£4.5 billion for the 2012 Olympics.

[Sybarite]

At what level does spending on sport become indecent :

America's Cup ( How many Optimists would you get for one team's $50 million- challenge, Just think if all those Oppy sails all over the country carrying the sponsor's logo)
Formula One Is Schuhmacher worth £500k a day ?
Premier league football
Boxing etc etc

What about the starving billions ?

Personally I would prefer to see the pure sport in the Olympics and forget about things like the opening ceremony where each host tries his best to outdo and outspend the previous. I would really applaud a country which stood up and - We ain't going that way.

 

[claymore]

In the early 1990's I dined with the father of a subsequent Olympic Gold Medalist. the offspring was an optimist sailor at the time. The figure of £8000 was quoted as the cost of that years campaign which covered flights, cars, accommodation etc - I was astounded and hate to think what that might have escalated to at todays prices.

regards
Claymore

 

[Twister_Ken]

Agreed, let's invite them over to the London Olympics, and let them run around on cinder tracks. And we could use Ruislip Lido for the swimming.

 

[Chris_Robb]

So long as I get to watch the girls beech volleyball - I'm happy!

Seriously - London could not cope with an Olympic size event - hotels full - transprot crap - no stadiums -

Forget it - the Olympics are not about sport, they are about lining pockets!

Make it totally amateur again and we might get back to the real olympics

 

[jamesjermain]

...make it amateur again...

Except you wouldn't get back to the real olympics because, without the professional athletes the standards would be so piss-poor no one would be interested and no one could claim to be even the worlds 100th best.



JJ

 

[tr7v8]

Agree with the first comment!

No where in the UK is capable of holding an Olympic event, transport is crap no infrastructure etc.

Jim
------

 

[sorehead]

with due respect to all on this forum that live in the UK, piss-up and brewery spring to mind when it comes to the British organising something. And if you disagree, think transport, hospitals, local councils, royal mail, prisons, police (did I hear correctly that the Bill are no longer investigating burgualries?), Millinuem Dome...

So why waste even more tax payers money on the bid?

 

[jimi]

Pa .. All you need are some huts

One of the major benefits of hosting a major sporting event like the world cup or the Olympics is that home athletes have major support from the native spectators.

Surely the time has come for E Olympics whereby all competitors compete in their local stadia againt athletes also performing in their own local stadia linked by electronic wizardry to a giant screen.
That would give all the major advantages of athletes competing at home, remove the need for acclimatization and reduce much of the logistical complexity.

In fact the Olympic 100 metres could in fact be staged in a a few small garden sheds, complete with running machine and webcam , scattered around the world.

What do you think?

 

[Twister_Ken]

Whingeing

Mmmm, no one whinged much about the Commonwealth Games organisation and venues (except the Nigerian cycle team who were nicked for training on the M6), nor about the last Rugby World Cup (except the All Blacks who were mugged by France).

 

[Twister_Ken]

By George - I think he\'s got it.

But with luck it'll clear up if he keeps taking the tablets.