Is it too fanciful to imagine Detroit as an Olympic city? Is it worthwhile to do so? The Olympics are not a panacea for economic and social problems. There’s also plenty of evidence the money spent on Olympic facilities does not produce any long term benefits, as the facilities lie idle or underutilized after the Games.

For a city like Detroit, hosting an Olympic Games requires reimagining how they are organized. Here is an imagined path to a 2048 Detroit Olympics.

Suppose the ignominy of yet another scandal forced the International Olympic Committee to rethink its policies, its practices, and its priorities. Following a lengthy internal review, the IOC’s leadership decided they could no longer lean on host cities to provide ever more lavish facilities with no practical use after the event. It was time to return to the Games’ roots, the simple idea of athletes from around the world coming together to compete. Too much of Olympic razzmatazz had come to focus on brand new extravagant showcases rather than on the humanity of the athletes. The stage had become more important than the play.

Once the IOC recognized that it had to change its ways, the power balance flipped and it was now the Committee that had to make the offer, and the city that had to be persuaded. The world would still want to watch the athletes, but the Games would be scaled down to human proportions. Suppose the IOC decided to stop ferreting out cities that were prepared to spend money on white elephants. Instead, they turned to a city that had a proven commitment to sport, at a scale that served the community. 

All of a sudden, Detroit would look near perfect. As a world-class sports city, it was well endowed with facilities of all kinds, including venues to practice. The partnership between Detroit and Windsor to create a cross-border Games was a key factor for the IOC. So in the end, the two countries created a fifty-mile Olympic zone around Detroit, taking down the border for the duration of the event. 

At the time, many cities had bowed out of the Olympic bid business—too expensive, too inconvenient. But Detroit’s citizens were behind it from the start: Motown is known for its sports, after all, with a long and proud history. A City of Champions would now bring the champions to the city. But the final nod also came as belated recognition of the many times Detroit had offered and had been turned down: a bit of restitution for the shenanigans of the past. 

For a few summer weeks every four years, one city becomes the center of the world of sports—it is second only to the FIFA World Cup in global viewership. The State of Michigan, which had treated Detroit as a stepchild for so long, finally saw a city worth investing in: suddenly, there was money for public transportation systems that linked Detroit to its suburbs—and the suburbs, in turn, were happy to claim Detroit as their own for once. 

To be sure, there were critical voices as well. For some, any investment in America’s cities is wasteful by definition and must always be opposed. Elsewhere, skeptics were wondering if the money could not be spent on better things than a two-week jock party. But the Olympics were changing, and the new model prioritized the city over the glitz. The supporters won the debate handily.