Do you like when your country/city hosts world tournaments or do you find when they do annoying?

[Buzz Rules]

Do you like when your country/city hosts world tournaments or do you find when they do annoying? So if you have experienced the Olympics, World Cup, Euros, Gold Cup, Copa America, etc., did you enjoy the experience of hosting? Do you look forward to future events confirmed to be held in your country/city (even if you are not a sports fan)? I'm talking more about the fanfare and atmosphere around the events, rather than the matches/games themselves. Curious to hear everyone's thoughts. Thanks.

 

[tvguy]

Funny you asked Today is the California International Marathon here. 10,000 participants. Major streets closed, churches having to do services online, postponed or canceled, so people unable to get out of their houses for up to 5 hours if they didn't park there car outside the route.
Locals fought it for years, pointing out we have a 32 mile long biking and running trail along the river that would be a better option. Fell on deaf ears. We grocery shop early Sunday (this) morning. I had to alter my route, and it added about 10 minutes to my drive. So minor issue for me. The hotels make big money on it. An amazing number of churches are along the route, and it impacts them in a negative way, and I usually go to Cars and Coffee at a shopping center that is at a major intersection of the race, and when I went by they were empty. They usually do about $2,000 business on Sunday mornings from the car people.

 

[utahgirl]

Salt Lake City was just announced at a preferred city for the 2034 Winter Olympics. I was here when we hosted the 2002 and it was fun, but also a traffic nightmare. A good thing that happened was our infrastructure and liquor laws were updated. The 2002 winter games was one of the few/only time the a hosting state/country did not end up with a financial deficit and all the venues that were build or expanded are still in use.
If the games come back I don’t know if it would be as good financially for the city/state as there is not the same support from the local population who did all the volunteer work. I did see that the IOC as asked us to clean our air - we have terrible inversions during the winter- so if it takes the Olympics to have that happen, I’m all for it.

 

[Lord Manhammer]

Funny you asked Today is the California International Marathon here.

At the marathon in Krakow Poland, it runs through the city centre and they have a NIGHT 10k the evening before that takes off from the main square. This event is held in April and it was a lot of fun to happen to be there for it.

Salt Lake City was just announced at a preferred city for the 2034 Winter Olympics.

The IOC was pushing hard for Boston and, well, they learned that you don't push the city that hosted the infamous Tea Party. Boston pushed back hard and the idea was deep-sixed. Thank god too, the traffic in Boston is bad enough, but add the Olympics? good grief.