I am the only one who really doesn't care what Takei has to say?
No, you're not alone. Where are these guys when gays are getting killed for being gay in other parts of the world? Unlike in vast swathes of the Middle East and Africa, it is legal to be gay in Russia.
The Curling venue will need to be converted back. Anything booked into the Convention Centre would need to be rescheduled so that the Media Centre could be re-established there. Obviously the ski facilities won't be much of a problem; the arenas are still fine, including the Oval; the Sliding Centre is fine.
The biggest problem would be the Athlete's Villages (Van + Whistler), the media centre, the ticketing, volunteer organization, budget for security and operations, and hotel room bookings.
Frankly, it's too big an operation to plan and set up in 6 months.
Would be better for the IOC to tell Russia to smarten up, or they'll never see another Olympics -- but we know they don't have the guts to do that.
So basically, nothing will happen, and the Olympics will go on as scheduled in February. If countries want to do something, they should incorporate the rainbow into their Olympic uniforms. There's nothing that Russia can do about that.
The conversion of Hillcrest to a swimming pool would be the biggest problem in temrs of venues, but not insurmountable, as curling could be held in any number of existing arenas with viewing areas around the region. I think all of the skiing infrastructure is still in place, and all of the skating venues are still in place (the oval is convertible in a couple of days, and all rinks except Rogers Arena are still convertible to Olympic sized).
The lack of an athlete's village would be a big issue, but theoretically, the hotel industry could probably meet the needs. It would never work for the summer games, but the winter games have far less athletes.
The biggest issue would be the telecommunications/media infrastructure. I'm skeptical as to whether that could be implemented in 6 months. Previous Olympics that were moved on short notice did not have this high-tech requirement.
And, obviously, the IOC would have to pay 100% of the costs.
It would have been more plausible if he proposed moving it to Vulcan.
Well, Vulcan only has 1,800 people or so, is located in the middle of nowhere, and will definitely require a lot of facilities and infrastructure to be built but at least its located in Canada and definitely can provide the proper winter weather...
While it is a nice sentiment, and I'd love to see the Olympics come back to Vancouver so soon, keep in mind that the IOC kept the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany which was obviously much worse than Russia is today. The tradition is to ask the previous host to host in the event the host city is unable or unwilling to which is not the case here.
Not going to happen, if it had to happen though, Vancouver could ask the IOC to waive there rule against using cruise ships to house the athletes. ~5 cruises ships would pretty well cover things.
Not going to happen, if it had to happen though, Vancouver could ask the IOC to waive there rule against using cruise ships to house the athletes. ~5 cruises ships would pretty well cover things.
I honestly don't know why this couldn't be a solution for many future games. Obviously it would only work for some cities but I think it would be a great solution for Vancouver if we were ever to host the winter olympics again (I think any thought of a summer games is ridiculous here). Other very developed cities (San Francisco comes to mind) would have a hard time finding the space to build an Athlete's Village and it has got to be a hell of a lot cheaper in todays RE markets.
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