Boston 2020 Olympics

Meanwhile Soccer will continue to remain the most boring sport ever, requiring fans to riot in order to create some sense of excitement following 90 minutes of nothing happening.
 
Lurker are you sure you're not a naturally-born American?
 
When one starts getting closer to 60 than one is to 50, competition in sport seems to have less of a draw than it once did.

I view UFC as legalized street fighting and don't really think highly of it. I detest vulgar brawls and prefer something more artful like Judo in competitive bouts of sparring.

I always hated soccer and it was THE BIG DEAL in Ukrainian sports.
 
People tend to be more zealously patriotic toward their adopted country than the land of their birth. After all, they've actually chosen the former...

Back on (sort of) topic: wouldn't it be nice to have a World Cup fan zone somewhere in Boston? Hell, the Greenway would be perfect for some kind of permanent event viewing videoscreen + plaza thing (of course, so would many of Boston's other underutilized public spaces, but let's not go there...)
 
I thought there was a plan to set up a huge TV screen in City Hall Plaza? Not sure for which stage or games, though.
 
kennedy said:
Check which event has the highest attendance and television ratings:

2009 Frozen Four: 18,512 (one championship game)
2009 College World Series: 64,876 (over three games, average 21,625)
2009 Lacrosse Championship Weekend: 102,601 (over three days, average 34,200, championship game 41,935)

I'd say that these numbers are indicative of future trends in sport; considering today's college fans will be the core of fans in the next few generations. A greater number of young people like lacrosse better.
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Keeping in mind the arguments others have already made to shoot this down, you are also comparing the pinnacle of lacrosse with something of much lower importance for the other two sports. College baseball is watched only by the most hard core fan, and really just a subset of that. College hockey is popular but a very regional sport, even though professional hockey is nation-wide. In both instances, a significant portion of player development occurs outside the NCAA framework.
 
Ron - you're right; they're putting up a screen for the final on July 11 (why not have it up throughout?) and expecting...300,000 people. I hope that's a typo?
 
Lurker said:
I view UFC as legalized street fighting and don't really think highly of it. I detest vulgar brawls and prefer something more artful like Judo in competitive bouts of sparring.
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I grew you watching boxing with my great uncle, a retired bookie. That sport's been a farce since the 80s, so I've converted to MMA.

czsz said:
(why not have it up throughout?)
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Why not indeed?
 
Lurker said:
When one starts getting closer to 60 than one is to 50, competition in sport seems to have less of a draw than it once did.

I view UFC as legalized street fighting and don't really think highly of it. I detest vulgar brawls and prefer something more artful like Judo in competitive bouts of sparring.

I always hated soccer and it was THE BIG DEAL in Ukrainian sports.
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It still is. Clubs like Shahktar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev are making noise in the European competitions and helping the Ukraine league gain clout. The Donbass Arena is a world class facility.

Ron Newman said:
I thought there was a plan to set up a huge TV screen in City Hall Plaza? Not sure for which stage or games, though.
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I read there was not enough money, which is a shame.

kennedy said:
Lacrosse is boring? Compared to baseball? Are you kidding?!

So hockey attendance was a poor comparison - but you can be assured, if the CWS had the demand to fill a 40,000 seat stadium, they'd play it in one. They play the Final Four in football stadiums and attendance is typically well above 75,000.

Lacrosse is growing - especially out west. Denver has one of the hottest lacrosse scenes right now, and California high school teams are increasingly competitive. Even here in Missouri, kids who have grown up baseball fans are being exposed to lacrosse and becoming instant converts. The expansion of the sport is perhaps best highlighted by the fact that Notre Dame - a relatively young program - lost by one goal in overtime to Duke, a far more prestigious program, in the championship.

50 years. MLL will be bigger than the MLS, and college athletics will finally have a spring sport that the rest of the country wants to watch.
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Name a baseball stadium that would be available for over a week right in the middle of the season. No MLB team would be willing to allow the CWS to take up over a week of time. I believe it could take up to 12 days or 13 days to complete. One of the best things the CWS has done is to not ruin the atmosphere and go into a much larger stadium, like the basketbal tournament as done.

Also ND is a bad example. Take a loof at their roster. The bulk of the kids come from MA, NY, VA, NJ, CT MD and PA where lacrosse caught on years ago.

The MLS is steadily growing. Once all the teams are in soccer specific stadiums, fan experience will improve and the league will prosper. Soccer still remains the most participated youth sport.
 
mass88 said:
Name a baseball stadium that would be available for over a week right in the middle of the season. No MLB team would be willing to allow the CWS to take up over a week of time. I believe it could take up to 12 days or 13 days to complete. One of the best things the CWS has done is to not ruin the atmosphere and go into a much larger stadium, like the basketbal tournament as done.

Also ND is a bad example. Take a loof at their roster. The bulk of the kids come from MA, NY, VA, NJ, CT MD and PA where lacrosse caught on years ago.

The MLS is steadily growing. Once all the teams are in soccer specific stadiums, fan experience will improve and the league will prosper. Soccer still remains the most participated youth sport.
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Fine, I'll make the point that the state with the fifth-most high school lacrosse teams is California. Or that Denver has been selected as the site of the 2014 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championship, and that their pro team (the Outlaws) recently has had the highest attendance of any MLL team.

CWS could be played in a larger venue, whether it's a large college stadium, a pro team, a large minor league stadium, or some other sport's venue (temporarily converted football stadiums).

Lacrosse isn't only steadily growing, it's exploding. The number of high-school age participants has nearly doubled in the past decade.

HenryAlan said:
Keeping in mind the arguments others have already made to shoot this down, you are also comparing the pinnacle of lacrosse with something of much lower importance for the other two sports.
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How are the CWS or the Frozen Four not the pinnacle event of the respective sports?
 
Going back to the stadium age thing....

In the current world cup, two stadiums are quite old. Renovated, and not as old as Fenway, but still very old and perfectly acceptable for the worlds biggest tournament.

Loftus Versfeld Stadium - Pretoria
Opened 1923

Ellis Park Stadium - Johannesburg
Opened 1928

You can see the second in tomorrows USA game.


Germany also had its share of old stadiums.

Fritz Walter Stadion - 1920
RheinEnergieStadion -1923
Waldstadion - 1925
Frankenstadion - 1928
Neckarstadion - 1933
Olympiastadion -1936
 
kennedy said:
2009 Frozen Four: 18,512 (one championship game)
2009 College World Series: 64,876 (over three games, average 21,625)
2009 Lacrosse Championship Weekend: 102,601 (over three days, average 34,200, championship game 41,935)

.
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Others have already explained why this really isn't convincing at all. I don't have much to add. I don't think the following of college sports is truly indicative of future (or current) popularity of the same professional sports. I'm a HUGE MLB fan. I've never watched a complete CWS game in my life. On the other hand, I'm only sort of into NBA Basketball but watch NCAA ball with more of a keen interest. Love the NFL, don't care about NCAA Football. Don't care about Hockey either way really.

How are the CWS or the Frozen Four not the pinnacle event of the respective sports?
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Because the World Series (MLB) and the Stanley Cup Finals are.
 
Sorry to bump an insanely old thread, but I wanted to get a discussion going on a possible future olympics in Boston since its interesting to talk about and brings good debate.
 
Providence Knowledge District sounds like a marketing euphemism for the Foxy Lady, Satin Doll and Cadillac Lounge.
 
You know, with Rome having dropped out of the 2020 race, Madrid on the brink, Istanbul with an unworkable plan, Tokyo with other priorities and Baku and Doha staying in I guess just to provide comic relief, this could have actually been Boston's year.
 
I don't understand what the Fall River and Providence links have to do with the Olympics, though.
 
I think it would make more sense for Boston to try its hand at Winter Olympics -
smaller event and there's a lot of infrastructure in place already.
After Turin and Sochi we'd fit in pretty well.
 
Winter Olympics need to be up in the mountains, not down here in the flatlands. New Hampshire or Vermont would be the right place for them.
 
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