Florida offers to host Olympics if Tokyo can't do it

NBA playoffs was held in Florida. Super Bowl will be in Florida. Might as well throw the Olympics in too!

A marathon during summer in Florida could have similar conditions to Doha.

I actually can't think of a worse country or place to hold an event of this magnitude during a pandemic.

Sydney would be the logical choice

The Olympics have become nothing more than a money drain. I don't know why anyone wants to host them. If you can't make them profitable for the host don't hold them.

I think the real question is whether Disney would agree to shut down their resorts for 4 weeks... they have to have summer reservations already.

Also, would the athletes come?

wejo wrote:

Florida has offered to host the Olympics this year. This isn't BS.

This isn’t BS in the sense that FL actually made this offer. However it is BS in the sense that Florida would be entirely beyond its capability to try and host an entire Olympics months from now as it can barely keep its own S together. Senior citizens are sleeping outdoors in lines trying to get COVID vaccines, the Governor is a Hannity level partisan and spin machine and the state has been the center of some of the USA’s more embarrassing publicity (Zimmerman trial, Anthony trial, Stoneman Douglas shooting, etc.) They have Disney, Universal and NASA, all of which are international attractions but exactly the kind of things you’re not supposed to be doing during a pandemic. And as someone mentioned, their COVID stats are worse than Japan. So yes, a FL politician said this but the rest of the world either didn’t notice, didn’t care or (appropriately) rolled their eyes.

Great, but expect more tactical races. Average temperatures in Orlando in July is an incredibly humid 92 degrees, and pretty much a thunderstorm every other day or more

thats a tough one wrote:

A marathon during summer in Florida could have similar conditions to Doha.

This was my first thought ... a Marathon in FL in summer? Good luck with that! Winning times of 2:18 and 2:42.

Sure Florida and let the Donald light the torch and maybe have alligator wrestling be introduced as a new event along with getting drunk and losing your flip-flops. Yeah, Florida, that's the ticket.

Marathons in Florida in July-August, you guys really DO hate black people.

Dumb idea. The idea of not holding the Olympics somewhere is to try and reduce deaths, not to increase them.

Feel like only the U.S could even consider making an offer like this, without realising how completely dumb it is.

It is hard to believe this is a serious proposal.

The Olympics involve thousands of athletes and hundreds of thousands of media, coaches, support people, and corporate/sponsor types. That's not to mention fans.

There are no spaces where you can safely house that many people, all of whom have come from far away on airplanes. The risks to the athletes themselves would be considerable, but the risks to the communities and workers hosting them would be far worse. It would be unconscionable to knowingly expose millions of people to high risk levels when we're only a few months away from beating this thing.

It wouldn't be possible with years to plan. It's definitely not possible with only a few months. You can't do an NBA-style bubble for each Olympic sport, which is what would be required.

The Olympics have to be canceled.

Jan 20 - Biden Inaugurated

Jan 20 - Highest COVID death count in a day

Jan 22 - Washington DC reopens indoor dining

Jan 23 - Chicago reopens indoor dining

Jan 25 - California to remove stay at home order

The issue with COVID is the way cases are counted, always has been. Mis aligned incentives are never talked about but under the CARES act, hospitals are reimbursed large sums of money for treating COVID cases with no oversight (pre certs, prior auths) to catch 'fake cases'. This is why we have motor cycle deaths and others being counted as COVID deaths. Money talks.

Don't give me BS about ICU beds either - this has been a political tool since day 1.

It could be done. But is there enough time to take care of all the logistics. Where will each sport be contested at? Will athletes be spread out and where and how far away from where they compete? A lot of logistics to roll into action in less than 6 months time. What needs to happen is get a commitment that the games will or won’t happen from Tokyo. If they can’t do it and Florida is an option the planning team must be assembled immediately in Florida

“The country with one of the best responses to the coronavirus says it’s not safe, so let’s move it to a country with one of the worst responses. In fact, let’s move it to one of the worst states in that country!”

Obviously there are very few people here that have actually experienced a Florida summer...

Sure let's host the Olympics during hurricane season what a grand idea.

Idiots.

Indianapolis would be better.

Plenty of hotel rooms. Good facilities all over the city.

Might be worth it for the "Florida Man..." headlines alone.

Northeasterner wrote:

It is hard to believe this is a serious proposal.

The Olympics involve thousands of athletes and hundreds of thousands of media, coaches, support people, and corporate/sponsor types. That's not to mention fans.

There are no spaces where you can safely house that many people, all of whom have come from far away on airplanes. The risks to the athletes themselves would be considerable, but the risks to the communities and workers hosting them would be far worse. It would be unconscionable to knowingly expose millions of people to high risk levels when we're only a few months away from beating this thing.

It wouldn't be possible with years to plan. It's definitely not possible with only a few months. You can't do an NBA-style bubble for each Olympic sport, which is what would be required.

The Olympics have to be canceled.

He brings up a good point, and I do agree that the chances of the Olympics happening this year seem slim. However, it raises the question: Shouldn't Japan have been planning to host some sort of games in conditions like this since April 2020, or whenever the games were cancelled last year? I believe if they truly worked had to save the games, starting last year, it could've been done. Many changes would've needed to been made, such as extensive quarantine and travel protocols, smaller amounts of athletes competing, and other initiatives, but I do believe they could've pulled it off.

The point I'm getting at is that it's Japan and the IOC's fault for not putting plans in place, and instead just assuming that in a year the world will be fine.