Agree on the basis of this.    But let's take a look at the recently added sports.   For how many of them you could absolutely say they have gained interest and are trending positively. I can for only rugby and climbing. Of course rugby has been popular for decades, they only needed to figure out the perfect format for the OG. Sport climbing on the other hand is the only new sport, which has seen a rapid expansion in the past 10 years. No one was taking it seriously as a real sport a decade ago, but now it has grown in different parts of the World, the fan and media interesting is rising. And it gets more popular and popular.    I wouldn't say the same for skateboarding and surfing. I think their popularity isn't at all that high compared to the 90s and early 2000s. In that period they were much more popular in the American / Canadian zeitgeist from what i recall.    Many of the other sports are just host fodder and/or are basically a 3-5 country sports. Flag football, cricket, lacrosse, baseball, breaking have limited appeal. What is the justifiable reason for adding them, beside the host jerking for throwing a ton of money for organizing the Games.    And here lies the IOC's flow. Instead of firstly help growing and popularizing these sports before adding them, they first bring them on the OG in the hope that will automatically make these sports more trendy. It doesn't...   If you want to include lacrosse, then the IOC should work with the Governing body and all the National Associations in making a campaign to familiarize it around the World. Say you are including lacrosse, but in 3 Games time, so there is time to make an International footprint. After 8 years if you can make a Lacrosse World Championship with 24-32 teams, then including it at the OG makes it a much, much bigger factor.    Now they beat their drum "We are including new sports, look how modern and urban we are", when the truth is they are a joke event with 6 teams, which gives absolutely nothing for growing said sport and is just another statistic. 

A lot of young people start rowing while at university so they do provide many of the rowers we see on the international stage. However, there are lots of rowing clubs that are happy to take in members of all ages and backgrounds and most if not all make their equipment available to them. They don't expect you provide your own boat although I'm sure you can if you want. My local club are content whether you want to be a recreational or competitive rower, whether you're a junior or a veteran.    Most of the costs are associated with international rowing teams but that applies across many of the Olympic sports. You mention the issue of venues but presumably this also applies to sprint Canoeing which invariably use the same courses.

And ice hockey could be part of the Summer Olympics, considering that seems to never end during the year  

One of those 20 countries here: we'd love the theoretically free cyclo-cross medals, as long as an NOC can send 6-7 athletes per team, so we can send the entire world's top-6     That's us for the women, Belgium says the same for the men I think. Massively in favour!   Also, korfball please.

Sure, but she has been riding for Canyon/SRAM for years now, it's quite common in cycling to not be based in one's home country  

A quick search suggests that the price may indeed not be that high (unless at some point you need your own boat of course), but it does also seem like it's mostly student teams or things in some way related to an educational institution, which is a bit of an odd barrier to have to go through.   There might be things I'm missing though which would make it easier for someone who isn't a student to just join and start.

Yes, but not at the same extent at which would happen if Cross Country was added. Training between bobsled and athletics and running and cross country is very different

Yep, that I was aware of, but to the non-American it always feels so odd when suddenly a whole team is just picked up and moved to a different place and kind of seen as a continuation of the same team, despite being something entirely different    

It’s not about Ireland. We’re as likely to win at cross country running as we are skeleton   But you can’t say “it never ceases to amaze me how much it bothers people” when the thought of cross country running in the Olympics has clearly made you angry. Ha   FWIW, it doesn’t bother me if it’s included or not. I find the gatekeeping around it hysterical though   

Cross-sport participation exists. We have athletic athletes participating in bobsled and cyclists participating in speed skating