scoobynutta555

What can I say really. GB had 8 minutes to show off in the closing ceremony as a taster for our Olympics in 4 years. This must have been the checklist for those 8 minutes:

A celebrity with no connection to the Olympics who doesn't even live here anymore TICK
Ethnic diversity of the dancers TICK
A disabled TICK
A so called Green theme TICK

Not much thought gone into it TBH compared to the fantastic display the Chinese put on. We're going to look like global idiots if our Games are a reflection on this effort. They're already even talking our Games down once they've seen the Chinese opening/closing ceremony.

Quite why Beckham was there kicking a ball about I have no idea. Can anyone tell me where GB football team came in the Olympics, or did we even field a team

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Beckham is one of the best known icons of the world in China, possibly better known than the chinese hurdler who unfortunately had to pull out. He also helped win the 2012 games for GB, so a bit of continuity.

unclebuck

As for the speeches...

https://www.scoobynet.com/non-scooby...ic-speech.html

Martin2005

I think you are being unnecessarily gloomy, we will I'm sure put on the greatest games ever, remember it's easy for a dictatorship to spend what they like on something like the olympics, that's not quite the same in an open democracy, where the people will quite rightly hold the politicians, and what they spend to account.

As for Beckham, well I guess he's probably the most recognised British face in China, and a great ambassador for sport in this country (as he proved when he helped us win the bid in the first place.

mart360

Jeez mart, what planet are you on ????

name me one project run by our gov, that was ontime and to budget??

our current mob, dont give a toss what they spend, as long as it dosent benefit the democracy, but the minority.

Anyway where are they going to get the funds from,?

at the last check, they were looking to bust financial rules to raise capital they dont have.

overbudget, youd better believe it,


Mart

druddle

Unfortunately there are people in this country who will never be happy with anything, and are happy to doom the 2012 games to failure and be totally negative about them without even giving it a chance (my wife included). Sad indictment of todays society....

I am quite excited about it all and already thinking about a family outing to the new stadium to watch something.

Dave

unclebuck

Better start saving now then.... seats won't be cheap for the ordinary

May I ask, were you as sold on the idea before or after 'team GB's' latest results?

Martin2005

Well I'm from the planet 'Optimism', rather it's rather ugly twin planet 'pessimism'

As far as spending projects are concerned, you get a chance at a general election to vote out a government if you don't think they have spent your money wisely, which is more than you can say for the average chinese citizen.

I assume the lottery is funding large chunks of this, but I'm fairly sure if 3rd world countries like Greece and Australia can afford the games, then the 5th biggest economy in the world can.

Flaps

iTrader: (1)

I was chuffed to bits when we won the 2012 bid but I am starting to get a tad worried too, I keep thinking of the disaster that was the Millenium Dome! I hope we can do it right!

With regards to the checklist, did anyone else notice the 'disabled' dancer get out of her chair (on her own), dance around and climb on the bus? I thought that was a bit bad taste, faking a disability. That's how it looked to me anyway.

On another note, political correctness gone mad, why was the girl chosen to represent Britain Indian?!?! I bet no other country in the world would have done that!

Apparently somewhere on the clip they showed Myra Hindley??? There's a story on it on the net somewhere?!?!?!

2012 will be 'interesting'.

unclebuck

Didn't watch it, but the thought reminds me of the Lou and Andy sketch at the swimming pool..

YouTube - Lou & Andy at the Swimming Pool

little-ginge

Sounds like I didnt miss a lot then

Did they do the 'joke' on British weather where a load of dancers had union jack umbrellas??

mart360

I'm not pessamistic by any means,

You only have to look at our last "major" projects the Dome and Wembley stadium to see what a right royal **** up we made.


looking at the 10 point presentation Matthew Pinsent made, i was cringing,

You can see the tax coffers being lined up now. "all for 2012 of course"

Unfortunatly mart, 12 years of smoke, mirrors, & spin, have started to take there toll,

and right on the time we need to be spending, we are experiancing a credit crunch.

so who is going to fund it?

the lottery wont, thats for sure.

Mart

fast bloke

Planet reality - Can you see the UK govt beating people from their houses to make way for better carparking? (obviously yes, they will do it and spin in, but at least they won't try to claim that it didn't happen)

druddle

Totally. It will be something I am probably never going to see again in London, and something that I think my son and future son or daughter would love to see. If its gonna be pricey, then I am gonna put a pound a week away starting now...

When England won the Rugby World Cup, I got up at 3 in the morning and went to Heathrow to welcome them home, even though I couldnt remember the name of the trophy and wasnt a "real" rugger fan, I just felt great that it was something I could see and be involved in. I got totally flamed for that on here for various reasons, so I guess some people just dont get the passion that others have for sport.

Dave

coolangatta

Spot on Dave
We need more like you and a lot less of the nit-picking doom mongers that pervade the UK.

P1Fanatic

Man there are some moaners on here and unfortunately its the general attitude in the country. It was a small piece on the end of a massive closing ceremony so how can you compare it to what the chinese did? Your moaning about disabled and ethnics yet the chinese replaced a young girl singing as she wasnt pretty enough....

Simon

ScoobyDoo555

My personal opinion on this is that the London Olympics *could* be fantastic.
BUT there are some serious hurdles (no pun intended) to overcome -

1. The transport infrastructure - c'mon, compared to the rest of the civilised world, ours is antique (could be viewed as quaint!) Can you REALLY see all the visitors using the London Underground???? That's not even considering the abortion that is the national railway!!

2. Sadly, you DO have to base comments on previous experience - the Millenium Dome and Wembley spring to mind, but most of the projects are late, or over budget.

3. The team will be totally different - we're already having nationalist Scots calling for a separate team (IMHO, fantastic, but Scotland should pay back all the money invested into their athletes - it looks like they're happy to take the funding, but not be part of GB) (BBC story HERE
Many athletes will still be around, but it WILL be a different team.

I hope it will be great, as I would like the opportunity to go and see it (once in a lifetime in their own country, etc), but I just fear that our games will be run and designed by committee.

I hope somebody sees sense, and quickly.

Dan

mart360

Nail on the head

unfortunatly thats just the start,

its not just the glitz and glamour, its the whole infrastructure, transport, venue, comms, media, people, cost, timing.

if i recall there was a huge footy stadium built recently in aisa, cost untold millions, but was opened on time and within budget. why? because the "gov" had sod all to do with it, it was private capital / enterprise that delivered.

if we are going to deliver a world class event, we need world class planning & resource.

at the moment, ive seen none of that,

my fear is it will be a "trendy" or niche theme, that a select few will

convince the "commitee" thats what we want. and thats what we'll get.

(look at our logo for starters!!)

This is a WORLD event, not just a "brit" thing, we need to up our anti


Mart

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Sadly it will be way over budget, it's the British way of things. Nothing to do with the government as it would be the same (and was) under the Tories.

Bear in mind most of the country is bent. There will be thousands of companies contracted to build for the Olympics who will be greedily rubbing their hands at the opportuinity to fall beind schedule and then nail the government for biilions of pounds of overspend to get the job done 'on time' as unlike Wembley etc. this is a deadline that can't be missed.

Penalty clauses will just be conveniently ignored as they will threaten to 'down tools' if they are imposed etc. etc.

It will be way way over budget and the London ratepayers will be paying the price for a long time to come. Although being as it is London it will probably get passed on to all of us.

Sorry if that sounds overly pessimistic, but come back in 4 years and say it isn't so!

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

I think people are forgetting what a stunning success the CommonWealth games in Manchester were and that the infrastructure is still there to run it. Frankly if you were to improve the road and rail link between there and Sheffield you could have the entire Olympics sewn up.

Anyway - the point is: we can organise major World sporting events. My only fear (as pointed out above) is the transport infrastructure. I can't honestly see how London will cope.

Oh, and as far as opening and closing ceremonies? All style and no substance, what a games NEEDS is tight organisation, impartial judging and no cheats. If London can deliver that, then it will be a success. The ceremonies can be a guy a lighter and bucket of sand for all I care.

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Billions of pounds for the UK to show boat the rest of the world and a couple of people running around a track ......


Waste of money.


All this crap about being green, well this crap is far from green ......

The countries might as well get all the leaders together and see who can p1ss up the wall the highest for all I care.

Leslie

I am afraid that I can't help thinking about clouds and cuckoos Martin. Can't help remembering the Dome celebration which went about as wrong as you can imagine. Even the VIP's were not allowed entrance! And how many years was it before they managed to flog it off too? How much was the maintainance costing us per month?

Have you not noticed that the Greeks cant find a use yet for the stadia that they built and that they are now derelict? Did you realise that the Spanish have still not paid off the costs of the Barcelona games? Still never mind-we will still be paying off the costs of the PFI buildings in 50 years let alone the costs of the Olympics.

Since Flash or his creepy mates are unlikely to be in power in 2012 anyway, there is just a chance that the organisation might actually work however. Goodness knows where the money will come from though.

No doubt Flash et al will be enjoying obscenely well paid jobs in the Eu by then as the repayment for their treachery over the Lisbon Constitution (not a treaty) and will join the throng shouting for an Eu team for the Olympics in order to suppress Nationalism as they have already said!

I support the Olympic ideal, which seems to be fast disappearing now, and also the competitors who ignore the politics. but I do not go along with all the political posturing which seems to be a requirement these days.

Les

Leslie

I applaud your loyalty Dave. Something else which is fast disappearing.

Les

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

The Budget might already include for all the items you mention below? If you can think of them why wouldn't one / many of the industry professionals

The over Budget cobblers that we all hear about is only the very small amount of high profile schemes. When was the last time you heard about a project being on time & on budget? Probably never although it does happen ... a lot!

TX.

Martin2005

Les

The only political posturing here mate is by you!!

If you want to see how things can be done, look no further than Manchester, and the facilities built for the Commonwealth Games, ALL of the facilities are being used by the community (this is one big reason why we won the games in the first place)

The reason the Athens facilities are unused is because of poor planning, the IOC want the games to change, they want what London is offering ie legacy and regeneration

Why you choose to turn this into YET ANOTHER Leslie slag off the govenment / conspiracy crackpot-a-thon I know not?
The games organising committee are NOT the government, it is the government that have capped the budget, it will be the conservatives that see this through, although the committee will probably not change.

Les do me favour, try thinking before posting more utter tripe

ScoTTyB

I'll be booking my 2 week foreign holiday during this time, that's for sure. I'll have to go somewhere with no TV's so I don't get people asking why indians are now representative of England and why there's workmen around the spectators.

ScoTTyB

It's already begun, showing an image of Mira Hindley to promote London, lol, you have to laugh or you'd cry.

Myra Hindley painting taints London 2012 celebrations - Times Online

Bubba po

Unfortunate, but isn't that just a piece of art?

ScoTTyB

Still a questionable image never the less?

Bubba po

In the context it was shown, admittedly. Apparently it was part of a piece of footage panning through an exhibition. I suspect that it's more of an embarrassment to us than to the outside world. I imagine that that "iconic" photograph which has been force-fed to Britons and demonised for nearly half a century means very little to your average non-Brit.