Olympics souvenirs

[Late]

thatbigeventinlondon.co.uk

lolz.
(Funny, but horribly overpriced and so has become the cash-in it's lampooning, unfortunately.)

I'd imagine the site will be closed pretty quickly, so I took a screengrab:

[Dragontao]

So true though. Most of my relatives in London are already thoroughly peed off with it.

This isn't a games for the people, it's a games for the toffee nosed twats like Coe to publicise themselves and boost their own bank balances while the tax payer gets caned for it.

LOCOG are a bunch of greedy morons who are so up their own backsides it's untrue.

Half the supposed amateurs entering the events are millionaires and effectively professionals through their sponsorship deals (that's the ones who aren't actually professionals in the first place). I don't have a problem with athletes and sportsmen getting rewarded for their efforts but the games are shrouded in hypocrisy. The whole  "it's the taking part, not the winning" and what the games are supposed to stand for mean nothing anymore. 

Then there's all this crap about the sponsors and how the spectators are being ripped off and having freedom of choice restricted.

I am boycotting the event totally.

A woman I work with signed up to be a volunteer. They basically treated her like absolute crap and behaved like they were doing her a favour, not the other way round. She eventually told them to poke it. Same happened to someone my aunt works with.

She was basically using up most of her holiday to do the volunteering, having to pay for her own accomodation in London (with massively hiked prices in London due to the Olympics themselves), no set hours and if she ended up working until the early hours of the morning, didn't even provide any travel or travel expenses. 

She was still thinking about doing it, but then they told her that she'd have to turn up to training sessions in London prior to the Olympics, meaning more time off work and with no travel expenses paid.

After she'd told them to poke it (they obviously didn't take any note of her phone call or the e-mail she sent them) she got an e-mail from them having a go at her for missing the first training session.

The organisation and ticketing were a farce, best seats only accessile to the mega wealthy, with the very best seats reserved for the priveleged few who get them for nothing. Then there's the security, well that has been brilliant hasn't it. Some Government minister somewhere is still taking a nice back hander from G4S.

I'm already fed up of hearing about the bloody Olympics.

[harv]

What worries me is the financial implications of it all. It nearly bankrupted Sidney and just look at the mess the Bubbles are in. Really not looking forward to the next few years when you take that and add it to the recession we've been in for years. I was seriously pissed off the Frogs didn't get it.

[Dragontao]

Apparently Spain were still paying for the Barcelona Olympics 20 years later.

We really picked a great time to have the damned thing with the country still in recession.

[harv]

Apparently Spain were still paying for the Barcelona Olympics 20 years later.

We really picked a great time to have the damned thing with the country still in recession.

I was thinking about the recession a few days ago. When does a recession become a depression..? Is it after a certain amount of time or is it more complicated than that? As far as I'm concerned we've been in a recession since late 2007 but we weren't officially in a recession until a couple of years later as far as I remember.

[Dragontao]

I think a recession is three sucessive quarters of contraction, which we've just had.

[Late]

It's a long time since I did (and failed) my economics A level, but if memory serves:
Recession is when GDP is in decline for two successive quarters. It's only called a depression if GDP drops by more than ten percent.
As I say, it's a long time since I studied it, so that may well be wrong!



Our GDP in general ain't great in recent years, but it's nowhere near severe enough that you'd call it a depression if my above recollection is correct.

[ancelotti]

Buzzing for it tbh, next week I'm going to watch Badminton and Swimming. Only tickets I could get. 

Not sure how bad the transport is going to get, probably gonna be stuck inside for the next 2 weeks.

[harv]

I love watching athletics, particularly the Decathlon and Heptathlon.

But football should never be included in the event, not with professional footballers taking part. Professional boxers can't enter the boxing event so I can't see why any other events should be any different...including basketball which is another sport that shouldn't be there.

[Dragontao]

Add tennis to that list.

[harv]

Didn't realise they'd included it lol.

As far as the football goes I'd like to see players aged between 14 and 16 that haven't been signed to a professional club. That way we may get to see good players that have slipped through the cracks and have been undiscovered so far. Initiate a trials scheme through schools and select the best young talent each country has to offer that isn't tied to a club.

[AVFCRoss]

Can't stand it really...I don't support "Great Britain"...I dislike the association with the other home countries because I'm 100% English and would never dream of supporting another nation.

There are other things that annoy me, of course...

The constant commercialisation and how every product in existence is affiliated with the games.

The droves of people flocking in and making the capital a complete nightmare to be in.

The fact we'll be lumbered with debt for decades and no doubt have our snivelling government finding ways to rip off tax-payers in their attempts to speed up the payback process.

The fact half the sports are pointless and tediously boring (archery, rhythmic gymnastics, equestrian, diving, synchronised swimming etc).

The way we've had this clammer for tickets and people are willing to spend thousands of pounds to watch a 9 second race. Someone seriously needs words with these people.

I was watching the GB v Senegal game earlier, and I was thinking to myself who in their right mind would pay so much money to sit there and watch a bunch of average British players (With the odd exception, like Giggs), balls it up against bloody Senegal, in a half empty stadium packing less atmosphere than a library and watching mexican waves every 5 minutes...I also came to the conclusion that these people clearly aren't football fans anyway, and thus, I definitely wouldn't want to be there.

Regardless, the only reason we were ever interested was purely for the political reasons, half the sports are naff and we've only set our target at 8 medals...Not to mention the forseeable debt that will further cripple our economy. Cheers to the next 20 years.

[Dragontao]

Can't stand it really...I don't support "Great Britain"...I dislike the association with the other home countries because I'm 100% English and would never dream of supporting another nation.

This as much as the rest, but Ross' post pretty much agrees with my sentiments. Synchronised swimming isn't a sport for Christ's sake, if it is then ballroom dancing will be in the flaming Olympics before long.

There are arguments for things like Archery and horsmanship to be included because they do have some connection to the kind of skills that were needed in the times of the ancient Olympics.

I hate it when I have to agree with Ross. 

On the ticketing for the games. Apparently, according to the news today, there are still 600,000 unsold tickets for various events and they are now being sold at discounted prices. I bet that makes those who paid the full extortionate prices for them really happy. 

[harv]

Opening Ceremony very impressive so far...hate to think how much it's costing

[styles]

What worries me is the financial implications of it all. It nearly bankrupted Sidney and just look at the mess the Bubbles are in. Really not looking forward to the next few years when you take that and add it to the recession we've been in for years. I was seriously pissed off the Frogs didn't get it.

You're just worried about your giro