How To Make The Winter Olympics Better

                                           

Alright, I'm not gonna go back and rehash what I've hated about these Torino Olympics.  Just go to these blog entries for a refresher course:

Dude, These Winter Olympics Are Sooooo Bogus!!
How Weir-d?
Oh, Those Wacky Olympics

I will tell you what I've liked.  Torino.  Looks like a cool place to go....the games have been hotly contested by the Euros....and there hasn't been a whiff of a real scandal of these games. 

But, as you know...the American Hype Machine fell flat on it's face and the ones that actually performed have to hold news conferences about how they hate each other.  Not to mention that the ratings for the games are horrible.  This is where I come in.  There is much room for improvement for these games.

PUT THEM BACK IN THE SAME YEARS AS THE SUMMER GAMES:  In 1994, the IOC began the Winter Games for the two years between the Summer Games.  So now, we get Winter Games....two years...Summer Games....two years...Winter Games...and so on.  Move it back.  Start in 2012.  After the Vancouver Games on 2010....have a quick turnaround [like they did in 1992 to 1994] into the next Winter Games in 2012.  Hold it in February....and then you have the London Summer Games about 6 months later.  It works all the way around.  Look, we all know about the Summer Games for a while before they begin.  The Winter Games would be the appetizer for the Summer Games and would get more pub.  Media member would have their Olympic Troop assembled and ready for both games....just like it used to be. 

LET SOMEONE OTHER THAN NBC DO THE GAMES:  Nothing at all against NBC.  But, let one of the other networks do it.  That's called "competition".  I'm all for keeping the Summer Games on NBC....but let CBS or ABC get the Winter Games back [or let Fox get a hold of 'em] and maybe show us something different for a change.  No offense to NBC, but their stock of sportscasters over the past few years has been from Nascar and Arena Football. 

COME UP WITH A BETTER PLAN FOR VIEWING:  Look, we Americans are selfish and want our games live in primetime...but it obviously doesn't work that way.  We learned this the hard way when the Summer Games were in Sydney and the Winter Games in Nagano.  We had no idea if what we were watching was live, taped from earlier in the day, or last week.   We loved the Salt Lake Games since they were here and on live during our normal viewing hours. 

So the television networks need to come up with something a bit better than "tape delays" suspense highlights.  In the age where every body has a cell phone and most are linked up to the internet....everyone knows what happened.  If I watched ESPNews just once, I know the deal.  There is no "suspense".  Have the nads to show the live stuff on during the day [sorry ladies....no soaps] with a nice a neat wrap up hour or two or three at night.  Don't have the games live on USA, uh Bravo, uh MSNBC.  Most people have no idea what channels those are!  [Well, leave men's figure skating on Bravo].

This, of course, lends to people caring to watch something they know....but it happens.  That's why highlight shows [like SportsCenter, The Soup, um...the NEWS] come in handy.  If there is buzz....show it in all is drippy drama.  Instead, the nightcast act like we have no idea what happened....and that all this crap is going on all at once.  It's like watching a golf tournament at different venues.  "And now we go to Sasha Cohen at the rink".  ESPN does a great job in this area.  Their "instant classics" get good ratings because people want to be in the know.  They can say they watched it live....even if they didn't. 

UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS AMERICA....AND WE DON'T CARE:  Sorry,but the Winter Olympics are at a bad time for us.  They started, like, a week after the Super Bowl ended.  The American sports brain is trained for Super Bowl....some chill time of a couple weeks....then March Madness.  During these Olympics, we've had spring training camps opening in baseball, an NBA All Star Game, college hoops getting down to the wire and the normal NFL trappings. 

Dude....the freaking WINTER X GAMES were going on at the same time!!!!

With all that going on,you cannot expect us to shove that aside and watch ice dancing, speed skating and biathalon....can you???

And my biggest change....

MOVE SOME OF THE SUMMER EVENTS TO THE WINTER GAMES:  We have pretty much snowy events in the Winter Games.....and everything else gets to go to the Summer Games.  Why?  This is 2006...not the early 1900s when logistics was a much harder task.  We don't even have REAL snow anymore, for crying out loud! 

So, move volleyball to the Winter Games.  We still have beach volleyball in the Summer Games [and NBC loved showing it!].  So why not have the indoor volleyball event in the summer games?  Really, hockey is the lone "team sport" in the Winter Games....so adding that could be beneficial. 

Maybe move boxing to the Winter Games as well.  Boxing gets overlooked in the Summer Games and could soar in the Winter.  Again, an indoor event so it matters not when it is held.  Stuff like badmiton, ping-pong and weightlifting could also head over to the Winter Games.  That doesn't work for every sport.  Don't move gymnastics....because the Winter Games already have ice skating.  Don't move basketball....because it would screw up every existing league in the world to make that move.