To think London should step in and offer to host the Olympics?

[ToxicBits]

With all the issues surrounding rio would it not make sense to shift it all over here?

Does Rioo want to give up hosting?

• *Rio obvs.

It starts in what, 10 weeks time? How would anyone organise the staff needed in that timescale? Police, ground staff, extra transport, security. I don't think even the stadiums are still in their original state so they wouldn't be usable

2012 took years to organise and billions of pounds. It's not just a case of "shifting it over here".

Rio bid for it and have won the right to host it. Let's all stop criticising Rio and let them get on and enjoy it all.

Are you planning on funding it yourself OP or are the UK tax payers picking up the bill?
Because I have this strange feeling that the Brazilian tax payer might not be that generous...

I was thinking just that apricot it's not a case of just finding an empty hall and a few coaches.

If I remember right there is evidence showing that big sporting events like these have very little effect, if any, on takeup of sports. Nowadays they seem to be a showcase for little more than new advances in getting round a drugs ban (or merely in ways of not getting caught) so what's the point?

They knew the issues in Rio when it was awarded, so there's no real reason to move it.

I agree the opinion of why should we take on the security risk, the reason why it's awarded so far in advance is because that timescale is needed to run the whole thing safely.

Whenever there is an international sporting event this conversation comes up.

Football World Cup: "X/y venue is nowhere near readiness,". Followed by talk of "well, England could take over."

Ditto with European Championships, rugby/cricket/olympics. It gets a bit boring after a while especially given that all this talk of venues not being ready never actually end up with them deciding to pull out at the last minute and Britain stepping into the breech to rescue the situation...

As someone who was very involved in London, no way is that possible at this stage.

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

jeez it was bad enough the first time. FFS.

Come on Pseudo we just need to dig out some bunting and Liz and Phil to open the ceremony and jobs a goodun.

Fantastic idea. The infrastructure is here and still in great knick. As it would be a 'step in emergency' situation we'd be given some slack.

What Pseudobadger said.

My mate owns a flat in the Spanish team's barracks. Olympic village has long been converted.

The Olympic swimming pool no longer has extra crowd seating and the Olympic stadium is now west hams ground.

Apart from that everything is ready

Hahahahahahahahahaha

Never, ever going to happen, 10 / 11 weeks out. Logistically utterly impossible.

However, Tokyo 2020 is POSSIBLY another kettle of fish. If the IOC grows a pair (they won't) and the allegations of irregularities over the bid are found to be true, then... There have been rumblings that conversations have already happened along those lines. Chances of it happening are virtually zero though, for a myriad of reasons.

Olympic Village on Portland is all sold and would be a bugger to get accommodation in weymouth at such short notice

The infrastructure isn't still here, the Olympic Park is unrecognisable! The athletes quarters were converted to housing, some of the buildings were only ever temporary structures and have been dismantled.

If my memory serves, we had our own security panic and had to draft in the army after g4 (or whoever it was) cocked up recruitment with a month to go.

...There's also no stadium for the basketball, they would need to chuck out whatever is booked into Earl's Court for volleyball, ditto O2 for gymnastics, ditto Wembley Arena for rhythmic gymnastics, ditto whole of the Excel for boxing etc, there's no temporary pool for the water polo and as PP said, no accommodation. Plus no ticketing arrangements, no security blah blah blah. Rio was always going to get the 2016 Games, the IOC would never, ever move them.

All the equestrian venues are gone too....

You can't just arrange to host a huge international event at such short notice. You need to get people to work, security, logistics, etc, in place.

Think the equestrian ones might be 'easier' than some of the others in fact, though a cross country course takes ages to design, so still also logistically a complete no no