Will the U.S ever host another worlds fair?

The last worlds fair we had in the U.S was in 1982. That got me to thinking"What are the chances of us doing another worlds fair?

I found a site with some pictures from the 1982 worlds fair.

http://groups.msn.com/The1982WorldsFairinPhotographs

Although after looking at these pictures, the 1982 fair looked kind of lame compared to past world fairs(1964).

New Orleans hosted the Louisiana World Exposition in 1984.

I went to the '82 World's Fair....wish I had known about this hobby back then, I know there WERE amusement rides there. Not that I was smart enough to get ON any of them...LOL!

On a poisitive note, did get to go to Dollywood before it was Dollywood. Silver Dollar City then. It was kinda weird going on Blazing Fury again after almost 20 years...and with an *entirely* different perspective.

The 1982 World's Fair SUCKED! :( EVERYBODY I talked to who went to that fair did EXACTLY the same thing I did while I was there. (They spent ONE DAY at the Fair then BEELINED over to Gatlinburg to spend the rest of their Vacation in the Smokies!)

I thought about going to the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans until I talked to some people who visited it and replied that the '82 Fair was BETTER! I WAS going to pass up the one in 1986 but some dude named "Juan" Trashed all the White Water Rafting places in West Virginia in the the fall of '85, forceing me to postphone that trip. However, Air Canada then announced that they were selling Round-Trip Airline Tickets from Windsor, Ontario to Vancouver, British Columbia for $159.00 Round Trip! (In comparison a Round-Trip Airline Ticket from Detroit, Michigan to Orlando, Florida went for $179.00) With my plans for my West Virginia Shot, I purchased a set of tickets and went to Vancouver, and that Fair KICKED BUTT! (I spent three days there, and on my last day I had to make some tough decisions on what exhibits to see and what ones I would have to miss!)

BTW the best Pavilions at the 1986 World's Fair were the Russian, Chinese and French Pavilions, they had extensive exhibits on their Space Programs. (The Russians had a walk-through of their MIR Space Station and the French had their HERMES Space Shuttle - which they've never used! :)

I know this might be a dumb question, but I wasn't around during that time, what was the World's Fair? I never understood what it was exactly.

Worlds Fairs in history were famous for showcasing the latest technology. Todays latest technology is micro chips and such.

Imagine in 1939 seeing your first Television 190 something seeing your first cities lit up by electric? Today your bombarded with comercials of HDTV and GPS or the latest cell phone.

Until they can make me feel the hit in a football game. Im not really interested :)

1982 kinda proved a point, People will not travel for a event that has little for them. Knoxville TN redid every highway, Rebuilt several city blocks ect and lost a bundle.

Chuck, who just don't see it happening unless they are gonna let people drive hydrogen cars and the first flying cars. *** Edited 8/31/2006 1:40:34 AM UTC by Charles Nungester***

Hmm...

The 1982 Worlds Fair in Knoxville, TN... the only thing I remember about that was a 1996 or 1997 episode of The Simpsons where Bart, Milhouse, Martin, & Nelson rent a Ford Taurus and goto Knoxville only to find out the worlds fair has some giant sphere on a tower that holds a bunch of wigs.

I guess life imitates art... because maybe it wasn't far from the truth.

I DID hear that Toronto, CA is trying to win the bid to host the next Worlds Fair... and that's pretty damn close to the United States! Even though Toronto already has a tower (remember: Seattle, WA got their Space Needle from a Worlds Fair)... they could come up with something else to dot their skyline.

That brings up another question.

Could a U.S city afford to do a worlds fair today?

On the tax payer dime? yeah spread out over 20 years.

It also goes hand in hand with Olympics cost. China is outspending every previous Olympic venue by a factor of five for their upcomming winter olympics to show off their newfound prosperity.

Chuck

^And yet once again no one will care. :) No one really watches the Winter Olympics anyway over here in the US -- except hockey. Well I guess all of those female viewers must love the figure skating since they show that sooooo much. *gag*

I like curling the best!!! :)

Swoosh - you miss the beauty of figure skating. It's like watching NASCAR: you're just waiting for someone to crash ;)

I was really getting into Curling. Ok, I was just watching all the cute foriegn women in spandex like outfits :)

I dig on the snowboarding. That looks so fun!

LOL Chuck...I like the spandex outfits for a slightly different reason ;)

China doesn't even have the winter Olympics, they have the summer Olympics in 2008, the next winter Olympics are in vancouver in 2010.

And yea they are spending a ton of money on building really odd looking buildings to host the games.

Count me in on the bandwagon that really got into watching Curling during the Olympics.

We had a good run there this year, towards the end, much better than could be expected for a nation where Curling is not exactly a top sport.

Is this like a 'coaster nerd corollary' or what? I was deep into curling. Actually, i've been interested in it for several years from a previous olympics. I was suprised at the amount of curling that was shown on TV this year. Methinks the "Women of Curling Calendar" had a lot to do with that. ;)
lata, jeremy

^I agree with Matt! Snowboarding rules! Um, I mean watching snowboarding. ;)

I can only WISH I was as good as those guys and gals. Well, I kick butt on SSX if that counts. ;)

By the way, I had that SAME Kool-Aid T-shirt that is in one of those 1982 pics.

And I still have most of those tunes on vinyl. :)

-Tina

*** Edited 8/31/2006 1:01:10 PM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

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Mamoosh said:
LOL Chuck...I like the spandex outfits for a slightly different reason

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But it's too cold outside for anything to happen... good thing for the riders, bad thing for Moosh!

I'm not even sure these are relevant anymore. When most people didn't manage to travel anywhere else, they were really big deals. Now I can fly to Europe for less than $500 if I time it right----only about 2x as much as a leisure fare from Detroit to Knoxville.

I went to the '82 worlds fair. I thought it was pretty cool. We also went to Opryland for a day.