When could London realistically bid for the Games again?

I've been thinking about this ever since the Games began. I know loads of posters have commented that we probably won't get the Games again in our lifetime, but I don't think that's necessarily true.

I think we could start fielding realistic bids for the Games starting from 2036/2040 onwards. I think that maybe the strongest bid would be if we bid for the 2048 Summer Olympics as it would be 100 years since the 1948 London Games and we could present it as the 'London Centennial Games'. We could point to how we hosted in 1948 as the first post-War Games at a time when economies were still burdened by the debt of war. Also, after the 1936 Berlin Games, the Olympic movement was in serious question as Hitler had manipulated those Games to further his own Nazi agenda; trying to create the 'Aryan Games'. London 1948 returned to the ideals of the Olympics and I really think we revived the Olympic movement. Plus, we hosted the best Games ever in 2012 and that would help out bid no doubt. The fact that the UK generally isn't suitable to host a Winter Games also works in our favour as the IOC is reluctant to award Summer Games to cities that have also hosted recent Winter Games.

Thoughts? :smile:

Reply 1

Fusion

Probably 2060 at the earliest for London. But Manchester/Glasgow could always bid for the games; America staged two Olympics in 12 years from 84-96.

One unlikely possibility is London being a good backup for a risky host that doesn't meet targets.

Reply 2

bodie

When the next games come around I am going to be so rich that I can get my butler to just buy all the tickets for me/my offspring will battling it out for gold in epic sports

Reply 3

drummer

I think providing the country does not fall further into debt then sometime in the future before 70

Reply 4

Olie

Think I heard somewhere its a 40 year cycle before we can bid again, so probably not before 2052, if we were able to get it in that decade, many of us one here may see 2 olympics! Though it could be anything from 40 to 100 years I guess, I notice Paris hasn't hosted it since 1924 and it may be over 100 years since that until they host it again, so it could be a while, especially with various cities in developing countries starting to be able to put in bids like Nairobi for example, so by 2050, there may be a lot more cities capable of hosting it.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 5

Jack93o

I doubt it would happen again in any of our lives, espicially when you consider that competition to host to games will only increase in the future with more countries growing richer and becoming developed.

Reply 6

Manchester United

Original post by Jack93o

Yes but other countries; Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal are all getting worse. So that works in our favour for another Olympic bid.

Reply 7

Don John

A Manchester/Edinburgh/Birmingham/Newcastle bid is definitely still on the cards.

Reply 8

maverick123

Original post by Fusion

I very much doubt they'd get the funding from the government, pretty sure Manchester/Birmingham made a combined bid a while ago but it failed as they didn't have any financial support. In terms of tourism and the main attractions of England, we are a one city country. To be brutally honest, both Manchester and Glasgow has some very poor parts and remember the Olympics is a showcase to the world it wouldn't really show the country in a greatly positive light. The north needs major investment and regeneration before we can start thinking about using it for major sporting competitions.

Reply 9

Hopple

Next recession or world war, we're in there.

Reply 10

Beebumble

There are already talks for a 2028 bid! Its extremley unlikely it'll happen though as although 16 years seems like a long time in olympic terms it's only 4 games away and we're the only city to hold it 3 times already.

I think if we want to see the Olympics in the uk again, any time in the near future, our best bet is Cardiff possibly Glasgow or Edinburgh as well. I don't think any other English city seems that desirable to the IOC and there's still some hostility in N.Ireland to risk throwing an Olympic games in the mix although who knows what things will be like in 20 years.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 11

sav91

Original post by Manchester United

Yes but other countries; Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal are all getting worse. So that works in our favour for another Olympic bid.

I agree. Cities like Paris and Berlin are London's only viable competitors in Europe really. Most of the southern European cities are in such an economic mess that they will not be realistic contenders for the Olympics for a good few decades imo. I can't imagine Africa or India fielding realistic bids for a good few decades yet either, even then, South Africa is Africa's best hope. In Asia, Japan, China and South Korea are likely contenders. I think excessive temperature in the UAE will kill off any bids they submit. Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro are probably the only two cities in South America with the potential to host Games for a long time. Our main threats would be from the US; they have many gigantic cities with infrastructure good enough to host, and many existing world-class sports venues. Whereas the IOC made it clear that the UK's best hope for hosting lies in London, I do believe the IOC would consider bids from NYC, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, Boston and LA etc very seriously.

In all, I don't think London has as much competition as we think. We only really have to outshine bids from Paris, Berlin, the US and Far East to host another Games, even in the foreseeable future imo.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 12

Olie

Original post by sav91

I dunno about that actually, I mean we had a superb bid for the World Cup, with all the infrastructure, funding and stadia pretty much in place, yet they gave it to Russia and Qatar, even though we had the better bid. That and the fact we've got 2 WCs in succession in developing/lesser developed countries with South Africa followed by Brazil and of course Olympics wise with Rio in 2016, suggests that we may often see the Olympics being given to new places like South America or even Africa perhaps in the future, with the vision of helping these lesser developed countries, even if they've got an inferior infrastructure, rather than just giving them to the most developed countries all the time and it will be interesting to see if they pick Nairobi for an upcoming Olympics as I see they're preparing a bid for 2024, though how they'd be actually able to organise and fund it I'm not sure. As much as I'd love to see it again, I'm still not sure whether I'll ever see another games in my lifetime tbh.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 13

tsnake23

Original post by Olie

Only because FIFA is ridiculously corrupt. IOC is less so and the voting is less biased and not confined to a small group of people.

London won't have a chance of winning a bid for the Olympics again for another 40+ years at least. However it would serve as a good short notice backup if a future host country has massive problems and has to cancel before the Olympics starts (civil war, run out of money etc).

Reply 14

PGtips

I would say 30-50 years at least. The IOC probably wants more new countries to host the olympics, and there's always those rich oil countries who can "buy" the olympics.

Reply 15

justmad123

I think it's very possible, there have been articles saying the IOC is very happy with London's Olympics and would be happy to see them bid again very soon, it also wouldn't cost as much considering we already have the Olympic Park

Reply 16

kiwikoala89

I'm not from England, but I'm intent that I will visit the next London Olympics, even if I'm in my 90's. Consequently, this entire conversation is very interesting to me.