To think we are all idiots for allowing the Olympic bid in the first place

[Ryoko]

£2,012 for a ticket to the opening/closing ceremonies, that sums the whole thing up in a nutshell really it's blatant profiteering.

Only 50% of tickets are for the serfs, you need a visa card to buy em anyway and you will not be told for months if you will be getting any tickets by which time it would be too late to book a hotel and you can't cancel the things, corporates can buy block tickets but the serfs are limited to 4.

Tax payers money to build stadiums that will be sold off to football clubs and any other profit driven company after the games, so all those MPs and others on 6 figure salaries involved can pocket the money from infrastructure we paid for. Tax payer money for policing and road projects that will be pointless once the games are over.

Everyone who supports the Olympics in London is a mug, except people like Lord Coe who are laughing all the way to the bank, while the tax payer cleans up all the mess afterwards.

Can you just explain this bit to me.

look around you, how many black rowers are there? how many yachting?, the government say they are all for multiculturalism but all they do is create quotas for things, and shortlists, the fact of the matter is the sports we do well in are the sports of the rich where money is needed, the majority of ethnic minorities in this country are not rich.

I don't get it.

I do't get it either Maureen

Last time I checked

Christine Ohuruogu
Germaine Mason
Philips Idowu
Tasha Danvers

Were

a) all black or mixed race
b) all medal winners at the last Olympics
c) are all athletes...............so evidently we didn't just do well at Yachting and rowing

Plus - there's an awful lot of the less popular sports where many of our top athletes come from very "ordinary" backgrounds......

Thankyou. I was begining to think I was being a bit thick!

hogsback- cycling at a competitive level is phenomenally expensive- the bikes alone cost over £3.5k each... of which you need several, plus other training bikes etc.

Most fencing clubs have equipment you can borrow if you cannot fork out for your own (I didn't learn this at a private school though!)

I am PMSL at the thought of a competitive level fencer just borrowing the club stuff for their major competition

Why? My brother compete at national level (different sport, though one mentioned on this thread as elitist ), is a British record holder and owns none of his own equipment (well, he owns sports clothing but that's all)- he lived independently from the age of 17, put himself through university, and could never afford to purchase anything he would need- university, then club provided everything.

I can see the Olympic stadium from my bedroom.

I'm not mad for the two weeks of the games. In fact, if it weren't for the fact DS1 and 2 will be totally hyped by the whole thing I too would let my place for the duration.

The park to be left in place of much of the site looks amazing though.

We seem to be getting quite a bit of use out of the stuff left over from the Sydney Olympics, I have been to Olympic Park twice in the last 4 months for events and have another coming up in April.

The houses/flats built around there are also quite popular and thriving communities now (which actually surprised me because I didn't think it would work). It is surrounded by an industrial park that is pretty busy, the buses all run there so no need to get in the car from where I live either.

I also used to live quite close to FFC and paid more that £2,000 a month for the privilege. It was fine, a bit noisy every couple of weeks but no biggy. Anyone who thinks the Alphabets in Fulham are deprived needs their head read.

CaptainNancy: at national level, cycling is an expensive sport just like any other. At club level it's much cheaper than many others, such as sailing which it was compared to.

As a hobby which is what LDNmummy described it as, it's very cheap. In fact so cheap that many people also use it as a way to get to work.

Cycling in the UK has traditionally been a working class activity and sport (particularly in the North) and to portray it as an elitist sport only for the rich is ridiculous.

Round here, once you have learned how to sail, it's a tenner a week to sail in a club.
Or you pick up a cheap second-hand dinghy and DIY.
Unless you were only meaning offshore racing?

Cycling is an "expensive" sport that people with....er, ordinary backgrounds couldn't possibly maintain. Presumably that's because you have to be the mixed-race tearaway offpsring of a single teenage mother and absent father, that the police helped sponsor to attend international events if only to keep you out of trouble with your mates on the street, like Shanaze Reade* was. You're right, professional cycling really is a sport only for the privileged elite.

*Apologies for the DM link :)