Big Picture stuff:
1. Have an Olympics every year. Right now, there's one every two years, and that's cool. The winter sports get their own thing, and everything else is in the Summer. The problem is that there are so many different events in the Summer Olympics. In the Winter Olympics, at least there are some common threads that bring the events together, like needing ice or snow as part of the sport, right? In the Summer, it's basically "Does it not require ice or snow?" What if there were also a Spring and Fall Olympics? It think it would be pretty easy to create a kind of "anchor" sport for each one. Swimming, Track and Field, and Gymnastics seem like the Big 3, and might be good ones to coalesce things around. Track and Field would be a great Spring sport - those athletes were really suffering and struggling in the heat there in Rio. Swimming is perfect for Summer, because it's the Summer. Water in general, right? And gymnastics, along with many of the indoor competitions, is great for Fall.
This would make it a lot easier to do #2:
2. Have more different sports. Not necessarily a ton more, but more. There are some great sports out there that people do, but there's just no room in the existing framework to add them. Maybe I don't pay that much attention to handball or water polo, but I appreciate that they're happening. I caught some women's rugby this time around and pretty much watched with my mouth hanging open the whole time - it's an amazing sport! I want to see more diverse sports being competed. I love variations on themes, too - You know how in swimming there are dozens of different events? I want to see more events around archery or shooting, for example - I saw one each. But if you can swim a 50m Freestyle, and be part of a medley, and do the 100m breaststroke, etc. and win 10 gold medals for being the best swimmer ever, I'd like to see an archer be able to show their skill in 5 or 6 events, if they qualify, and show how they're the best archer in the world at all kinds of archery, and not just the one event we get to see.
3. Location, Location, Location - the world championships of all kinds of sports happen where there are existing venues. I get that the Olympics are supposed to be this big economic boon to the countries and cities where they are held, but everything I've read about it shows that it actually destroys everything it touches. The number of places where it's possible to host a Winter Olympics is dwindling. Why not establish a rotation of around 10 or 12 locations worldwide where the Olympics will be held. If new cities and countries want to host an Olympics, maybe they start out hosting world championships of particular sports, and go up from there. I'm just tired of hearing about all the human rights violations, destruction of historic areas, and stuff like that to pave the way for an event that may cause more problems for the host country than they solve.
Viewing Choices: This encompasses a lot, but in the age of the Internet, I feel like something better is possible than filling up my DVR with hours and hours of programming.
4. Stop showing me half of an event. The commercial interruptions of "live" coverage seem a little absurd. I'd rather have a 15 minute delay or something, and not miss the beginning or ending of an athlete's performance. If any sponsors think I'm going to buy their product when it was their commercial that kept me from seeing the beginning of one of the ribbon dancer's rhythmic gymnastics final, they're insane. Also, I DVR'd it, so I just fast forwarded through the commercials anyway.
5. I like to see athletes from all over the world. Maybe there are specific athletes from different countries, or whole countries whose athletes I'm interested in. For the most part, the way Olympics coverage works now, unless something amazing or terrible happens, I'm only watching events that have Americans in them.
6. Make better use of the Internet - I know there were more Internet options this year, and there were On Demand options, but both were a little clunky to me. I mean, you've got this portal where people can dig deep into something they're interested in, right? So why is it that when I go to the Olympics coverage at NBC, and pick Archery, I get to watch one 2-minute clip? This should be the way I get to watch 7 hours of Archery coverage.
7. I want being an Olympics fan to be part of my daily life - Do I? Sure I do. Every 2 years, I get exciting about watching thousands of athletes compete in hundreds of sports, some of which I don't understand in the slightest. Cable TV is the perfect place to have an Olympics channel. Year-round Olympics. Retrospectives, biographies, controversies. In the months leading up to an Olympics, highlights and events showing how different athletes are progressing toward the games. It was really fun this year watching the Olympic Trials in Track and Field this year - I was able to see a little more of the "Road to Rio" and be rooting for some specific athletes as they competed in their events.
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