Is anybody planning on going to see any of the olympic matches?
As I live near St James' Park, the real one in Geordieland, I'm aiming at taking my wife, who's from West Africa, to see Gabon vs Switzerland. Here's how they played in the African Cup of Nations earlier this year:
Sorry Bruce me old mate. I really can't be assed with the whole event. I mean to say. We blow 90 odd Billion to put on an event which will leave us with a few white hefelumps, stadia that will be argued over in the courts. People who won't be able to afford them despite haveing had their coucil tax bumped up by £20 a month to pay for it like our daughter did. and at the end of it will all that money had given anyone a job. Will it eck as like. For me I would rather it have gone to pay for some of the jobs so vital in our ailing economy like health visitors. Physios terrorists. Nurses. Ambulance paratmedics. Policemen. etc. and supporting properly our brave servicemen who serve us.
People like Lord Coe make my blood boil. . Ohh you got me started now. I better stop of I will be ranting for an hour.
Totally agree with GG. A true sporting occasion it may be but when the country is on it's knees financially, so much so that WE have to fund some banks to keep them afloat then wasting billions for a few weeks of minority sports is an act of criminality IMHO. On a positive note, i will watch the footy, the canoeing and thats it. Anyone for tennis?
Strangely enough it was Pope Gregory the 9th inviting me for drinks aboard his steam yacht, the saucy sue currently wintering in montego bay with the England cricket team and the Balanese Goddess of plenty.
I'm off up to Cardiff for the double header at the millennium for team GB V Uruguay! £40 for the 2 matches! ...will stay over night at bristol and then head back to Devon the next day.
I would just like to add that we weren't in a recession when we originally went for the Olympics. In fact, when the proposal was first made, we were right at the peak of our economy.
That rather crucial point to the "We're spending too much money" argument aside, I doubt I'll bother even watching much of the football at all, I'm usually quite optimistic when it comes to England but I can't help but think that Pearce is going to make us fall flat on or backsides. The guy is a muppet.
I was going to make the same point as cambgull - when the bid was launched there was no economic meltdown. It's a lot of money, of course, and some of the IOC's demands are pretty ridiculous (such as the lanes for "olympic VIPS" in the roads and I'm sure they have pretty rigid powers about enforcing the "rights of the sponsors").
But hey, it's the Olympics! It's the greatest thing ever! The legacy stuff does seem to be a lot better thought out than in some such events (although there is a risk that it might not turn out so well. ) - I was in Montreal a few weeks ago and they've *just* finished paying for the Olympic Stadium from 1976; it's now looking a bit run-down and it's not ever being used, which is a real shame.
I'm still looking forward to the event though.
re: the football - usually I quite enjoy the Olympic tournament. It's fun seeing the next big thing show up. I don't particularly care about "Team GB" but watching previous events and seeing players that eventually become top stars (Messi, Lavezzi, Tevez, Giuseppe Rossi, Ortega) is always exciting.
I take your points happy and luke but from a political viewpoint the politicians should have put the country first and showed some balls by simply pulling out citing how irresponsible and insensitive it would be to 'waste' billions we haven't got on a few weeks of minority sports when people are losing their homes, jobs and complete livelihoods en masse. At the end of the day pulling out would have been the most appropriate action to take in terms of putting the people of Britain first. IMO.
Strangely enough it was Pope Gregory the 9th inviting me for drinks aboard his steam yacht, the saucy sue currently wintering in montego bay with the England cricket team and the Balanese Goddess of plenty.
austrianandygull wrote:I take your points happy and luke but from a political viewpoint the politicians should have put the country first and showed some balls by simply pulling out citing how irresponsible and insensitive it would be to 'waste' billions we haven't got
If we'd decided not to host the Games after spending all that money people would be complaining about the massive waste of cash in bidding in the first place. Really, you'll never please anybody.
Everybody should know that if you try to pull out at a late stage, it's pretty much always really messy...
I had a similar debate with someone down the pub on the jubilee weekend. She saw it as a massive waste of money for something pointless, as she sat there drinking the bottle of Kopparberg her dole money had bought her. Oh the irony.
I think we should just embrace a big event happening in our little country and enjoy it. If we make a good show of this, it could massively enhance our chances of getting a World Cup here which wouldn't cost as much as we already have good enough stadia.
Can't wait for it myself, we have a great chance of a good medal haul and if you want one to watch out for, try Robbie Grabarz in the high jump. He's a local lad to me who I've met a couple times and know his brother. Very talented guy and he's definitely on form, having just won the European championships. He's also been jumping the highest in the World this year and broke his own record 3 times!
