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?

I thought Greece was a shit-show at this point and they pulled it off. Sort of.

We managed to get our school summer fair together in 6 weeks from scratch last year so why not?!

Who cares, anyway?

Name one athlete who has (a) won a medal in the last twenty years and (b) you would stake your pension on not using drugs. Yeah, there are a few who deny taking drugs and tell us loudly how much they're tested, but Lance Armstrong said exactly the same thing and was tested just as much.

Hell no! I've already had my summer leave buggered up for the Olympics in 2012 and the Commonwealth Games in 2014!!

Funnily enough Palmer, we were talking about how the Forces stepped in when G4S screwed up big time - and how great they were. Heard it wasn't so much fun for the guys involved though.

It was a brilliant time for the UK, but couldn't be repeated - certainly not so soon, nor with no notice!

Bolograph I'm sure there are fencers and equestrians who don't take drugs. I'm fairly sure the snowboarders toke but don't take performance enhancing drugs. I wouldn't stake my pension on any seriously competitive sport like running, though.

Maybe we should only have the wacky, side sports every year. Bowling anyone?

I'm sure there are fencers and equestrians who don't take drugs

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/fencing/7536871.stm

"World number one foil fencer Andrea Baldini will definitely miss the Beijing Olympics after failing a second doping test for a banned diuretic."

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/equestrian/7574220.stm

"Four horses involved in the Olympic show jumping have tested positive for the banned substance capsaicin. As a result, they were thrown out of Thursday's individual show jumping final in Beijing"

Next?

I would like to see the tug'o war reintroduced...

Palmer I'd be interested in what you mean by comms cock up during 2012.....

Bolograph You make it sound so obsolete

Can we have the welly toss too?

Not a lot else to add that hasn't been said otherwise.

more OP?

I'd forgotten the great 2012 security cock up, my apologies.

so even with infinite budget and years of notice they still messed up, didn't they?

I also recall the start of the Athens opening ceremony, with two chaps dressed in overalls hammering and building like mad on something, then standing up and shouting the Greek words for 'finished!'.

the state of the Athens venues now is very sad. The Olympics never leave an inspiration legacy and always make a massive loss, but the Greeks were unable to make use of the facilities due to their other problems.

a permanent venue for the games is much overdue. No idea where though - who would actually want it?

Special, I think a fair few places would want it if structures permanent and properly funded by the IOC. Countries usually lose money because of the massive capex rather than on running costs alone.

Greece would be ace because of the origins.

No idea (and don't really care) how ready or not they are but I'm worried about it going ahead with the zila virus.

special at risk of sounding like a pedantic twat, the Games don't always make a loss. In fact generally the recent summer Olympics have tended to make a profit. Los Angeles 1984 in particular were a roaring success commercially. Though in many cases we'll never really know (e.g. Beijing)

I would hazard a guess somewhere like Qatar MIGHT be keen on hosting permanently, but politically the IOC could never go with that. The obvious place would be Olympia (loosely defined) - but for self-evident reasons, that's out the question.

Brazil is going to have a tough time - security threats, political issues (impeachment), corruption, pollution and Zika being the obvious ones. BTW the opening ceremony of London 2012 was very close to being victim to sabotage - namely the lighting system.

A BIG FAT Nooooooooooooooooo ... it was bad enough in 2012 never again in my lifetime.

It took seven years from award to opening to prepare for and run a reasonably successful celebration and then the Armed Forces had to be drafted in at the end.

Now how about a really silly suggestion - a permanent venue at Kensington Olympia!

I would hazard a guess somewhere like Qatar MIGHT be keen on hosting permanently, but politically the IOC could never go with that

All you'd need to do is pay them enough and they'd do anything.

Here's the Olympic family showing how much it cares about the political context of where it's hosted. If the IOC were OK with Hitler, why is Qatar suddenly such a problem?

These "it's going to be a disaster" predictions are pretty par for the course ahead of a major sporting event, and they usually turn out to be vastly overdone.

You might be able to send some events to other countries, especially if they had recently organised a large tournament for that sport, but there is no way any single country could take on an event the size of the Olympics at such short notice.

why is Qatar suddenly such a problem

There are numerous and extremely obvious reasons why hosting major sporting events somewhere like Qatar is a thoroughly bad idea. The IOC is not yet as corrupt, or as stupid, as FIFA.

redwine it is not pedantry if it is facts! But how did 2012 make a profit? (real question).

hard to quantify, both as profit and loss. The latter includes items such as the reduced takings for London businesses as people leave, and the disruption caused by events. For instance, the road cycling where the route is an isolating loop, trapping people and actually stopping them doing their own sport. I used to live in Surrey and was glad to get away from this.

I find a report that the 2012 cost overrun was 101%. Wow.

Every single Olympics the press always come out with doom and gloom stories about how it's all going to be an absolute shambles. Beijing and Athens in particular, but also IIRC London too. It turns out okay.

Only difference this time is the Zika virus. But unless health authorities actually advise it I really can't see that justifying taking it off them.

The IOC is not yet as corrupt, or as stupid, as FIFA.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.

www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/01/french-police-corruption-investigation-2016-2020-olympic-bids

And in the case of FIFA, although they are massively corrupt and utterly venal, the football matches themselves are usually vaguely honest and evidence of match fixing is (a) rare and (b) usually about spot-fixing on behalf of betting syndicates, rather than the actual result. The IOC have conspired to cover up and excuse drug use in athletics, so there's no particular reason to believe that any Olympic event is honest,.

I think the OP is referring to worries about the Zika virus and the fact that it has been rumoured that the authorities (WHO I think) have very much downplayed fears about the spread as it has been more difficult to contain that initially thought. Thousands of people descending into a virus hot spot to watch/compete in sport then travelling out to their own countries again; doesn't take a genius to work out that this isn't a fab idea...