Dublin Olympic bid

Prompted by a comment on the Irish Times liveblog I looked up this, an article from 2005 about a potential Dublin Olympic bid. In many ways the level of self delusion is a case study in why are economy is now a basket case.

Link

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/an...rs-248807.html

I particularly loved the following comments.

'Look at what we have done in the last few years, the Tour de France, the Special Olympics. Spain, a far poorer country than ours, has gone for the Olympics twice in the last 12 years'

One stage of the tour de france and a competition which is not in the top 100 sports events in the world were our previous experience. Then we are richer than Spain. I assume this was the famous GDP per capita! You can see Gay Mitchell going for a loan to build a scheme of houses using this sort of logic!

The cynics say we can't even get our acts together to build a swimming pool but give it to the private sector and we can make it happen.

Ah yes the private sector, probably Sean Quinn could build it, what could go wrong

We are now one of the richest countries in the world. We lead it in technology.

We lead it in technology!!! Certainly in tech support call centres and packaging software.

Look at London. .... Their rowing lake will be on the site of a school.

Strictly speaking this is true (the lake is part owned by Eton College) but its made to sound like the river at the back of some school in Tallaght could be used.

In a way I miss the 'we can do it attitude' but it just reinforces the impression of a young lad in his first job buying a sports car.

I posted this anecdote in the 'Euro 2020 Joint Bid' thread, where I described it as not entirely entirely relevant, but this seems like a most fitting place for its repetition:

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Admittedly, this sounds like a bit of an urban myth and isn't entirely relevant, but it amuses me all the same.

I think it might have been on this forum where I read about an Irish government minister being sent off to an Olympics organisational conference on the continent so he could gauge how realistic the prospect of bringing the Olympics to Ireland would be. Sure enough, he attended and was very impressed by the grand affair. Upon his return to Ireland a few days later, he reported that not only was the prospect of hosting the Olympics beyond our capabilities, we wouldn't even have the infrastructure to host the conference he'd just attended!

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Always humours me thinking about it. (And I don't care whether it's true or not!) :)

Interestingly enough, Dublin did bid for the 1936 Olympics, the ones that famously went to Berlin.

Instead of celebrating his Golds in front of Adolf Hitler, Jesse Owens could have been doing it in front of another crazed zealot with bizarre and damaging ideas on how to rule a nation!

Gay Mitchell defintely got excited about the subject in 1992 after Barcelona.

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Originally Posted by peadar1987

Interestingly enough, Dublin did bid for the 1936 Olympics, the ones that famously went to Berlin.!

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Genuinely fascinated to hear that - where did you come across it?

In fairness, the Free State had, by that time hosted three Tailteann Games (1924, 1928 and 1932), which were very large sporting spectacles, and, with the first two coinciding with European based Olympics, many North American athletes participated. The third was held only a few weeks before the Eucharistic Congress, so there was actually more experience of hosting large scale events than today.

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Originally Posted by Eminence Grise

...there was actually more experience of hosting large scale events than today.

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When did we start hosting the Castletown Donkey Derby?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XtVm8z28e4

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Originally Posted by Eminence Grise

Genuinely fascinated to hear that - where did you come across it?

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Wikipedia tells you everything (though news to me as well). More detail here. We also bid for the 1940 Olympics apparently.

As it happened, we ended up sending no-one to Berlin; dunno why.

It was a protest due to non-recognition of Ireland's Cycling association due to cross-border issues. It's a bit complicated, History Ireland explains: http://www.historyireland.com/volume...atures/?id=180

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Originally Posted by Eminence Grise

Genuinely fascinated to hear that - where did you come across it?

In fairness, the Free State had, by that time hosted three Tailteann Games (1924, 1928 and 1932), which were very large sporting spectacles, and, with the first two coinciding with European based Olympics, many North American athletes participated. The third was held only a few weeks before the Eucharistic Congress, so there was actually more experience of hosting large scale events than today.

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It was on wiki, stumbled across it one day while not working! In fairness, the Games had recently been hosted by Antwerp, and would go on to be in Helsinki soon enough afterwards. I'm not an expert on Olympic history, but I'm guessing it was much cheaper Back in the Day. From a quick look at the events, it looks like you wouldn't need a velodrome, or specialist white water kayaking facility for a start. To be honest, a 50 metre pool and two multi-purpose stadia probably would have been a pretty decent legacy, instead of the collection of white elephants we'd have if we were to host it today.

I see there are plans afoot to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup in Ireland: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/northern-ireland/19305676

With the GAA onboard and an All-Ireland effort, that's perfectly doable.

We'd probably have to co-host with someone to get enough votes based on past world cups. That would be more useful for the IRFU long-term IMHO as the four provincial venues (with upgrades), Lansdowne Road and one big GAA stadium (in Cork preferably) would cover two groups, two quarters, a semi and the final. Improving the facilities in provincial stadia (and maybe somewhere like Dubarry Park in Athlone) should be the major focus of hosting.

Hopefully it will provide the impetus to get something built in Derry in addition to Casement Park and the newly upgraded Ravenhill.

I'd be stunned if the hosting of the Rugby World Cup was actually realised. The level of planning and organisation required to host something of that magnitude appears well beyond the capabilities of our short-sighted political class. And that's not even accounting for the potential cost of such a project. It would inevitably soar far beyond any initial forecasts, as is typical of all grand plans in modern-day Ireland.

If you compare the stadia and infrastructure with what New Zealand had last year and what Ireland has now - we could host the RWC in the morning. When you think of it its not that big an event - there are only 10 /12 really big games per tournament. It could be a really great tournament here though - can you imagine Argentina v Tonga in Killarney, Namibia v Wales in Galway or Georgia v Australia in Belfast? The potential for visitors from the other 6 nations teams alone means that the country could make a huge amount of money from this as most of the stadia are already in place. A few need upgrades alright but nothing needs to be built from scratch - New Zealand used temporary stands for a few venues - no reason why we caouldn't do the same.

I see the Negative Nellies are all out in force already ( not on here in particular just RTÉ and FB)
The GAA open up the possibility of releasing stadia to the IRFU so that the IRFU can investuigate the possibility of hosting a tournament.
Let's bear in mind that this is happening for 11 years at least and already there's shouts of we can't afford it, think of the children, let's join with Scotland, what about the old people, typical Ireland won't be able to host it, the GAA couldn't organise a ****-up in a brewery... FFS!

As RaM says we could host this in the morning. We have better roads and general infratructure than NZ and we aren't splitting it over two Islands prone to earthquakes.

We can do it. We should be able to do it and we should straight away think of how we are GOING to do it.

Pain in my face with this Irish negativity as soon as something nice, positive and joyful is mentioned.

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Originally Posted by backtowalsall

Hopefully it will provide the impetus to get something built in Derry in addition to Casement Park and the newly upgraded Ravenhill.

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Never mind just a stadium in Derry what about a stadium and a railway from Dublin-direct. This is what these tournaments should be doing; promoting links and improving infrastructure from the off.

My "negativity" (if you could call it that; I think hosting global events of such magnitude would amount to very exciting times for modern Ireland) boils down to a lack of faith in our political class; not necessarily the GAA or the Irish people or whoever. We should be able to host this, as you say, but do those governing the country have the requisite foresight to make sure it happens? Chasing the quick buck to the point of it becoming a national tradition, they've never particularly inspired me with any confidence that they could realise something truly big with genuine long-term benefits for the country. Nevertheless, I'd be deligted if they proved me wrong.

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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

My "negativity" (if you could call it that; I think hosting global events of such magnitude would amount to very exciting times for modern Ireland) boils down to a lack of faith in our political class; not necessarily the GAA or the Irish people or whoever. We should be able to host this, as you say, but do those governing the country have the requisite foresight to make sure it happens? Chasing the quick buck to the point of it becoming a national tradition, they've never particularly inspired me with any confidence that they could realise something truly big with genuine long-term benefits for the country. Nevertheless, I'd be deligted if they proved me wrong.

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I wasn't even including you.

You have a rational negativity, not that begrudgery type.

If you consider the underwriting that the government would have to do - €120m along with the 100 - 150 m it would have to throw at the GAA for ground refurbishments, and compare it to the potential 2 BILLION in economic benefits - I don't even think our politicians need to be persuaded too much as to how much this thing COULD ( I say could, nothing is guaranteed ) benefit the country.

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/mediazo...d=2027271.html

Just thinking about the England v Scotland game during the last world cup - can you imagine an England v Scotland game in Killarney or Galway - they'd be falling over themselves to get over here, especially the English rugby crowd, who absolutely love it over here. We would have to set up fan camps and big screens etc to cater for the demand. If we do it right, then there is huge earning potential for the country.

What any bid will need though is a figurehead to lead the thing - a Seb Coe type person - Keith Wood would be an ideal candidate imo.

While the financial pitfalls do exist - the Montreal Olympics is the famous example - if done right it's win-win.