Birmingham’s 2020 Olympic Games Hopes Possible, Sports Expert Says

By Scott Mauldin
Senior reporter
Published: July 22, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala—A man known for his U.S. Olympic Committee connections and his abilities to lure global sporting events to the Southeast gave city leaders an energetic talk about Alabama’s chances to host the 2020 Olympic Games, an idea being pushed by Birmingham Mayor, Larry Langford.

Ron Creel is the president of a group called the Alabama Sports Festival. Mayor Langford wants Creel’s group to direct exploratory work about Birmingham’s host city potential.

“This is a do-able deal. It’s going to take a lot of hard work. It’s going to take a lot of work in individuals’ parts,” Creel said.

Creel is a former U.S.Olympic Committee Board member, and he helped Atlanta win the 1996 games, which included events that spilled into Alabama and Florida. He says Birmingham’s goal for the 2020 games will formally kick off within weeks.

“This is going to be a regional effort. We got to sell the region, but we can’t sell anybody until we come up with a plan, so we’re going to involve a lot of communities, Tuscaloosa, definitely the University of Alabama, the colleges in this region,” Creel said.

Langford has proposed offering athletic and hosting facilities as far away as Auburn University and in nearby states, to win the games. That’s a similar approach to Atlanta’s hosting 12 years ago.

If Birmingham wants to attract the Olympic Games, the city would possibly need a larger airport, more mass transit, new hotels and better infrastructure, plus up-scale athletic facilities and a large arena in which to host the opening and closing ceremonies.

“Everybody wants to know how much is it going to cost. I tell folks, you’re getting the cart before the horse. Give the committee a chance to come up with the report and all this will be in the report,” Creel said.

Mayor Langford is pledging a full-force sprint to win the games here, but he admits there are many unanswered questions. 

“You win even if you don’t get the games,” Langford said.

The Mayor went on to say that announcing the city’s Olympic interest has already given the area global news coverage.

Birmingham’s Olympic Committee members could be in place and announced to the public within three weeks, according to planners working with the Mayor’s office.