01 cover sbi 152.indd - FIFA/CIES International University Network

aGeNDa
aMerICa The ParIah
rick Burton asks if it might now be another decade before the uS hosts one
of sport’s major events.
I oPeNeD MY NewSPaPer this morning to
read that an American racing team (Charlotte,
North Carolina’s US F1) was thinking of joining
the Formula One circuit. Interestingly, it will
serve as the first US-based F1 team in 40 years.
That’s quite a while.
It’s been even longer - 42 years - since an
American-based team won an F1 race - Dan
Gurney in his black No. 36 Eagle-Weslake in
1967 at Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps - and
more than 30 years since an American (well,
okay, a naturalised American - Mario Andretti)
won the FIA world title in 1978.
Those are only trivial tidbits (including the
fact America has not hosted an F1 race since
2007 in Indianapolis) but it caused me to think
about America’s future involvement in global
sports and the act (or art) of playing with the
other kids in the world’s sand box.
The most obvious place to start was with
the Olympics and dissecting Chicago’s firstround
departure from bidding to host the 2016
Summer Olympic Games. As we all know,
Chicago and the US Olympic Committee lost
badly and since then much has been written
about the Americans not really understanding
FACT OF THE MONTH:
how the IOC really works (see Communiqué).
That is undoubtedly unfair to the many
Americans who worked tirelessly for Chicago’s
bid during the last three years because those
individuals always knew the USOC was standing
outside the IOC’s Swiss-based windows looking
in. They simply couldn’t change the physical
choices and statements made by various USOC
representatives during the last 10 years. The
damage, if that’s what one would call how
America conducted itself overseas, ran very deep.
Or as Kurt Vonnegut often wrote in
Slaughterhouse-Five, “So it goes.”
Regardless, with Chicago leaving the party
early, Rio de Janeiro went on to win big, thanks
largely to a great branding campaign. Americans
quickly returned to their North American-only
National Football League (NFL), Major League
Baseball, NCAA college gridiron and launch of
another NHL season.
But here’s an interesting statistic: With
the US now out of hosting the 2016 and 2018
Olympic Games and unlikely to bid for the 2020
Summer Games (possibly sulking after losing
2012 to London and then 2016), it is likely at
least a decade will go by before a major global
three hIll WInS often reQuIred to BeCome four hIllS ChAmPIon
The annual Ski Jumping Four Hills Tournament takes place in December and January. Five of the last
10 overall winners of the competition have won at least three of the four hills on their way to the title.
overall four hills Tournament winners with at least three hill wins in one season
# name nation oberstdorf garmisch Innsbruck Bischofshofen Season
4 Sven Hannawald Ger 1 1 1 1 2001/2002
3 björn Wirkola Nor 1 1 1 2 1968/1969
3 Jens Weißflog GDr 2 1 1 1 1983/1984
3 matti Nykänen FIN 2 1 1 1 1987/1988
3 Toni Nieminen FIN 1 2 1 1 1991/1992
3 Janne Ahonen FIN 1 1 1 2 2004/2005
3 Wolfgang Loitzl AUT 2 1 1 1 2008/2009
3 olav björnstad Nor 1 1 1 3 1953/1954
3 björn Wirkola Nor 3 1 1 1 1966/1967
3 Andreas Widhölzl AUT 3 1 1 1 1999/2000
3 Toralf engan Nor 1 1 1 4 1962/1963
3 Sigurd Pettersen Nor 1 1 4 1 2003/2004
3 max Wolkart FrG 1 1 1 5 1958/1959
3 Kazuyoshi Funaki JPN 1 1 1 8 1997/1998
3 Helmuth recknagel GDr 1 1 1 15 1958/1959
event plants its flag on American soil again. It
seems likely the 2018 FIFA World Cup will go
to a European country and we know Rugby’s
World Cup and the Cricket World Cup have both
been bid out through 2019 (meaning 2023 is the
next available date). That’s three more Summer
Olympics and three more FIFA, IRB and
ICC World Cups (each) all closed out through
2020. And no possibility of a US-based Winter
Olympics until 2022.
Even in the short term, just one single year,
no F1 races will take place in the US in 2010 nor
is there an America’s Cup or golfing Ryder Cup,
which heads to Wales in October 2010. Even in
the Davis Cup (tennis), the Americans open on
the road in Serbia.
That means no international events in the
US in 2010 except the familiar major tennis
tournaments (i.e., US Open or a later round of
the Davis Cup) and major golf tournaments (the
Masters, etc.).
And lest anyone feel I am deliberately leaving
out the biggest international federations, let’s
address those sports here and now.
To the best of my research capabilities, it
appears FINA’s 2011 and 2013 swimming world
championships are going to Shanghai and
Dubai; the IAAF’s 2011 and 2013 world athletics
championships will play out in Daegu (South
Korea) and Moscow; the FIG 2010 and 2011
world artistic gymnastics championships are
headed to Rotterdam and Tokyo and the 2010
and 2011 world figure skating championships
are slated for Turin and Nagano.
Plus - and I write this as the former
commissioner of a basketball league with teams
in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore - FIBA’s
2010 and 2014 men’s basketball championships
will take place in Istanbul and Madrid with the
women’s world championships for those years in
12 SportBusiness International • no. 152 • 12.09