The Olympic Games in Dublin?

Chivito550

Shane Ross certainly thinks so.

http://m.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/the-sky-is-the-limit-shane-ross-targets-olympics-in-ireland-and-says-its-a-realistic-prospect-35922326.html

I despair!

ThisRegard

They still have to get over the issues they're having for the Rugby World Cup ffs.

That guy gets worse.

walshb

Hilarious!

Chivito550

We can't even build an underground rail link to the airport and this guy thinks we can host the Olympics. Some man!

A transport and sports minister who knows f@ck all about either area.

Direct quote from Rio:

"Commiserations to Katie Taylor. She fought a good match".

I was a fan of Shane Ross what now feels like a very long time ago. In opposition he just criticised the sitting government, while never making any substantial suggestions himself. Now he is in government and it just seems to be one gaff after another.

Aside from the lack of stadia, one area where Ireland falls down in any bid for the Olympics is transport. His own department. You'd have to be a bit dense to be bringing attention to the failings in your own department by making such a statement.

RacoonQueen

We have zero infrastructure that could support a sporting event as major as that. The lack of suitable public transport being one of the main blockers.
Maybe one day in the distant future but so many things regarding basic road / transport infrastructure throughout Dublin before you can even think of working on stadiums, athletes village etc

ThisRegard

It'll be a colossal waste of money too, history hasn't been too kind to many former purposely built Olympic venues.

Chivito550

RacoonQueen wrote: »

We have zero infrastructure that could support a sporting event as major as that. The lack of suitable public transport being one of the main blockers.
Maybe one day in the distant future but so many things regarding basic road / transport infrastructure throughout Dublin before you can even think of working on stadiums, athletes village etc

French Olympic fan leaving the RDS having seen his countryman claim gold in the individual dressage inquires what is the best way to get to the swimming evening session up in Abbotstown so he can see their 4x100m medley relay team take on the yanks in a not to be missed battle for gold.

"Excuse me, how is the best way to get to the swimming from here".

Volunteer replies:

"Well sir, you can grab a number 4 bus here which will take you to the city centre. Then you can navigate the confusion that is O'Connoll Street, find the appropriate stop and hop on a 38 which will bring you within a short walk of the venue."

RacoonQueen

Chivito550 wrote: »

French Olympic fan leaving the RDS having seen his countryman claim gold in the individual dressage inquires what is the best way to get to the swimming evening session up in Abbotstown so he can see their 4x100m medley relay team take on the yanks in a not to be missed battle for gold.

"Excuse me, how is the best way to get to the swimming from here".

Volunteer replies:

"Well sir, you can grab a number 4 bus here which will take you to the city centre. Then you can navigate the confusion that is O'Connoll Street, find the appropriate stop and hop on a 38 which will bring you within a short walk of the venue."

Then we'll send them the next day to within a stones throw of jobstown for he basketball.

ThisRegard

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Then we'll send them the next day to within a stones throw of jobstown for he basketball.

If you think that's a stones throw, maybe its time you quit the running and took to the shot put!

Pherekydes

Chivito550 wrote: »

French Olympic fan leaving the RDS having seen his countryman claim gold in the individual dressage inquires what is the best way to get to the swimming evening session up in Abbotstown so he can see their 4x100m medley relay team take on the yanks in a not to be missed battle for gold.

"Excuse me, how is the best way to get to the swimming from here".

Volunteer replies:

"Well sir, you can grab a number 4 bus here which will take you to the city centre. Then you can navigate the confusion that is O'Connoll Street, find the appropriate stop and hop on a 38 which will bring you within a short walk of the venue."

You could get the 4 to Ballymun Comp and change to a 17A, which stops outside the NAC.

Or grab a Dublin Bike and brave the quays...

OOnegative

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Then we'll send them the next day to within a stones throw of jobstown for he basketball.

And then over to The Foxhound Inn in Kilbarrack to watch the athletics on the track.

Pherekydes

OOnegative wrote: »

And then over to The Foxhound Inn in Kilbarrack to watch the athletics on the track.

"Sorry, there's a crucial Champion's League qualifier between Valetta and Limassol on one screen, and the other screen is showing the Connacht U-21 Hurling final replay. I hear the Autobahn has more screens."

RayCun

I think part of the deal with hosting the Olympics is that you have to make provision for spectators to get around, on top of your regular public transport network if that is not sufficient. So there would be buses from the venues to each other, or to a transport hub.

It's a minor problem, really, compared to the fact that we don't have venues capable of hosting most of the events, and we don't have the population to use those venues afterwards if we built them. (Or the hotel capacity to house everyone)

RacoonQueen

ThisRegard wrote: »

If you think that's a stones throw, maybe its time you quit the running and took to the shot put!

It's about 5km

Chivito550

RayCun wrote: »

I think part of the deal with hosting the Olympics is that you have to make provision for spectators to get around, on top of your regular public transport network if that is not sufficient. So there would be buses from the venues to each other, or to a transport hub.

It's a minor problem, really, compared to the fact that we don't have venues capable of hosting most of the events, and we don't have the population to use those venues afterwards if we built them. (Or the hotel capacity to house everyone)

Public transport in Dublin is anything but a minor problem. Our existing infrastructure can't handle a regular rush hour, not to mention the largest event in the world, sport or otherwise.

Putting on extra buses isn't much use when the road space really just isn't there to give these buses priority.

It's funny that a transport minister of all people would actually make such a ludicrous proposal. Then again Mr Ross is grossly incompetent.

Joe_ Public

I think he's trying to become Ireland's answer to Boris Johnson. But at least Boris can be interesting sometimes!

ThisRegard

RacoonQueen wrote: »

It's about 5km

As a bird flys. Not a distance you'd call a stones throw. Pretty much from one side of Tallaght to the opposite.

Chivito550

ThisRegard wrote: »

I know, not a distance you'd call a stones throw.

Was on a bus the other day that took about 15 minutes and 7 green lights to travel 200m. 5km is an eternity in Dublin.

Joe_ Public

Don't forget they basically commandeer half the existing road network for their "Olympic lane" to ensure the important people - ie the Olympic family - can get around without too much hassle. That would essentially mean half of O'Connell St, for starters, cordoned off for the general public, not to mention any of the main arteries running off it. Good luck with that one.

Pherekydes

If we're going to host the Olympics then we could have a few new events.

I propose the New Modern Pentathlon: Swim from the Point up to Heuston, rob a bike, cycle to Hell Fire Wood, run to the top, fighting off opponents with whatever weapons you can find on the way.

Anyway, enough with the silliness. I'm off to catch the Olympic warm-up meet :pac: at Morton Stadium. Afterwards, I'm trying out my new favourite event, the Tipple Jump.

Chivito550

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Don't forget they basically commandeer half the existing road network for their "Olympic lane" to ensure the important people - ie the Olympic family - can get around without too much hassle. That would essentially mean half of O'Connell St, for starters, cordoned off for the general public, not to mention any of the main arteries running off it. Good luck with that one.

Yeh there were media buses in Rio which were fantastic. Made it easy to get from venue to venue which was a godsend as their public transport was awful. The result of these special lanes though was horrific traffic for locals going about their daily lives, or indeed trying to attend the Olympics.

Joe_ Public

Chivito550 wrote: »

Yeh there were media buses in Rio which were fantastic. Made it easy to get from venue to venue which was a godsend as their public transport was awful. The result of these special lanes though was horrific traffic for locals going about their daily lives, or indeed trying to attend the Olympics.

I saw it in action in London and even on a superior road network like that, the traffic hold ups were severe, at times horrendous. Only for the terrific public transport system (which only a true native Londoner can diss), it would have been a navigational nightmare for spectators. Trying to imagine traffic on the Drumcondra Road with a lane cut off either side. Would be fun trying to come in from the airport.

RacoonQueen

ThisRegard wrote: »

As a bird flys. Not a distance you'd call a stones throw. Pretty much from one side of Tallaght to the opposite.

It's up the road...much of the immediate surrounding area of the arena not exactly where i'd fancy sending tourists either.
Anyway...silly thing to be disputing, peoples definition of a stones throw :rolleyes:

Zebra3

The country couldn't even stage the men and women's football tournaments, never mind all the rest.

Quite incredible that our politicians can just spout complete and utter nonsense.

average_runner

Chivito550 wrote: »

RacoonQueen wrote: »

We have zero infrastructure that could support a sporting event as major as that. The lack of suitable public transport being one of the main blockers.
Maybe one day in the distant future but so many things regarding basic road / transport infrastructure throughout Dublin before you can even think of working on stadiums, athletes village etc

French Olympic fan leaving the RDS having seen his countryman claim gold in the individual dressage inquires what is the best way to get to the swimming evening session up in Abbotstown so he can see their 4x100m medley relay team take on the yanks in a not to be missed battle for gold.

"Excuse me, how is the best way to get to the swimming from here".

Volunteer replies:

"Well sir, you can grab a number 4 bus here which will take you to the city centre. Then you can navigate the confusion that is O'Connoll Street, find the appropriate stop and hop on a 38 which will bring you within a short walk of the venue."

Ye automatically think it be all stage in dublin.

Hitman3000

No stadia, no infrastructure and no money but yeah sure let's bid for the Olympics. Not like we'd be laughed out of the room. Do government ministers and their brains suffer a disconnect upon accession to high office?

average_runner

ThisRegard wrote: »

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Then we'll send them the next day to within a stones throw of jobstown for he basketball.

If you think that's a stones throw, maybe its time you quit the running and took to the shot put!

Well 9k to me is a small distance considering I run that route 3 times a week to oconnell bridge

average_runner

Hitman3000 wrote: »

No stadia, no infrastructure and no money but yeah sure let's bid for the Olympics. Not like we'd be laughed out of the room. Do government ministers and their brains suffer a disconnect upon accession to high office?

Croke park could be the stadium. The rugby could be at any gaa stadium around the country. Sailing in dun laoghire. Triathlon in Wexford, use curracloe beach. Horse jumping rds. Golf anywhere. Soccer in any of the gaa stadiums. Swimming is a big issue.

Transport is the main issue. Dublin population too small to support all the ideas people have.

average_runner

Chivito550 wrote: »

ThisRegard wrote: »

I know, not a distance you'd call a stones throw.

Was on a bus the other day that took about 15 minutes and 7 green lights to travel 200m. 5km is an eternity in Dublin.

Yep there is bad scenarios but also good ones. I can get into town from liffey valley in around 20 mins

Joe_ Public

average_runner wrote: »

Croke park could be the stadium. The rugby could be at any gaa stadium around the country. Sailing in dun laoghire. Triathlon in Wexford, use curracloe beach. Horse jumping rds. Golf anywhere. Soccer in any of the gaa stadiums. Swimming is a big issue.

Transport is the main issue. Dublin population too small to support all the ideas people have.

Ever so teeny-weeny, slight snag in your very first line. You do realise that would entail CP being out of commission for the GAA for a minimum of 2 summers, possibly a third depending on how long the essential redevelopments take. How much do you think the GAA would demand for such a scenario? Or would they be mad enough to even contemplate it?

average_runner

What redevelopment?

Croke park got redeveloped in the past and still held matches.

OOnegative

average_runner wrote: »

Croke park could be the stadium. The rugby could be at any gaa stadium around the country. Sailing in dun laoghire. Triathlon in Wexford, use curracloe beach. Horse jumping rds. Golf anywhere. Soccer in any of the gaa stadiums. Swimming is a big issue.

Transport is the main issue. Dublin population too small to support all the ideas people have.

Eh no 400m track around Croke Park and seriously doubt the GAA would allow/be interested in having one built. We don't have the infrastructure or transport system in this country to stage an Olympic Games, ludicrous idea by Mr Ross thinking we could.

Joe_ Public

average_runner wrote: »

What redevelopment?

Croke park got redeveloped in the past and still held matches.

You're right. It did host the Tailteann Games a hundred years ago. Its surely good to go!

average_runner

OOnegative wrote: »

average_runner wrote: »

Croke park could be the stadium. The rugby could be at any gaa stadium around the country. Sailing in dun laoghire. Triathlon in Wexford, use curracloe beach. Horse jumping rds. Golf anywhere. Soccer in any of the gaa stadiums. Swimming is a big issue.

Transport is the main issue. Dublin population too small to support all the ideas people have.

Eh no 400m track around Croke Park and seriously doubt the GAA would allow/be interested in having one built. We don't have the infrastructure or transport system in this country to stage an Olympic Games, ludicrous idea by Mr Ross thinking we could.

OOnegative wrote: »

average_runner wrote: »

Croke park could be the stadium. The rugby could be at any gaa stadium around the country. Sailing in dun laoghire. Triathlon in Wexford, use curracloe beach. Horse jumping rds. Golf anywhere. Soccer in any of the gaa stadiums. Swimming is a big issue.

Transport is the main issue. Dublin population too small to support all the ideas people have.

Eh no 400m track around Croke Park and seriously doubt the GAA would allow/be interested in having one built. We don't have the infrastructure or transport system in this country to stage an Olympic Games, ludicrous idea by Mr Ross thinking we could.

A temporary track would fit around croke park ?

The new commonwealth stadium in Liverpool will be a temporary track and then Everton taking over. It will be a smaller size also than croke park.

martingriff

I think that Shane Ross got a bit carried away and mentioned the Olympics as we should reach big I am sure we are no where near good enough for that. Did I also hear someone mention an all Ireland bid for the Commonwealth Games. Not sure if that was Ross himself. But if the stadiums are available and some redovelopment for athletics there is no reason we could not hold championships. The Boxing could be held here, same with rowing championships, Cross country Championship. Aren't the ladies world cup (could be wrong) been held here this year. Sure not as big in popularity as the men but Ireland with the right mentality some infrastructure we could host many things

snowflaker

No. No. No. No.

Just a distraction tactic by our most useless Minister.

walshb

I think Ross should stick it to the IOC..we'll only host it if you admit Gaelic Games. Go down a treat here I'd say!

Joe_ Public

average_runner wrote: »

A temporary track would fit around croke park ?

The new commonwealth stadium in Liverpool will be a temporary track and then Everton taking over. It will be a smaller size also than croke park.

Sounds such a watertight case, I'm not sure I can argue against it.
But just a couple of very minor queries. Where do you put the jumping pit? Where does the warm up track go? There's also the small issue of the Olympic village, but I guess you could do an Atlanta on it and clear out all the undesirables from the area and you'd have a few vacant lots to house the athletes.

You'd also have to convince the GAA to run a bulldozer through 100 years of history by demolishing the Hill/Nally ends to bring the stadium up to the required standards. Or do you think plonking a few bucket seats down for the month will suffice?

Then there's softening the blow to the GAA of having their stadium virtually owned by the IOC for the guts of 12 months, because that is what hosting an olympics entails, and all the controversy that will entail. Though right now, I'd suggest that might be the least of your worries!

Zebra3

With regards Croker, just look at how long Hampden was out of action for football due to something as irrelevant as the Commonwealth Games.

BowSideChamp

We struggle to run the Community Games.

wordofwarning

Joan Rivers seemed to imply Shane Ross was trolling by saying this. I agree with her.

At the end of the day, the Olympics is a horrific waste of money for any country. We will spend billions on new hotels and facilities that will never be used again. Although we could build brand new apartments, that will house the growing population anyway. The public transport in Dublin needs billions spent on it. The Government could justify spending something in Dublin for once, rather than usual defecting from TDs about X town not having a Luas and Dublin having two. Why should Dublin get another?

RacoonQueen

So basically I think we're all agreed this will not happen in our lifetimes....

I mean it is doable...but it would take MASSIVE investment into upgrading roads/transport and sporting facilities. Look at the hassle the luas cross city works have caused though and imagine what hosting an olympics and upgrading the entire city would do.

The national basketball arena, in it's current guise, could not host olympic basketball for example(I haven't played there myself for like 15 years but I'm guessing nothing has changed)...plenty of space for expansion in the area though and in fairness decent enough transport links to Tallaght...just it is Tallaght :P
National stadium couldn't host boxing (I would say, I've only ever been there with the mammy to play bingo though ) but boxing can easily be hosted elsewhere? Like the point?

You could always build a new athletics stadium somewhere...all doable....an athletics stadium could be built out somewhere along the green luas line...plenty of empty space out in cherrywood. Likewise a pool could be built further out...huge amount of planning and investment would be required you're looking at having places for hockey, archery and a lot of obscure stuff most of us on this forum would probably forget are even in the olympics...

It will never happen though. We can't deal with closing our roads for a few hours once a year for Dublin marathon, imagine the mania the olympics would cause!

Chivito550

RacoonQueen wrote: »

So basically I think we're all agreed this will not happen in our lifetimes....

I mean it is doable...but it would take MASSIVE investment into upgrading roads/transport and sporting facilities. Look at the hassle the luas cross city works have caused though and imagine what hosting an olympics and upgrading the entire city would do.

The national basketball arena, in it's current guise, could not host olympic basketball for example(I haven't played there myself for like 15 years but I'm guessing nothing has changed)...plenty of space for expansion in the area though and in fairness decent enough transport links to Tallaght...just it is Tallaght :P
National stadium couldn't host boxing (I would say, I've only ever been there with the mammy to play bingo though ) but boxing can easily be hosted elsewhere? Like the point?

You could always build a new athletics stadium somewhere...all doable....an athletics stadium could be built out somewhere along the green luas line...plenty of empty space out in cherrywood. Likewise a pool could be built further out...huge amount of planning and investment would be required you're looking at having places for hockey, archery and a lot of obscure stuff most of us on this forum would probably forget are even in the olympics...

It will never happen though. We can't deal with closing our roads for a few hours once a year for Dublin marathon, imagine the mania the olympics would cause!

I'd be particularly intrigued to see how they'd plan to host things like tennis. You'd need a Wimbledon type setup to do that, with a main court, some secondary courts and lots of outside courts.

ger664

It really disappoints me that a Minster thinks its a good idea to have the Olympics here. Cost would probably be 20bn+. I can think of a lot of better places to spend it.

The Bishop Basher

Even if we had the cash we would be utterly incapable of organising something as big as the olympics.

The new children's hospital springs to mind as a classic example of how we just can't do large projects efficiently or effectively.

It's more the a little worrying that a TD would have such delusions as to think it could be possible. I really hope he was trolling..

RacoonQueen

Chivito550 wrote: »

I'd be particularly intrigued to see how they'd plan to host things like tennis. You'd need a Wimbledon type setup to do that, with a main court, some secondary courts and lots of outside courts.

See I didn't even think of tennis. Those tennis courts would make good carparks after the olympics.

average_runner

Joe_ Public wrote: »

average_runner wrote: »

A temporary track would fit around croke park ?

The new commonwealth stadium in Liverpool will be a temporary track and then Everton taking over. It will be a smaller size also than croke park.

Sounds such a watertight case, I'm not sure I can argue against it.
But just a couple of very minor queries. Where do you put the jumping pit? Where does the warm up track go? There's also the small issue of the Olympic village, but I guess you could do an Atlanta on it and clear out all the undesirables from the area and you'd have a few vacant lots to house the athletes.

You'd also have to convince the GAA to run a bulldozer through 100 years of history by demolishing the Hill/Nally ends to bring the stadium up to the required standards. Or do you think plonking a few bucket seats down for the month will suffice?

Then there's softening the blow to the GAA of having their stadium virtually owned by the IOC for the guts of 12 months, because that is what hosting an olympics entails, and all the controversy that will entail. Though right now, I'd suggest that might be the least of your worries!

The Olympic village would be a big issue. As for a warm up area, run on the canal outside.

average_runner

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Chivito550 wrote: »

I'd be particularly intrigued to see how they'd plan to host things like tennis. You'd need a Wimbledon type setup to do that, with a main court, some secondary courts and lots of outside courts.

See I didn't even think of tennis. Those tennis courts would make good carparks after the olympics.

We could mark centre court out on the Aviva pitch and used the courts in Riverview for the other matches.

Could used the tmo for the tough calls in the Aviva.

RayCun

Chivito550 wrote: »

Public transport in Dublin is anything but a minor problem.

The problem, in general, is that we don't have the facilities to host the Olympics. We don't have the venues, we don't have the rooms, we don't have the transport.

The reason we don't have those things, to a large extent, is that Dublin is a relatively small city in a very small country. If we had an Olympic quality athletics stadium, velodrome, diving facility... we couldn't fill it often enough to make it viable. We don't get enough tourists in a regular year to support enough beds to host the number of tourists you'd have for the Olympics. (Compare to London, which has about 150k hotel beds)

The LUAS and Dublin Bus carry about 160 million passenger journeys a year
https://www.transportforireland.ie/strong-public-transport-performance-in-2016-with-passenger-numbers-up-by-4-4/
London Bus and the Tube carry close to 4 billion a year
https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/facts-and-figures

But of the three things mentioned - sports facilities, beds, transport - public transport is actually the easiest thing to bring up to standard for a short period. You can buy buses reasonably cheaply, you can hire stock from other countries, bring in drivers on short-term contracts, close off roads to other traffic... and for three weeks have a system capable of carrying lots of people between specific locations. It wouldn't be cheap, but you could do it. How much would it cost to build 100k more hotel beds, and what do you do with them afterwards? How much does your Olympic stadium cost, and what do you do with it afterwards?

Chivito550

RayCun wrote: »

The problem, in general, is that we don't have the facilities to host the Olympics. We don't have the venues, we don't have the rooms, we don't have the transport.

The reason we don't have those things, to a large extent, is that Dublin is a relatively small city in a very small country. If we had an Olympic quality athletics stadium, velodrome, diving facility... we couldn't fill it often enough to make it viable. We don't get enough tourists in a regular year to support enough beds to host the number of tourists you'd have for the Olympics. (Compare to London, which has about 150k hotel beds)

The LUAS and Dublin Bus carry about 160 million passenger journeys a year
https://www.transportforireland.ie/strong-public-transport-performance-in-2016-with-passenger-numbers-up-by-4-4/
London Bus and the Tube carry close to 4 billion a year
https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/facts-and-figures

But of the three things mentioned - sports facilities, beds, transport - public transport is actually the easiest thing to bring up to standard for a short period. You can buy buses reasonably cheaply, you can hire stock from other countries, bring in drivers on short-term contracts, close off roads to other traffic... and for three weeks have a system capable of carrying lots of people between specific locations. It wouldn't be cheap, but you could do it. How much would it cost to build 100k more hotel beds, and what do you do with them afterwards? How much does your Olympic stadium cost, and what do you do with it afterwards?

Not sure what size of the city has to do with public transport. It's typical Ireland, comparing against London. What about all the similar sized cities to us on the continent (Amsterdam, Brussels, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Nuremberg, Zurich) which have excellent public transport systems, and are places which are easy to get around? These are the cities we should be benchmarking against, not London.

If being small is a reason we don't have metros, more trains and trams, proper cycling infrastructure, then why do all the above cities have this stuff?

The Olympics is pure laughable of course, but there is no reason why we can't have proper transport that didn't rely on cars and buses, if there was political will. There is no political will.

Your solution regarding extra buses and closing off lanes would not work in a medieval city. The place is already at a standstill as it is without taking away more road space for the media and Olympic family (these are the ones who get this road space, not general spectators. I've seen what a nightmare it was for regular spectators getting around Rio).