 5 months, 28 days, right?

• 2 Patrick // Jun 23, 2008 at 10:07 pm

  I agree with Andre that the cooperation necessary to make a serious bid would be beneficial to Birmingham. But I think we need to find a more beneficial vision to share. Building Olympic facilities would add little to our quality of life.

  As long as we’re setting absurdly unreasonable goals for ourselves, let’s all try to fix our air quality, end poverty, and build a stronger, more independent economy for ourselves. We might actually do something right.

• 3 Andre // Jun 23, 2008 at 10:15 pm

  @Patrick - I’d hope that we’d see that cooperation to look at and tackle those issues first and foremost since they are ones that make the community livable and benefit us the most. But maybe we need the bar to help encourage our leaders to deal with them.

• 4 frank // Jun 24, 2008 at 9:17 am

  I am not a big LaLa basher by any means, but the Olympics? Seriously? I almost peed in my pants at the mention of it.

  He needs to focus on ONE issue and follow through with it. He’s not even sure he won’t be in prison by then.

• 5 John G // Jun 24, 2008 at 6:04 pm

  My immediate thought was, “Can we build a 150,000 seat Olympic stadium?” for, like, track and field? Then I thought, “Olympic Village?”. “Doing this in an era of sharply rising energy costs, with attendant rising of goods and services?” All things that could be done as long as there was something positive to leave behind after the closing ceremonies.

  I started to get excited. I thought that the major hurdles could be solved by repurposing existing structures and facilities, with the addition of maybe a light rail system. Not all that far fetched an idea.

  Then. I thought of one single word. One word that caused me to pause and shake my head.

  Terrorism.

  Is Birmingham ready to become one of the world’s largest targets? Two or three well placed things, and this entire metro comes to a grinding halt. Visitors and athletes can’t get to venues (which will undoubtedly be spread over several counties), and people would be stuck.

  Trebling the police force and pulling outside agencies into it, including federal resources like National Guard, would be required just to provide security, even if nothing happens.

  Think back to what made Birmingham “famous” in the first place. Cops in riot gear and armed soldiers patrolling the streets.

  It’s a good dream, I think, and could potentially be an attainable goal. But is it worth the price?

• 6 Charles // Jun 24, 2008 at 9:29 pm

  The International Olympic Committee doesn’t award the summer Olympics to cities the size of Birmingham anymore. Yes, Helsinki, which is not an international giant, hosted them in 1952, but the event was far, far smaller then. Atlanta, with 3-4 million people in its metro area in 1996, is one of the smaller Olympic host cities of the past 20 years.

  Also, the IOC loves for host governments to basically provide full financial backing for the Olympics. Now that normally doesn’t happen with American host cities, since they tend to pursue corporate sponsorships, but can you imagine someone asking this city, county, and state–considering the situations all of them are in–for *any* money to back an Olympic Games?

  As for spreading the venues throughout several counties, that’s something the IOC isn’t so fond of–they prefer that most competition sites be close to the Olympic Village.

• 7 Dreaming of the “No Joke” Olympics « Musings on Birmingham // Jun 24, 2008 at 9:31 pm

  [...] not _against_.  However, this proposal is already being ridiculed by the usual suspects as foolish and unwise use of taxpayer money.  In fact, even in the booster capital of the world, Atlanta, [...]

• 8 John G // Jun 24, 2008 at 11:54 pm

  Charles: For the Atlanta Olympics, the soccer matches were held at Legion Field. I want to say that some of the river events (kayaking and rowing) were held 2 hours north of Atlanta.

  Even in the Athens Olympics, some of the events were held way out in the countryside, and some of the track and field (I think) events were held in some ancient locations outside of the city with minimal seating for fans. Of course, Athens is the birthplace of the Olympics, so it was actually kind of cool to use some of those ancient stadiums.

  There is precedent here for events in outlying areas. Of course, that would mean that potentially, the opening and closing ceremonies could be done at Bryant-Denny in Tuscaloosa with a 90,000+ capacity. Or Talladega Superspeedway holds way over 100,000 as well. Build some additional seating, and run the 100 yd dash on the backstretch. The track benefits, and the Birmingham doesn’t have to pony up the money for a huge stadium.

  Figure in Tuscaloosa, Shelby, Blount, St Clair, Bibb and Walker counties (all within 1 hours drive or so from Birmingham) and there are plenty of venues to hold certain events, like Cross Country or The Decathlon.

  Logistically, it is doable, with time and money that is. But is it worth going through the effort?

• 9 John G // Jun 25, 2008 at 12:50 am

  Oh, and I can save the city a lot of money. I’ll say no for $200,000. Saved the city 300 grand right there.

• 10 Mossgard // Jun 25, 2008 at 4:28 pm

  I think it’s a fantastic idea. We can write them and let them know that we almost convinced an NFL team to play here a few times so convincing a silly Olympic competition to almost compete here should be pudding to us. We’ll also let them know we’re almost getting a domed stadium too so that should let them know we mean business. Go Larry.

  This is going to look so good on our resume…. we almost got a dome, we almost got an NFL team and now… we’re almost going to get the Olympics too.

  I love this city.

• 11 David // Jun 28, 2008 at 9:23 pm

  The only way this works is if this city and state work together to get some type of equitable and efficient mass transit system in place. And not just in the metro area, but trains connecting B’ham to other major cities in the state. As usual, Langford is talking stadiums, but he can’t possibly think our current infrastructure could host such a massive production. Talk of such an event means nothing when I can’t get from Hoover to Alabaster in 45 minutes at 5 pm on weekdays….

• 12 Crimsontideguy // Jul 27, 2008 at 9:53 am

  It’s a secret……..

Leave a Comment