Anyone who’s been listening has heard a lot of bad things about the Olympics in Rio coming up. Things like the water that Olympians will be swimming in isn't safe if ingested, many venues aren’t ready for events, and now, human remains have washed up on the shore of Rio’s Olympic beach. Let alone, all of the major political problems facing Brazil currently. Huge embezzlement issues: six out of ten members of the Brazilian congress face some kind of criminal investigation, the country is in its worst recession in almost a century and they just impeached a president just to find out that their replacement is just as bad.
There are so many problems facing the Olympics this year and, honestly, as we get closer and closer to the opening ceremonies, I wonder if it wouldn't just be better to move the Olympics to the United States. Yes, I know they start in a little over a month, but think about it. The United States already has venues far larger than many Olympic venues.
Imagine laying down a track and running sprints in front of 100,000 people at the Big House in Michigan, or holding events in AT&T stadium in Dallas. Soccer at Centurylink Field in Seattle or Los Angeles or New York. Really, think about it, many of our amateur sports stadiums are large enough to hold Olympic events, there could probably be events in high school football stadiums in Texas. The possibilities are almost limitless.
The events themselves would be safer for the athletes and the venues and locations would be safer for the fans. There are so many possibilities, and if you think the US couldn’t put together some great ceremonies in a month, you should have more faith.
The only sport currently being played professionally in the United States is baseball so all the enormous football stadiums are open for use.
What's even better, is looking at what will become of our stadiums after the Olympics. Unlike in many other countries where Olympic stadiums fall into disuse and become terribly expensive bus stops or just giant unused event centers, our stadiums would still be used for exactly what they were already being used for. The Olympics can be a huge drain on a country's economy; paying for these huge elaborate stadiums and event centers that will end up just standing there with no purpose after the games are over.
It’s been a non issue recently with the games being held in London and Beijing, and it probably won't be an issue in 2020 when the games are hosted in Tokyo, but Rio is not able to properly host these grand ceremonies and events.
I know a lot of countries wouldn’t like moving the olympics to the United States and boosting our ego as a country, but as all the issues with Rio come closer and closer, I hope the Olympic Committee can come to a decision that would help not only the athletes, but the fans and the nations involved.
