The Olympics

[Scottishbengal]

The "British" Olympics are heading for London.

I'm really p1ssed it didn't go to Paris or any of the other contenders, and here's why.

I have an indifference/dislike for non-competitive sports anyway but that's not the real issue. The media have been sucking on the "what a glorious occassion, what a great thing to happen" theme all day - saying it will make such a difference to the lives of us Brits - but I fail to see what the great attraction is.

1. TV coverage: well, I don't watch athletics anyways and I can't see that the TV coverage will be any greater because the games are in London as opposed to anywhere else really.

2. Sporting prowess: as I don't (and I'm very unlikely to) participate in the games this point again misses me.

3. It will bring sport to the front. Well, sport is pretty massive in the UK anyway and I believe that the minority sports will still largely be ignored by the masses.

4. It will leave a legacy for future generations. Like the whole array of wonderful sporting venues available to the people of Manchester following the Commonwealth Games - NOT!

Or that wonderful Millenium Dome that was about £200M+ of a white elephant!

5. It'll make a difference to us Brits: Yeah right! Being 600 miles away from London I think the only difference I'll notice is in my wage packet - paying for London to be regenerated. Let not kid ourselves, it's NOT the British olympics, it's the London olympics - let the cockneys put an extra tax on hotels, restaurants, transport etc etc to pay for the thing if they want it.

Overall the whole of the UK will suffer for the benefit of London. The UK can't afford the billons required to stage the games and so money will be diverted form other areas to fund the construction of the infrastructure and transportation required (regeneration of London). The health service, pensions, local authorities, emergency services etc will all have budgets squeezed n the name of rebuilding the capital (the English capital that is).

Right, now thats off my chest I think I'll have a lie down.

[HoosierCat]

My condolences.

IMHO the Olympics are nothing more than an international boondoggle. It would make much more sense to break the games up into seperate smaller events. That way more cities could play host -- you could even do events every year or twice a year, with each event running on a 4-year cycle -- and you wouldn't have to build these giant Olympic Villages.

[AMC]

Ho Hum.

Give the Olympics to Ethiopia or the Sudan. Or maybe Bangladesh!!!!!!!!!!

Let the Olympics jump start the economies of poor nations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[San Antonio Bengal]

Most cities that host the Olympics do not wind up better off afterwards. There will be a brief bounce in the economy while the atheletes and tourists are around, but afterwards all the payments on the buildings and venues start coming in. Hardly ever are you going to be able to take in more money than you lose. And this is in the long run.

I do like the whole concept of the Olympics, especially with all the minor events that you never see. Now some of those events shouldn't be seen at all (i.e. synchronized swimming), but I find some of the others very fun to watch. However, the real problem is the news coverage that focuses in on a certain sport and you have hours of that and only one little blurb about another sport, all because there weren't any Americans in the medal race. I'd much rather watch a good sporting competition than hear the endless commentary about how some sprinter overcame the hangnail he had two weeks ago to be ready to run in the qualifier to the qualifier to the qualifier of the round before the quaterfinals.

[HoosierCat]

America's national pasttime shot down: IOC eliminates baseball & softball from roster of olympic events:

http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ap-s...ov=ap&type=lgns

But we might get roller derby instead!

[Kirkendall]

America's national pasttime shot down: IOC eliminates baseball & softball from roster of olympic events:

http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ap-s...ov=ap&type=lgns

But we might get roller derby instead!

Was there any reasoning behind it other than non-MLB players taking place -- thought the damn thing was amatuer athletics anyway.

[San Antonio Bengal]

The odd thing, especially with baseball, is that it is a sport that's being played around the world. Baseball is big down in the Caribbean and in Japan as well as here. If they are getting rid of events that only a small subsection of the world plays, they'd better drop handball and badmitton as well. And what's synchronized swimming still doing in the Olympics?