Billy Reed: An Olympic-sized idea to attract 2024 games via Ky-Ind-Ohio partnership

With Louisville, Kentucky, and Indiana all expected to rank very high in the college basketball preseason polls, you can imagine what it’s like to live in Louisville, Ky., these days. Even in the 100-degree days of June, the radio talk shows weren’t humming with talk of the Cincinnati Reds, Tiger Woods, or the upcoming football season. Nope, it’s hoops ‘round the calendar in these parts. Those who don’t like it are invited to move to South Dakota or Vermont or some other place where nobody is sure if college hoops even exist.

Even the Olympics haven’t drawn as much interest as college recruiting. There are fans – you know the type – who are far more interested in who’s coming than who’s there. It’s sick, if you ask me, but my older newspaper, The Courier-Journal, now devotes far more space and money to covering college hoops recruiting than it does to any endeavor other than basketball and football.

Undaunted, however, I remain devoutly interested in the Olympics and USA Basketball, our governing body. I guess it goes back to the days when our teams consisted mostly of college players, not NBA stars, and every four years it seemed as if coaches and players from Kentucky and Indiana always were in the mix.

Go back to the 1948 Games in London and you’ll see that the team included Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp as an assistant coach and all the starters on his “Fabulous Five” 1948 NCAA champs on the roster. Their names were Ralph Beard, Alex Groza, Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones, Kenny Rollins, and Cliff Barker. Please don’t mix them up with the discredited “Fab Five” from Michigan unless you really want to make me get my drawers in a wad.

Since then, our Olympic teams have included the likes of Kentucky’s Billy Evans (1956); Cincinnati’s Oscar Robertson, Indiana’s Walt Bellamy, and UK’s Adrian Smith (1960), Louisville native Mike Silliman of Army (1968); Georgetown College’s Kenny Davis (1972); Indiana’s Quinn Buckner (1976), UK’s Sam Bowie and Louisville’s Rodney McCray (1980), and IU’s Steve Alford (1984).

And thinking about these guys gave me an idea.

Since 1896, the Summer Olympic Games have been held in the United States four times – 1904 in St. Louis, 1932 and ’84 in Los Angeles, and 1996 in Atlanta. The 2016 Games already have been awarded to Rio de Janeiro, and the 2020 Games will go to Istanbul, Tokyo or Madrid. So proactive U.S. cities probably are already thinking about bidding for the 2024 Games.

Living as I do in Louisville, the hub of the best college hoops region in the nation, I’d like to see the cities of Louisville, Lexington, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati form a partnership to bid on the 2024 Games. I’m as serious as John Calipari in a blue-chip recruit’s home. Let me tell you why.

If the Olympics, like real estate, is all about “location, location, location,” all four of cities are smack-dab in the nation’s middle, easily accessible to the rest of the nation by President Eisenhower’s interstate highway system. They’re located in such close proximity to each other that nobody would ever have to drive more than three hours to see or participate in an event. Plus, the Greater Cincinnati airport in Northern Kentucky is a hub for Delta Airlines and the Louisville International airport at hub for UPS.

Heck, maybe the three states involved – Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio – could even work out a deal with the federal government to build a light rail system to connect the four cities. Why not? Isn’t it about time that we were developing new infrastructure to promote economic development and tourism?

The area is known for its ability to put on big events, beginning with the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville and the Indianapolis 500 at the Motor Speedway there. Louisville, Indianapolis, and Lexington all have been host cities to NCAA Final Fours. The Super Bowl has been held in Indy at Lucas Oil Stadium and the Ryder Cup at Valhalla in Louisville.

Facilities? Heck, the area would be able to find a venue for every Olympic event without building anything new. I seriously doubt if any other area of the nation can make that claim.

The opening and closing ceremonies would be held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, which has played host to both a Super Bowl and an NCAA Final Four. Its retractable roof means that rain would not be a problem. I’d also make Lucas Oil the site of the track-and-field events.

The equestrian events would be held at the Kentucky Horse Park outside Lexington. In 2010, the World Equestrian Championships were held here, the first time that event had ever been held outside Europe, and the facilities got rave reviews.

I’d put men’s basketball in Louisville’s state-of-the art KFC Yum! Center and women’s hoops at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (home of the Pacers). Maybe Rupp Arena in Lexington could be used for gymnastics, both artistic and rhythmic.

The Ohio River, from Louisville to Cincinnati, would be the venue for beach volleyball, canoe racing (slalom and sprint), sailing, and rowing.

Tennis would go to the Linder Family Tennis Center in Cincinnati; swimming, diving and synchronized swimming at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis; volleyball to Memorial Coliseum in Lexington; trampoline to Broadbent Arena in Louisville; and wrestling to the Kentucky International Convention Center, also in Louisville..

How about badminton at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, soccer at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, volleyball at Freedom Hall in Louisville, boxing at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, table tennis at Bellarmine University’s Knights Hall, judo at Transylvania University’s Beck Center, and handball at Xavier University’s Cintas Center?

And what are we going to do with Churchill Downs and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway? Maybe cycling (BMX, Mountain Bike, Road, and Track) would work at one of those iconic venues, modern pentathlon at the other. Perhaps the Keeneland race course in Lexington could become the triathlon home.

That leaves archery, field hockey, shooting, Taekwondo, and water polo. But I guarantee there’s an excellent place in the area for each. Heck, I haven’t even talked about using Indiana University’s facilities in Bloomington – might be a great place for cycling, considering the history of the “Little 500” – or the new 9,000-seat arena at Northern Kentucky University outside Cincinnati.

To put in a credible bid for the 2024 Summer Games would require a lot of cooperation and imagination. But I see no reason why it couldn’t be done if the governors of Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio made up their minds to do it. It would be a “regional” Olympics, but isn’t that really what we had in L.A.? Heck, if they can’t get it done, turn it over to a committee consisting of Calipari, Rick Pitino, Tom Crean, and Mike Cronin. They probably could sweet-talk Nike and Addidas into forming a partnership to sponsor everything.

The next available Olympics is only 12 years away. It’s time for the wheels to start turning in the statehouses of the three states. I’m already having visions of Dick Vitale running the Olympic torch into Lucas Oil Stadium.

Billy Reed is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame and the Transylvania University Hall of Fame. He has been named Kentucky Sports Writer of the Year eight times and has won the Eclipse Award twice. Reed has written about a multitude of sports events for over four decades, but he is perhaps one of media’s most knowledgeable writers on the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky’s spectacular annual event.