A New York Olympics

The Olympics aren't coming to New York anytime soon.  I know this.  The bid for the 2012 Games went up in flames as soon as the plans for a West Side stadium that would eventually host the Jets were squashed and they had to change everything at the last minute to one centered around Citi Field.  (No comment on the fact that five new professional sports venues, which currently play home to six of the New York area's 11 teams, have been built since then.)

And with all of the problems potential Olympic bids have with garnering the requisite public support have had in recent years, the chances of New York bidding again in the near future seem unlikely.  Even if a New York bid were put together, the USOC would likely go with somewhere else unless that support was unwavering, if only to avoid another embarrassment like Boston.

Of course, we all know what happened there.  The USOC picked Boston as the American bid city for the 2024 Olympics, only to switch to Los Angeles after Boston balked.  The LA bid is stronger anyway and has a very good chance of winning (while Boston definitely wouldn't have), and I suspect that LA will be presented as the American candidate until the bid is successful.  But, assuming that LA does host the Olympics again, whether it be in 2024, 2028, 2032 or some other point in the future, the USOC will need to move on to a new bid city.  And they could choose worse places than New York.

With 11 professional teams (12 including the Liberty) and so many colleges, there are plenty of venues already in place to make use of.  And transportation, which plagued the Rio Games, would obviously not be much of an issue.  Sure, it can take a while to get places on the subway and some venues would require a lot of transfers, but it could be done.

Really, the biggest problem with using all of New York's existing venues is that they're so spread out, so there wouldn't be a centralized Olympic park.  And you'd still have to drive out to Hofstra or the renovated Nassau Coliseum.  Plus, figuring out a location for the Olympic Village would be a challenge, although I'd imagine one of the colleges could chip in some land in exchange for the apartments being turned into dorms post-Games, like Georgia Tech did for the Atlanta Olympics.

There are a couple other venues that would need to be built, as well.  The most obvious is an Olympic Stadium.  That West Side land is almost certainly not going to available, and Icahn Stadium on Randal's Island is too remote to renovate and make the main stadium.  So it would have to be a temporary venue or one that could ultimately be downsized (this would be the perfect scenario if New York City FC eventually gets its soccer-specific stadium).  Likewise, there are no velodromes anywhere in the city, and a stadium for swimming would have to be built (the Goodwill Games pool in Nassau County would be used for water polo and diving).

An IBC would also need to be constructed.  Although, NBC shoots many of its New York-based shows in the Chelsea Piers area, so those sound stages could conceivably be used as the IBC.

However, my hypothetical New York Olympics would be able to have something that no other Olympics (at least any in recent memory) has done--have all the soccer games in the host city.  No ridiculous traveling to Manaus (totally unnecessary as an Olympic soccer city).  We're making use of existing professional and college football/soccer venues, which would allow the soccer teams to stay in the Village and actually feel like they're a part of the Olympics.

My venue plan is different than the one presented to the IOC 11 years ago.  In addition to venues like the Barclays Center, which didn't exist in 2005, there are more sports in the Olympics than there were then.  And, for the sake of consistency, I'm using the sports on the program for Tokyo 2020 in my plan for NYC 2028.

BROOKLYN
Barclays Center: Basketball
Coney Island: Surfing
Olympic Aquatic Center: Swimming, Synchronized Swimming

BRONX
Pelham Bay Park: Modern Pentathlon
Pelham Bay Shooting Center: Shooting
Yankee Stadium: Baseball

MANHATTAN
Baker Field (Columbia): Field Hockey
Central Park: Archery, Beach Volleyball, Marathon (Finish)
Grand Central Station Atrium: Sport Climbing
Hudson River Park: Triathlon, Race Walk
Javits Center: Badminton, Fencing, Judo, Karate, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, Wrestling
Madison Square Garden: Gymnastics, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline
Madison Square Garden (Theater): Boxing
New York Harbor: Sailing, Swimming (Open Water)
Olympic Velodrome: Cycling (Track)
West Side Highway: Cycling (Road)

QUEENS
Flushing Meadows Corona Park: Canoe/Kayak, Rowing, Skateboarding
Olympic Stadium: Track & Field
USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center: Tennis

STATEN ISLAND
Greenbelt Park: BMX, Mountain Biking
Richmond County Bank Ballpark: Softball

LONG ISLAND
Belmont Park: Equestrian
Nassau Coliseum: Handball
Nassau County Aquatic Center: Diving, Water Polo

WESTCHESTER
Winged Foot Golf Club: Golf

NEW JERSEY
MetLife Stadium: Soccer (Finals)
Prudential Center: Volleyball
Red Bull Arena: Rugby

Soccer Venues: Citi Field (Queens), Icahn Stadium (Manhattan), Mitchel Field (Long Island), Rutgers Stadium (New Jersey), Shuart Stadium (Long Island)