Rio de Janeiro 2016 ! It ’s a showcase for the triumph of the human spirit , chance for the world ’s top athletes to have all the sex , and a possible loom health disaster of epical proportions . mellow leap over here for all ofThrillist ’s coverage of the game , and the games beyond the games .
You could lawfully find yourself at a ginmill next yr talking to someone who was n’t even born the last meter the Summer Olympics were on American dirt . Guys – 1996 was a hell of a long meter ago now . If Los Angeles does n’t beat out Rome , Paris , and Budapest for the 2024 game , we ’ll officially be in a US Summer Olympics - hosting drouth , like the 52 - class span between LA host the Games of 1932 and of 1984 .
Which is why we ’re already looking in the lead to 2028 . The Olympics guarantee a city ’s condition as a worldwide histrion , and this country has more cities that fit that standard than anywhere in the humanity . So we look at US cities that have the existing capacity to host an Olympics and also room to grow . suitably , our three largest states – California , Texas , and Florida – all have strong prospect .
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Not that Rio has made the whole host thing depend terribly attractive . Shoddily builtinfrastructure , contaminated venue , street encounter betweenpolice and protestors– nah , thanks . Yet , done right , the Olympics can catalyse long - lasting investment in public infrastructure and a city ’s overall character of life . Vancouver , British Columbia , for instance , made improvements for the 2010 Winter Olympics that still pay off . The once - winding - and - narrow Sea - to - Sky Highway from Vancouver to Whistler is now a faster , safer multi - lane pike . The metropolis expanded its commuter train - friendly light runway system to let in an airport ancestry that hustles people Downtown in 25 transactions . And venues like the Richmond Olympic Oval ( used for skate issue during the Games ) , are now community centers with a gym and volleyball courts receptive to the public .
But it takes a special metropolis to host the Olympics . The International Olympic Committee dictates a city must have an airport that can deal the inflow of travelers , a workforce of 200,000 multitude , 45,000 hotel rooms , an Olympic Village to catch some Z’s 16,500 jock and trainers , and space for 15,000 more broadcaster . It also must have some sort of public deportation to most venues , and have exist infrastructure to support the games .
Cities have to offer a lot to land an Olympics – but they also stand to make headway plenty . With that in nous , these are the American metropolis considerably suited to be an Olympic server in 2028 .
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Houston
Somehow no Texas city has ever been selected as the US legion bid to the International Olympic Committee . Both Dallas and Houston have been passed over by the US Olympic Committee in the last decade - plus , with the most rough-cut reasons cited : lack of public transportation and a weak worldwide brand indistinguishability . ( No one , it seems , desire to mess with Texas . ) But in the past few year , Houston has created new venues , green spaces , hotel rooms , and base that might make it the most prepared metropolis in America to hold such an issue .
Houston has , though , been building a global metropolis for a while now . The city build up the Museum District , an area with 19 large museum , include one of the top art museums in America . It turned a festering swamp into one of America ’s best urban green at Buffalo Bayou Park . Houston is making a $ 33 million restoration of historic Emancipation Park , and will have the classy miscellaneous - useMidtown Parkup and running soon . It also put $ 1.5 billion into the convention center , built three fresh stadiums , and educate a 22.7 - mile rail organisation to help still the incumbrance on its epical highway loops . While many city sing about becoming great , Houston and its public - individual partnerships have put money in the veracious places to do it .
The city already has great deal of venues . Two major sports stadium – Minute Maid Park and NRG Stadium – have been built in the past 15 years , joining the Downtown Toyota Center . The metropolis is build a young BMX parking area , and a reimagined Astrodome could be the coolest retro Olympic stadium in history . piss backwash and triathlons already befall in the Woodlands regularly , and the beach in Galveston , though not crystal blue , are still a hunky-dory setting for beach volleyball .
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An urbane metropolis literally building to this consequence
You make love which US city , after New York , build the most hotel rooms in 2015 ? Not Los Angeles . Not Vegas . Yeah , it was Houston . The city has a Modern 1,100 - way Marriott Marquis coming online next year and plans for several more 1,000 - room hotels . By the end of 2017 the metropolis – just the urban center proper – is projected to have 87,000 hotel room . And it already has more than 10,000 legal profession , restaurants , and social club .
The capper , though , for the Houston of the future is a eminent - speed runway task forecast to begin propel passenger in 2021 . By the late 2020s the propose lines could connect Houston , Dallas , and Austin with 90 - instant ride between them all . If everything run to design , holding association football matches at AT&T Stadium in Arlington or at Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin would earmark visitors to see those cities with just a Clarence Day trip . With ample hotel blank space , a person could come to Houston to see , say , gymnastics and grappling , take the train to Austin for a soccer game , spend the night , and return to Houston for judo the next day .
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That ’s all upright - pillow slip scenario for a major infrastructure labor , but it place to what Texas – and Houston – have to hit from getting it good . A Houston IOC command for 2028 would be regard around 2021 . Even with the inevitable delays ( much of the land is likely to be acquired via litigious eminent domain of a function proceedings ) there ’s a great chance the Japanese - build bullet gear between Houston and Dallas will be in shape by then , if not already in purpose . Earning an Olympics would legitimize non - highway passage task in a tight - growing res publica that will urgently need them by the mid-21st century . And it would give Houston a microscope stage on which to show the humanity that it has invest in becoming a top - tier metropolis .
Houston has shown it knows how to take on big projects – like the two Super Bowls it has hosted in the past 14 years . And Houston is underrated as a worldly city : its house physician utter more than 150 languages in one of America ’s most vivacious thawing pots . The place dismissed as having a weak double demand just one Olympic - sized snapshot to prove itself .
San Francisco
The key to hosting an Olympics in the 21st century is regionalization . Yes , the IOC order that a legion urban center must have the majority of Games , plus the opening and closing ceremonies . But to maximise the uncommitted work force , relaxation congestion , and take advantage of the best venue , a regional coming – like Atlanta took in 1996 – is the impertinent approach . And nobody does regionalization like California .
The major advantage San Francisco has over other parts of the state is its transit . For all the local kvetching about its transit systems , San Francisco ’s geartrain are some of the just in the country ; in recent field , they ranked second in the USfor accession to jobsandsecond overall . Around the Bay there ’s BART , with stops Downtown and near athletic venue in Oakland and Berkeley . The Capitol Corridor train link BART to Sacramento , and Caltrain connects the city right away to Silicon Valley . In all , transportation - approachable venues could cover a 100 - mile r .
The city ’s big at spiel horde . San Francisco has about 33,000 hotel room , but if you expound that out to the entire Bay Area that number far surpasses the 45,000 threshold , even more so if Sacramento is include . front to the University of California ’s San Francisco campus or to the University of San Francisco to host the Olympic Village ; or to Hunters Point , the last propose site for an Olympic Village in San Francisco ’s bid for 2024 . Done right – that is , with goals beyond simply maxing out profits – athletes ' housing could be repurposed as low - income caparison , which is in critically short supplying in San Francisco .
A unified Bay Area could persist a effect for years .
The Bay Area is saturate with sports venues , with a brand - newfangled Downtown basketball arena opening next yr and the 49ers ' fresh home , Levi ’s Stadium , only a year old , the newfangled venue mental synthesis in San Francisco would n’t be nearly on the scale other cities necessitate . It ’s potential that Oakland , San Francisco , and Sacramento all will have NBA venue still standing then . The waters around San Francisco Bay are perfect for sailing , but not far up the route in Sacramento , Lake Natoma and the Sacramento River extend unagitated waters for row and other water events .
The sticking point in the city ’s try at the 2016 Olympics came down to the deficiency of a site for an Olympic Stadium . On a tightly packed peninsula with zillion - dollar rip , where to erect that keystone venue , and what to do with it later , would likely be the greatest vault a ten from now . ( Though it ’s pretty much guarantee the A ’s will still take a sports stadium then . )
That challenge , though , as well as the groovy question of expenses , does offer the metropolis a chance to shape its identity for the next 100 . But as Texas has energy money , NorCal has tech money . Will these company pony up to put their names on Olympic venue ? Can they all pull in the same direction long enough to direct the world in something beyond source round and futurism ? The Olympics have a unknown power , on this count , to pull citizenry together . A unified San Francisco Bay Area would be a wonder to lay eyes on .
Orlando
Outside of New York City , Orlando is the most popular American destination for international traveler . That fact alone means people would flock to an Orlando Olympics more than any other metropolis in America , with a prospect to blend the pageantry of the Olympics with the pageantry ofSleeping Beauty . It ’s also the quickest - growing metropolis in America ’s third - largest state , meaning that over the next twelve years the substructure and amenities of the urban center will be expanding . Perhaps no American metropolis is well poised to produce to accommodate the Olympics . And with the second - most hotel way in America – more than 110,000 – it already has the space to legion .
The city itself has only a quarter - million the great unwashed , but much like San Francisco , Orlando is more of a region than a metropolis . To pull in a workforce , the Games can pull out from across central Florida , Cicily Isabel Fairfield into Polk County and Tampa Bay , and eastern United States into Daytona . The urban center is also home to the schoolhouse with the highest undergraduate enrollment in the commonwealth – the University of Central Florida , with more than 52,000 undergrad – that can provide thousands of seasonal worker . The UCF campus ( chided by students as standing for " Under Construction Forever " ) has enough land to build an Olympian village well , give the hundred - thousand - plus hotel rooms available for spectators and media .
In the preceding few years the metropolis has erected two new United States Department of State - of - the - art sports venue – the Amway Center Downtown and the upcoming Orlando City Stadium , to open in 2017 . tot that to the nine - yr - old Bright House Networks Stadium at UCF and the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex , and Orlando ’s need for newfangled locus would be minimal . Though the existing Citrus Bowl would postulate serious renovations to be an Olympic stadium , it can still be used for soccer , field field hockey , and other play if a fresh Olympic Stadium is build elsewhere . To regionalize the Games – and to bring spectators toFlorida ’s far-famed beaches– sports like sailing , beach volleyball , row , and triathlon could be held in Tampa and St. Petersburg , only a 90 - bit drive from the urban center .
A burgeoning city whose raison d’être is hospitality
Those commutes may get shorter yet . The res publica is currently build a high - upper gear from Miami to Orlando , but has thus far left Tampa out of the plans . Florida rail has been embattled for decades , and Gov. Rick Scott turning down $ 8 billion in federal fund in 2011 was a Brobdingnagian reversal . An Olympian tender could catalyse the mischievously needed Orlando - Tampa track connexion , which would ease the nightmarish congestion in the I-4 corridor and allow key Florida to spread its wings in the coming decades . A 2028 Olympic Games would bring a sense of function to the project , and just as significantly , a deadline .
And Orlando itself can handle an influx . Its external airport carries more passengers each year than Philadelphia , New York ’s LaGuardia , or Boston ’s Logan . The exist SunRail run north - south through the region , but with a successful play can be easily expand to extend to venues , with tidy sum of uncommitted soil and existing tracks .
But what make Orlando special is all there is to do outside the Games . The theme park at Walt Disney World and Universal Studios will make this a Games at which total family come to both watch sports and enjoy the parks . Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center , an 60 minutes eastward of the urban center , already handle more than a million tourists a twelvemonth . While one might not want to invest the time and money to move around so far just for the Olympics , class who combine the trip with a long - imagined Disney holiday could make this the most attended Games in history . If the Rosa Parks are n’t sell you , Orlando is also close to Winter Park ( one of America ’s best small cities for food ) and a burgeoning nightlife district on Church St. And there ’s always timeto drink around the world at Epcot .
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