View Single Post
  #64  
Old Posted Feb 16, 2010, 3:18 AM
HooverDam's Avatar
HooverDam HooverDam is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Country Club Park, Greater Coronado, Midtown, Phoenix, Az
Posts: 4,610
^A few things:

You wouldn't likely need to build a purpose built Velodrome, that new mid sized arena being proposed for the US Basketball HQ could be temporarily used as one I imagine since a huge capacity isn't really need for an event like that. Or some place like the Coliseum could be retrofitted.

For rowing Im sure Tempe Town Lake would work, even if you had to expand it West a bit or whatever.

Sun Devil Stadium & Wells Fargo Arena are both in need of and have major renovations planned to them, so ASU could foot a large portion of that bill themselves through their booster base over time.

Our litany of Spring Training facilities could be temporarily retro fitted for various events, Im sure even in their present state they'd be fine for stuff like archery, beach volleyball, etc. Plus don't forget the Convention Center which has huge ballrooms that could host some events like it did for the NBA All Star Game Celebrity Game. Plus if you knocked down the South Building and replaced it with something that continued the super large underground ballroom space you'd have even more room.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention the Dodge Theater, it has a good boxing set up so it could host that and/or other martial arts. New gyms/arenas around 5-8K could be built at ASU West & Poly and serve as their main sporting facilities if they ever spin off into their own universities. You couldn't really count on Chase Field being available since the Olympics overlap with baseball season and you can't send the D'backs on a month long road trip. You could perhaps hold one event in there with a setup like the used for the Insight Bowl but it would be tricky.

But like I said, the Valley needs to continue to prove itself capable of events like this before you try to hit the home run that is the Olympics. Rio smartly hosted the Pan Am games as a warm up and thats the kind of thing we'd have to do too. Here would be my dream scenario:

2011: Phoenix/Chase field hosts MLB All Star Game

2011 or '12: Phoenix/Jobing.com hosts the NHL All Star Game

2012: Phoenix hosts Republican National Convention

2013: Phoenix/Chase Field hosts the World Baseball Classic.

2014: Phoenix/UofP hosts Super Bowl XLVIII

2015: Phoenix hosts FIBA Americas basketball championship

2018: Phoenix: USAC, WFA, the Coliseum & Jobing.com host the FIBA World Basketball Championships, w/ some games played at McKale Center, TCC Arena, the new mid sized Glendale USA Hoops facility or the Walkup Skydome if necessary.

2019: Phoenix hosts Pan Am games

2020: Phoenix hosts Expo 2020*, the fairgrounds could later be re-purposed for the Olympics

2022: Phoenix one of multiple US cities to host soccer World Cup games (this could also happen in 2018 depending on the US's bid)

2024: Phoenix hosts the Summer Olympics

2025: HooverDam dies of an awesomness induced heart attack in peace.

*fill up the Salt River to 19th Ave, use the large empty swaths on both banks, along with bridges an islands near Central Ave as the fairgrounds. Similar to Expo '67 in Montreal and Expo '08 in Zaragoza, Spain. Other US cities (Houston, Vegas, San Fran, NYC) are already talking about Expo 2020 and getting the US back into the Worlds Fair game, Phoenix ought to wise up and take notice.

Last edited by HooverDam; Feb 16, 2010 at 3:21 PM.
Reply With Quote