It does annoy me immensely, why we have to kowtow to those panjandrums of the IOC and other sporting bodies, I do not know. Huge waste of money, and don’t think that the VIP will travel by train – oh no – they are far too important for that – they have limos and traffic free lanes, causing even more mayhem for the poor, because we are paying alot for it, Londoner. Traffic free lanes, the President of USA does not get that, the Queen certainly doesn’t, but hey they are not as important as some panjandrum from a pisspot sporting body.

Seb Coe has sold us a pup, I always knew he was a wrong ‘un, I always supported Ovett.

The Duke of Edinburgh had it dead on

“Opening and closing ceremonies ought to be banned. Absolute bloody nuisances! I have been to one that was absolutely appallingly awful!

At the Olympics in the old days, when they were more or less amateur, the last event of the whole Games was the show jumping in the main stadium because the horses used to cut up the ground. Well, blow me down I was suddenly told, at Munich I think it was, that we couldn’t have the main arena for show jumping because it had to be prepared for the ‘Closing Ceremony’.

So, I said: ‘What is the Olympics about? The competition or the closing ceremony?’ So I am truly fed up with opening and closing ceremonies. They’re a pain in the neck”.

sadmadalan

some of it will be – but its the wrong sort of property to actually meet the need.. Most of it will be sold off

(BTW – I just read your name properly for the firt time – its always been saladman or saladinman to me befoer)

Seb Coe has sold us a pup, I always knew he was a wrong ‘un, I always supported Ovett.

+1 – hey, that’s the ceremony sorted – stage a re-run 800m!!

DoE – more observant that most. God bless the monarchy (no there’s more than a few topics to cause a STW row!!)

The Duke of Edinburgh had it dead on

That doesn’t sound like the DofE – he normally says something controversial to amuse himself, that’s pretty sensible and rational!

‘What is the Olympics about? The competition or the closing ceremony?

is the crux of the matter. To most normal people it’s about the competition, but to most of the people involved in the organisation at the higher levels (IOC, NOCs and OCOGs) the competition is just a side show. The whole thing is rotten.

I thought that the village (which has been built for both able and disabled athletes) was going to become low cost housing.

No, there was the ‘promise’ of ‘affordable’ housing. Not the same thing at all. ‘Affordable’ is one of those bullshit terms which is meaningless; the homes available will not be ‘affordable’ to the vast majority of locals. A teeny tiny percentage has been allocated for social housing, but this does not in any way even begin to address London’s housing problem, as most of that allocation will be taken up by those displaced by the building of the games, who have bin promised that they will be rehoused in the same area once the games are over, should they choose to be. Many of those are now in substandard ‘temporary accomodation’. It’s disgusting how some people have bin treated; as many of them are on low incomes, they have very little voice as they can’t afford the big lawyers the developers can.

I saw loads of ‘No to the Lympics’ signs up outside local businesses in that area, before it was all bulldozed. Loads of jobs lost as firms were forced out, paltry sums offered as ‘compensation’ and compulsory purchase orders were being issued left right and centre. And there were quite a number of small engineering firms and the like; now, all there is is a flipping shopping centre. Which Stratford already had one of anyway.

A large area of rare urban wilderness has bin destroyed, including the habitat for shrews, snakes, voles, Peregrine Falcons, Kestrels, Sparrowhawks, and rare butterfly species.

Most of the sports venues will be demolished or turned into other things, such as offices and hotels etc.

In addition we have some new facilities that can be used – cycling, swimming. We are re-using lots of arenas around London – I am watching the Volleyball at Earls Court, Basketball at the O2. Tennis is at Wimbledon, archery at Lords.

We had loads of perfectly good venues already; several footy stadiums, Twickenham, Wembley etc.

As for the swimming and cycling venues; access will be either virtually impossible to ‘ordinary’ people, or bloody expensive. I’ve bin enquiring about the velodrome; apparently you’ll have to be a member of an affiliated club, membership of which may well end up being expensive,and the facilities themselves will be very expensive to use. No accessible Manchester style operation here.

There will be a legacy in improved infrastructure for East London. Agreed it may have been cheaper without the Olympics but without the Olympics it would not have happened.

What ‘infrastructure’? There won’t be any new transport services other than what’s bin ‘promised’ to the area since way before the Lympic bid was even submitted. The high-speed rail link to Kings Cross won’t really be any use to most folk, even if it is kept on, which I doubt it will be in it’s proposed form anyway. Crossrail is costing too much for that to be likely.

What the area needs is better healthcare and educational facilities, and better employment opportunities, way before it needs sports facilities. What most locals won’t be able to afford anyway.

And those people who said that if the games came to the UK it should go elsewhere – we tried that but Manchester failed miserably to get any votes.

I wooduv bin happy to see Paris get them. Cos now, we could be laughing at the French. What a missed opportunity…

I also think that some of the £9 Billion is coming back through ticket sales – at least from those who managed to get tickets!!

You think £9 billion is all it will cost? It’s already cost more than that, and that figure don’t include the cost to local authorities for all sorts of other stuff. The real full figure will be twice, three times that at least, I reckon.

The whole thing is rotten.

Yer not wrong….

No need to swear, Greytape.

And how often are you (or anyone else on here) likely to use the Olympic Velodrome in Stratford, east London? Most of youse lot would be too terrified to come here!