like ILD, I too experienced a nightmare with the ticket fiasco and in the end received NO tickets despite being emailed to say i got some. i still get emails from the games saying how i can get the most from my olympic experience, or something along those lines, but i haven't got any tickets - stop rubbing it in! as for the football, its just another case of selecting players based on reputations rather than those who are deserving. quite how beckham deserves to be called up (and are they really all being paid to participate?!) is beyond me. however, despite all that, i'm looking forward to the olympics! mainly because i enjoy watching most sports and there's no question it will be a fantastic two weeks for the country. the problems come afterwards and sadly, though the olympics should be viewed as a wonderful event to get, the likelihood is it'll cripple the country yet further and leave behind it a mass of unused arenas and stadia. is it too much to ask for things to be PLANNED beforehand? contingency put in place? apparently it is...
No idea where he got that figure from, it is actually costing £175 per person (according to the BBC). But even then, that is before taking into account sponsorship and ticket sales. In reality it isn't going to cost that much per person. And as Sid mentions there are plenty of benefits, having thousands of tourists visit the country will prove a massive boost to the economy. East London gets regenerated, we get to experience having the biggest sporting event in our own country, children get inspired by the latest high profile athletes. Not bad for £175, considering some of the things the Government does waste money on....
It's not being paid for by the local authority,so it's Council Tax that has nothing to do with it.It's being paid for out of general taxation.So if your kid's school is falling down or your local hospital is overspent it's down to the running,skipping and jumping fest.
There are far, far more things I'd blame for wasting money than the Olympics mate, the illiegal wars I already mentioned for starters, not to mention the 50p tax rate cut for a bunch of Tory cronies . I just find it so depressingly narrow-minded and sad that people have this negative attitude about something that at the end of the day is supposed to be (and is going to be!) a huge celebration for so many people from all across the globe that only happens once every four years and will probably never happen in my country again in my lifetime. Most people I know are really looking forward to it anyway, and it's going to happen whether you like it or not so best get used to it and at least try to enjoy the spectacle - I'm sure it can't be that hard to get into a few weeks of solid sporting action can it?
agree with that. it would probably cost the same to host a world cup but i bet people wouldn't be so against hosting that! we might never see another olympic games in our country in our lifetime (dave certainly won't - sorry dave), it isn't going to suddenly get cancelled so everyone should get behind it and enjoy all 14 days of it. i was extremely fed up with the ticketing fiasco and it still rankles with me but as soon as the games begin i'll forget all about it and enjoy the sport on offer
Like most people I am looking forward to the sport the Olympics has to offer. It should be a great spectacle and celebration of athletes on top of their game. It is a shame it has all the political pa-lava overshadowing it. Its true to say some of the plans are ill thought out however its going to go ahead so we should all just enjoy the sporting prowess thats on offer
The difference is that the World Cup would interest,perhaps 60% of the population.Far,far more than The Olympics. Interesting to see the mention of the 50% Tax Rate.It would be a good exercise to see just how large a proportion of this group has tickets for the top events.My guess is that there will be an awful lot of Champagne swigging multi national corporatism rather than real people.
i completely disagree about the world cup attracting more interest. i know plenty of people who do not follow football and although they may take in one or two matches during a world cup, i think you'll find there will be very few people who choose to completely ignore the olympics this summer. i think you've vastly underestimated the power of an olympic games
Or the media. A YouGov survey found that 53% of the population were not interested.This after wall to wall bombardment by the media in an attempt to drum up support.Had the question then been Are you interested enough to want to pay for it? Then the figure would have fallen to single figures.
The fact that pretty much all the events are sell outs, and the fact they could have been sold many times over suggests to me that there is a lot of interest in the games. And that poll result would be a lot more interesting if they actually defined what they meant by 'not interested'. I bet you the question put to people wasn't as straight forward as "Are you interested in the Olympic games or not?"
Exactly! To be honest I'd take most of Cruyff Turn's stats with a rather large pinch of salt regarding this issue. Surveys do my head in and as an analyst myself I know you can prove anything with their results if you interpret them or ask the questions in the right way. Let me guess, do all those negative whiny figures about how everyone is dreading the games come from the Daily Mail by any chance?
If you ask people on the street when they are busy and trying to go somewhere "Considering the UK Government is paying £10billion for the Olympic games, would you say you are really interested in them?" Then yeah, it's hardly surprising a high proportion of people say no. And as Supers points out, it's still a long way to go before they start, people will naturally get more and more interested as we get closer to the actual event.
not sure it could be proved, but i'd put money on 80% of people or more in the UK watching at least one event in the olympics this summer, be it on tv or in the stadium
One you can prove, viewing figures for the Opening Ceremony or 100m final, I imagine they will be fairly high. Not just in England, but all around the world.
Not my publication of choice.I would have thought papers like the Mail and Express would be the ones pushing this stuff,like the jubilee.No,my criticism cmes from the other direction.Ten billion quid could have gone some way towards sorting out the problems we have.Had it been,say £100million then I wouldn't be complaining as that sort of money wouldn't make much difference.It's just that ten BILLION,that's an awful lot of money to throw at an amateurs event. I bet a lot of contractors have become millionaires out of the work and they won't be paying it back in tax anytime soon.It will have gone to The Cayman Islands along with most of Dave's mates.Still I suppose some will come back to help him get re-elected.
I think a lot more people would be interested in the Olympics as there is range of sports despite football being the national sport. Just for reference, 700mill people watching the 2010 world cup worldwide, with 20mill in the uk. 2bill people worldwide watched pippa middletons behind, with 24mill in the uk. Also bear in mind that the Olympics will host over 200 countries while the world cup only has 32.
I think Beckham deserves a chance, he had a big part in getting the Olympics to London. I also think he has only ever used his reputation in a positive manner, which deserves credit.
I agree that Beckham does actually do a fair amount of good with his reputation and I believe unlike some players he really cares about playing for his country. However this is a sporting event and team GB should surely enter a team to win the tournament and as the cliché goes there is no room for sentiment in football. He is definitely not one of the best 3 over aged players. If he plays it will be purely sentimental and shows that we are not taking it very seriously
I agree he isn't the strongest player over 23, no where near it to be honest, but I think he can have an effect in the changing room still. Similar to Henry in Arsenal dressing room, it's no coincidence that Arsenal are on such good form since Henry rejoined. Beckham cares a lot about the country and I think he can instill that ethos into the young players there. Perfect opportunity to do so I think, if they see how much it means to Beckham they'll follow. It's a tough call but I think he can do so much off the ball, but then again they could probably find him a role to be in and around the GB team. Regarding the team, isn't there still problems with Wales and Scotland? Not really been following how that's been going.
