Birmingham, Alabama, mayor wants Olympics in 2020

`Why not Birmingham?' mayor asks

Saturday, June 21, 2008
JOSEPH D. BRYANT
News staff writer

In just 47 days, thousands of athletes will converge on Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games and millions around the world will tune in to watch the best in the world compete.

If Mayor Larry Langford has his way, that same spotlight will be on Birmingham in 2020. Langford is putting together a committee to make a bid to bring the Olympic Games to the Magic City.

"Why not Birmingham? - that's my question," Langford said Friday. "You don't know what you can do till you try it. We've got everything it takes to make it work."

Langford said the committee will evaluate all available athletic facilities in Birmingham and neighboring cities in making the application.

By 2020, as the mayor sees it, all the city projects currently envisioned, including an indoor track and Olympic-sized swimming facilities at Fair Park and a domed stadium would be completed.

"That's the beauty of a 12-year planning period," Langford said.

Birmingham has passed an early test in hosting the games, the mayor said, referring to 1996 when the city hosted Olympic soccer competitions. Atlanta hosted the Olympics that year. Like Atlanta and other host cities, Langford said Birmingham would undertake a massive building campaign to prepare to host the world.

"We are an international city," he said. "The whole world looks at Birmingham either in a positive light or a negative light."

The games would positively change the image of the city, he said.

If successful, Birmingham would be among the smallest cities to ever host the games. Helsinki, Finland, with a metro area today about the same size as Birmingham's, hosted the 1952 Summer Games.

The idea of bringing the Olympics to Birmingham also was presented by State Rep. John Rogers in 2005 as he lobbied for funding for a domed stadium at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex.

But winning the games is a complex process of competing against other cities and making one stand out as the best.

"The primary obstacle is having the sufficient infrastructure to support the Olympic Games," said Louis Marino, a University of Alabama business professor who studies business-government relationships and partnerships. "Could it happen? Yes. Is it likely to happen? No. But that shouldn't stop one from dreaming."

Infrastructure including upgrades at the Birmingham International Airport, mass transportation improvements and additional hotels are all needed to support the games, he said. The costs are high and money is tight, Marino said.

"Given the time frame that we're shooting for, I don't think it's one that we could really achieve," he said.

`A lot of commitment':

Atlanta was able to land the'96 games as the result of massive marketing efforts from the corporate community in addition to the existence of a strong infrastructure already present in that city, said Barry Copeland, executive vice president of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce.

"That just doesn't happen overnight," he said. "There is a corporate piece, and it would require a lot of commitment and a lot of thought to work with the government entities to do that."

In Birmingham, Copeland said, mass transit improvement must occur, public/private partnerships must be enhanced, and a building campaign for new venues must be launched to make a successful Olympic bid.

"Is it possible? Sure, anything is possible," Copeland said. "The most positive thing that could come out of that would not be the Olympic Games. The most positive thing would be that we figured out how to work together."

In spite of the obstacles, Langford said he'll work to assemble his team to study what's needed and make the application. He'll announce the task force members next week.

E-mail: jbryant@bhamnews.com




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