And most of that money you’re moaning about has been invested in this country, creating work and improving infrastructure that creates further employment.
There’d have been a lot more redundancies a lot earlier without The Olympics.
We should be bidding on every sporting event we can at the moment, World Cups’s, Commonwealths, European Championships. We’re good at this.

Coe crap, money makes Canada games look fiscally provinend

I’m not trolling, I’m being honest. I see a society that doesn’t value public participation in sport, that is happy to cut funding, that is happy not to invest in sport, that sees playing fields as prime real estate, that watches Premiership football and the national team disgrace itself in every competition. A society where no one cares at all about sport until it gets put on primetime TV.
I see a society where I stand out because I do a sport, where people think I’m special because I ride a bike or run or do anything.

A couple of weeks of the Olympics on telly changes nothing.

Don’t hate the Olympics.
Hate the fact London has them (sod the rest of the UK) and the money spent at the most inappropriate point in time

That’s what I love about the Olympics, it really gets up people’s noses. I’ll happily pay a bit more tax for that.
Been reading the reports and comments on Australian news sites too, they really are whinging at not getting gold medals and moaning about team GB. been PSML

loum you make a great point, we have Government roasted for not spending and when they do they are lambasted.

The whole event has put some Great back in Britain for me, sorry but i love my country and prefer a half full glass.

This.

@loum

approx. 40% of construction jobs went to foreign workers.

How many jobs will be left once the games are finished?
Where’s the infrastructure that creates further employment?

I’m only asking. I can watch sports with as much passion as anyone, but I can also be objective.
So, an answer to the question?

Got to say, I am enjoying watching the Olympics, as I knew I would, but do kinda agree with those who think we could probably be funding better things than elite sports. It certainly brings the country together though, so maybe it is worth it in some ways.

However, if you want to award Mo’s gold to the USA because he trains there, then I guess we get Ruta Meilutyte’s gold from Lithuania since she trains in the UK?

And most of that money your moaning about has been invested in this country, creating work and improving infrastructure that creates further employment.

where?

I don’t see new jobs in the midlands, wales, scotland? a few construction jobs, which could have been created by dealing with the infrastructure and housing crisis currently facing the country. We need new power stations, but aren’t building them, we need new roads, new railways, new houses, etc etc. But i don’t see them?

We need to get people to see sport as normal, to get kids involved, but i don’t see that.

If nothing else at least the Olympic village will be turned into social housing,

Did I suggest that Mos gold should go to the US?

No? Ok, so give your head a wee shake…

I’m pointing out that we don’t take sports seriously as a nation.

Eddie the Eagle

where?

LAAHNDAAHN

I’m pointing out that we don’t take sports seriously as a nation.

well I can’t think of a better way to promote sports as a nation than to have prime time TV full of GB athletes winning medals

We need new power stations, but aren’t building them, we need new roads, new railways, new houses, etc etc. But i don’t see them?

Huge amount of regeneration in the SE, new houses, roads, eg St Pancrass / Kings Cross has been a massive building site for years. I pass 1000s of new houses / flats every time I take the train into London. The Olympic Park is a massive development esp the Olympic Village, 1000s of homes to be.

Yes because sport is impotent

well I can’t think of a better way to promote sports as a nation than to have prime time TV full of GB athletes winning medals

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/7858243.stm

Thank heavens for the regeneration of the SE

Huge amount of regeneration in the SE, new houses, roads, eg St Pancrass / Kings Cross has been a massive building site for years. I pass 1000s of new houses / flats every time I take the train into London. The Olympic Park is a massive development esp the Olympic Village, 1000s of homes to be.

now for the rest of the country, you know the bit beyond the m25, where on maps it says there be dragons??

The country is already heavily biased towards the south east, and it really isn’t in anyones interest to try and squeeze more and more into one region at the expense of the rest of the country.

And are you suggesting that the only reason any of the regeneration occurred was because of the Olympics?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/7858243.stm

To be fair, I don’t have too much of a problem with cutting funding for elite sports. I’d say we take sport too seriously as a nation. We fund heavily at elite level, but don’t have the coaches or facilities at grass-roots level.

In some ways British Cycling has been the worst at this, in that they’ve demonstrated that it’s training that makes an athlete, you don’t need a huge pool of talent, you just need to pick a few fairly talented people and throw a whole lot of money and technology (and hard work) at them. It has undoubtedly got all the MAMILs out there, but I don’t know if it’s really made that much of a difference to how many kids ride their bikes to school, or how many will get into cycling as a sport, especially those without the rich parents to buy them the bike, drive them to the track, pay their entry fees etc.

PS
Not in the SE
Work in manufacturing
please sir may I have some more?
of your 230,000,000

I see a society that doesn’t value public participation in sport, that is happy to cut funding, that is happy not to invest in sport, that sees playing fields as prime real estate, that watches Premiership football and the national team disgrace itself in every competition. A society where no one cares at all about sport until it gets put on primetime TV.
I see a society where I stand out because I do a sport, where people think I’m special because I ride a bike or run or do anything.

A couple of weeks of the Olympics on telly changes nothing.

Crikey: 100% agree with everything you say up there. I’m bored of being called a freak because I like exercise, I like to push myself and compete.

But I don’t agree with your conclusion.

Most of the efforts from the government so far appear to have failed to turn around the capacity of the majority to leave unhealthy lives (I would exempt the amazing progress made against smoking here though).

Maybe some sporting glory is what we need to get people into the habit of participating instead of watching sport. It provides some awesome role models and can be inspiring to see the results of people pushing themselves to achieve. You won’t see an immediate turnaround but I do think there’ll be some longer term cultural change from our successes. Some people will refuse, there’ll always be idiots like that. But I don’t think the effect will be zero

Capital Expenditure about time some of it got spent where it’s made instead of on northern welfare to keep the workshy in fags and Stella.

It’s costing us £4638 a second for 29 days of sport, if you believe this http://ethicsgirls.com/olympics/

I’ll pop back in a year or so to see who thinks it was worth it.

It’s sport and it’s great to watch, but suggesting it will change the country?

Have a word..

Capital Expenditure about time some of it got spent where it’s made

China, India and the USA?

Lets spend some spare change on the city,yer know banks and stuff.Let’s give em a bonus ,they deserve it

mrmo – Member
you know the bit beyond the m25, where on maps it says there be dragons??

well if they’d get their chips (and gravy) off their shoulders and look at the facts rather than their preconceptions then “they” might realise that London has the higfhest level of povertythan any region in the UK.

And let’s face it, no other UK city could even come close to hosting a sporting event of global significance – national pie eating championships, livestock bothering or job dodging maybe but whose going to want to watch that 😆

The whole event has put some Great back in Britain for me, sorry but i love my country and prefer a half full glass.

This!!

Iv’e lived my entire life on the banks of the Thames- i’m a bit further down from the Olympics (Dartford) but this is the best year iv’e ever known and for once i don’t feel ashamed to be British.
I rode down the river to Greenwich tonight and as i rode past the o2 i heard the crowd in the Olympic stadium going nuts- Jessica Ennis just won gold. And i was the other side of the river- that was awesome!

So… If we are such a great sporting nation, why does Mo have to train in the US?

Because that’s where His Cuban coach (Alberto Salazar) and the Nike Oregon Project are based.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_Oregon_Project#section_2

It’s costing us £4638 a second for 29 days of sport, if you believe this http://ethicsgirls.com/olympics/

However, if you believe Cameron (which I don’t), it will boost the economy by £13 billion, leaving us at least £4 billion up since the last government statement on costs was under £9 billion. Believing neither source, an end result somewhere between an £11 billion loss and a £4 billion profit could well mean we roughly break even.

What price do you put on national pride

About 57p. Massively over-rated, and has a tendency to lead to unfortunate actions.

No-one’s ever positioned it as an investment…

erm… most of the politicians involved have done so, repeatedly.

it never makes money for any host city…

True

Regeneration and legacy are just brought into it to show it has some kind of long term benefit

False – they’re brought into it to try to suggest that it’s value for money, when really, it isn’t (in purely financial terms). But who can put a price on a nice feeling, eh?

The whole event has put some Great back in Britain for me

er.. that’s ‘Great’ as in ‘Big’, to separate it from Brittany.

And most of that money you’re moaning about has been invested in this country, creating work and improving infrastructure that creates further employment.

Yup, but it would have generated a whole lot more jobs and improved an awful lot more infrastructure if it had been spent directly on those, rather than on a giant vanity project.

All that said, and ignoring the trolls, it is quite uplifting to watch, mainly because GB are doing so well. Just try not to think about the cost…

Thank heavens for london and its profit from the city that runs the nation and it’s poverty which is the best as well.
You expect the other 50 millon of us to watch.
Scuse typing .pie fat on keyboard.

Considering we were chosen to host the games before the financial meltdown, we could hardly of said we now can’t afford them because we are now “supposedly” broke.

And the cost? If I could prioritise what my taxes are spent on the olympics would be pretty near the top.

Well I’m glad you can’t make those sort of decisions.

Most of the efforts from the government so far appear to have failed to turn around the capacity of the majority to leave unhealthy lives

Your right, having coca cola and Maccy D as main sponsors was a masterstroke.

Capital Expenditure about time some of it got spent where it’s made instead of on northern welfare to keep the workshy in fags and Stella.

As a born and bred southerner, I find that being said embarrassing.

As for the legacy? Well I’m sure most of the infrastructure will find it’s way into private hands as we are supposedly broke. In future, if we feel that we want to participate in future games, instead of trying to host something like this again, perhaps we should try and spend money at the grass roots level and produce more talent which is undoubtedly out there, so we can go to any games with a good pool of athletes.

It’s very telling that over 50% of the current crop of athletes come from private education, 7% of the population were or are educated this way, so what more can we achieve if we finance and support sport in state education?

Basil – Member

….You expect the other 50 millon of us to watch.

No, we invite you to watch and hope it may inspire you to rise above the piecrust mentality 😆

No ITV only

Basil – Member
No ITV only

…..bless

No ITV only

I’m impressed, there’s no way that any of my moral positions are strong enough not to crumble at the thought of having to watch ITV for 4 weeks.

Don’t hate the Olympics.
Hate the fact London has them (sod the rest of the UK) and the money spent at the most inappropriate point in time

So which other capital city of the UK do you suggest? Tokyo, Bejing, Athens, Montreal, Berlin, Barcelona, Seoul, Munich, Mexico City, Rome…
When you look at the list of host cities, it’s unlikely they’d seriously entertain Birmingham, Bristol or Manchester as host cities; London as capital of the UK would always be the only serious option.
Apart from the US, which has had LA, (twice), Salt Lake City and St Louis, we are the only country to get the Olympics three times, and it’s pretty obvious that the capital city is preferred, although neither NY or Washington have got it.

Yup, but it would have generated a whole lot more jobs and improved an awful lot more infrastructure if it had been spent directly on those, rather than on a giant vanity project.

You are probably right.
But it wouldn’t have ever been spent there. It would have gone to bank bailouts, “deficit reduction”, benefit payments due to greater unemployment, and tax cuts for the highest rate tax payers. It’s not money that would have otherwise been spent on employment and infrastructure.
IMO, the Olympics forced our government to invest in our country.

Can’t fault the success of out state funded athletes but it has cost a bit

Considering the poor are broke