Am I the last sane man on earth?...

Cressers

You know those science fiction films where a stealth invasion takes place by people having their minds taken over by Them, The Aliens? Well I'm starting to feel like one of the last few unaffected people with there minds left intact. The rest of the UK seems to have be affected by the Olympic Virus, what with the saturation coverage and the BBC going gaga over it to the point of moving their 'news' broadcasts to the Olympic Park. Soon bells will be ringing out to mark the Occasion. In the past that was an invasion alarm...

Well this time I think it's too late.

Are there any other sane surviors out there? Are you, like I, trying to avoid any knowing of the Games? When it's all over what sort of a world will be left for us?

snoopsmydogg

if you believe you are sane while everyone around you is going mad.......

maybe it's the other way around

derbygrimpeur

why would you try to avoid the Games, madman!

thecrofter

Invasion of the Bodysnatchers......that's the film. Classic '50's sci-fi.

I know what you mean though. I suppose this is what it must be like for the women when the World Cup is on.

Cressers

I'm going to crawl inside one of those Poundland emergency foil tents until it's over...

jrduquemin

Personally, I think you should enjoy the Games as the chances are very low that you'll ever see them again in this country. I for one am off to Hampton Court on Saturday with the missus to watch the Mens road race go through and then we're off to Lords on Sunday to watch the Korean women's archery team wipe the floor with everyone else :-)

Redhog14

It all seems a bit too easy to knock the games, I hear that they are getting saturation coverage on TV but since I have only watched about 1½hrs of TV since Le Tour finished on Sunday I wouldn't know. Maybe you all watch the too much of the same TV and not much has changed since the last time you looked. Just tune in twice a week you might find it more palatable then.

The Games area good thing, right?, they do promote international relations (except at Hampden... epic fail! North Korea hate S Korea everyone knows that.) I work for a very well known international organisation which apolitcaly promotes cultural and art exchanges, so I get to hear about stuff that goes on around such events, a lot of diplomacy goes on in the background at a low level but it can lead to bigger things in the future. In the foreground we all get a wee touchy/feely bit of other countries athletes good and bad and so when we in years to come meet people from other countries there are certain shared touching points. Yes we do have to put up with the crass and obtuse sponsors guff but is that really so bad? Again I have a lot of experience of sponsors of international events they wouldn't be doing it if it did not further their aims and they are aiming at us! The vast majority of our TV entertainment would not take place with product placement or advertising. We can't really blame the news gathering organisations for covering this stuff 24/7 as we all justify their content by watching their shows too.

Squaggles

What a load of corporate bollocks the olympics are these days , coca cola and mcdonalds , oh dear

Redhog14

Squaggles wrote:

What a load of corporate bollocks the olympics are these days , coca cola and mcdonalds , oh dear

Name one major sports event that doesn't get covered in corporate sposnorship? Every sports event that makes it on telly gets big corporate sponsorship, the only problem with the Olympics is it the length of the build up. You don't have to buy their products, just watch the games when they start.

bearfraser

+++++1
Just a thought , why dosnt the IOC beg /borrow /steal/buy a patch of land or an island somewhere with relativley good weather and transpoet links call it "Olympic City" or some other bollaux and then build a complete event arena, accomadation an airport etc .etc. and evey one who participates could fund it and the necessary updates. It would make an training/ holiday resort the other three years. Would save the event country going broke over the four yearly event.(and the ensuing traffic chaos).I appreciate that this wouldnt work for the winter games but in relative terms they cost a fraction of the summer games and at least most of the winter arenas are reused unlike a high percentages of the summer ones (just look at the Delhi commonwealth site ).

Cressers

What? And stop the money train? You misunderstand what the olympics are about! Why some people still believe they are all about sport...

ddraver

SO Cressers Aside, is anyone getting excited about them then?

I ve missed almost all of the rubbish surrounding it over here and I am, but then I would be for any olympics - the actual Games bit I love!!

I didnt apply for tickets but I was wondering about coming back over and just "being" in nodnoL for a few days when they were on but after the rubbish with the sponsors I didnt bother, thinking that I would rather save the money and go somewhere else (top of a TdF MTF next year for example). I'm wondering if I ll regret that now...

I'm still not convinced that a great race in London is better than a great race anywhere else (or would a crap football mathc be better becasue it's the olympics, AND in London) but a lot of people seem to disagree with that

Frank the tank

If nothing else it will knock a whole load of bad news off the headlines for a bit.

I hope team GB do well and that there are no terrorist alerts.

Enjoy the sport folks.

Pross

Despite my reputation among friends and family of being a miserable git I seem to be incredibly upbeat compared to some of the miserable feckers that inhabit this site. Travelling up to London tomorrow, watching the cycling and some horsy stuff and would love to have the time and money to watch more. The best competitors in a massive range of sporting events are competing within easy travelling distance, there's no way I would miss out on experiencing it altogether. For me the only downside is the pedantic level to which the IOC and LOCOG are taking the brand policing - not sure what they would do if Little Chef still had their Olympic Breakfast!

The media are desperate for things to go wrong so they will have a 'story'. Yesterday's opening up of the Games Lanes apparently didn't cause as much disruption as anticipated but the BBC did a big news piece covering how it would hit a local florist - the problem was all the in car footage showed her moving freely through traffic. They then mentioned that some lanes had been opened to all traffic - cue interviewing someone in their car saying "yeah, it's really difficult - we don't know what we can or can't do" while straight in front of the car the was a sign saying "games lanee open to all traffic" just how f***ing stupid are some people? On the radio the BBC had a reporter trying to make a story of the queues at security checks going into the Millenium Stadium - they interviewed a woman along the lines of:-

Reporter - "So how long have you been in the queue?"
Woman - "about 20 minutes"
Reporter - "Are you annoyed at being made to wait so long?"
Woman - "no, the information said to allow 40 minutes to get in so it's quite good really"
Reporter - "did you know beforehand that you would get in quicker without a bag?"
Woman - "yes, the tickets said so - with hindsight I probably should have left it in the car"

Reporter gives up on non-story.

dw300

THERE IS CYCLING IN THE OLYMPICS PEOPLE ! Stop bitching.

Also, would you rather there was good coverage and McDonald's and Coke were paying for a lot of it .. or bad coverage and YOU were paying for a lot of it?

"There's too much Olympics on my TV, boo hoo." </firstWorldProblems>

wormo

I'm sane (even if I do say so myself!!) and I am looking forward to it. 40 odd channels on sky to watch it on. Club have booked local social club to watch road race and eat lots of cake.

BTW Coca Cola have been sponsoring the games since before WWII. If it keeps this country's costs down well I don't mind. An individual sponsor has given £million + donation so that the Olympic stadium could be finished in the way the architects wanted.

Manchester had a good buzz about the place when it the Commonwealth Games.

schlepcycling

dw300 wrote:

Also, would you rather there was good coverage and McDonald's and Coke were paying for a lot of it .. or bad coverage and YOU were paying for a lot of it?

But we are paying for it, corporate sponsors have coughed up £1.4 billion of the published £9.3 billion cost of staging the Olympics, which equates to about 15% of the total budget and it's not like they're doing it for altruistic reasons, the worldwide and tier 1 sponsors would expect to make that investment back and then some.

Redhog14

schlepcycling wrote:

dw300 wrote:

Also, would you rather there was good coverage and McDonald's and Coke were paying for a lot of it .. or bad coverage and YOU were paying for a lot of it?

But we are paying for it, corporate sponsors have coughed up £1.4 billion of the published £9.3 billion cost of staging the Olympics, which equates to about 15% of the total budget and it's not like they're doing it for altruistic reasons, the worldwide and tier 1 sponsors would expect to make that investment back and then some.

So did you buy more Coca Cola or a new TV or trainers as as a result of the sponsorship or are you just more "aware" of the brand as a result and therefore more likely to in the future. These companies are buying "marketing opportunities", not sales, they are not the same thing. They also get a huge dollop of access to the games inner circles and use the hospitality to entertain their top customers - retail chains - franchisees etc.

dylanfernley

If you look at some of the recent hosts-- Barcelona, Athens, spring to mind,the infrastructure they built is wasted, and they are still paying for it now-- so the upshot seems host country picks up the big tab, corporate 'sponsors' get monopoly conditions during the event, worldwide exposure and as redhog says 'brand awareness ' for a small part of the cost, don't know whats going on in the birds nest arena (bejing) or sydney but suspect variations on the debt theme.

Hopefully some of the infrastructure will be used for many years-- especially the velodrome!

izza

Given the opening ceremony will be held days after the start of the games, one can only presume that Seb Coe's diary management is piss poor.

Can someone tell me how many days after the finishing ceremony the games will end and are they keeping the Olympic lanes operational until 2014 just to fine more drivers and cover the bankers' lost billions?

rodgers73

I'm not arsed about the Games, but no more so because they're here this time. I've never been an Olympics fan regardless of where they're held. That doesn't make me a miserable git - I'm just disinterested.

Shame it's kind of compulsory to be wetting yourself about it all though. It kind of makes me look like some kind of swine just because I'm not interested in the same stuff as everyone else apparently is.

So, good luck with it all but, like Wimbledon fortnight, I'll be patiently waiting for it to end and bugger off out of my life.

MichaelW

North Korea vs South Korea archery competition sounds fun. Do the teams change ends at half time?

Cressers

I got worse. At 8.12 this morning my dopey, doe-eyed neighbour was franticly ringing a tiny christmas decoration bell for some reason.

It truly is disturbing...

dylanfernley

Really--- you should call for a doctor---- Pavlov's Dog syndrome ?

Pross

dylanfernley wrote:

If you look at some of the recent hosts-- Barcelona, Athens, spring to mind,the infrastructure they built is wasted, and they are still paying for it now-- so the upshot seems host country picks up the big tab, corporate 'sponsors' get monopoly conditions during the event, worldwide exposure and as redhog says 'brand awareness ' for a small part of the cost, don't know whats going on in the birds nest arena (bejing) or sydney but suspect variations on the debt theme.

Hopefully some of the infrastructure will be used for many years-- especially the velodrome!

Sydney stadium is regularly used for rugby matches (both codes) and hosted the RWC final in 2003 (now called the ANZ Stadium or Stadium Australia). They reduced the capacity from 110,000 to about 82,000.

London has learned from past mistakes hence the number of temporary venues, making use of existing venues such as the O2 and making stadia that can be reduced to suitable capacities after the games end. Add to that the most polluted area in the country has now been remediated to enable future development and I believe the athletes village is going to be converted to accommodation for essential workers, the whole 'legacy' thing was the main key and I don't think London is going to be left with a Montreal style white elephant.

team47b

move outside the UK and try to watch or hear anything about the World olympics online from the BBC!

So if sanity is measured by olympic coverage, I am the sanest man on earth:D

Anything happened yet?

capt_slog

I'm off to Jersey for the first week of it, so I'm hoping to miss 50%. Mrs Slog might have other ideas though, she thinks sport is just wonderful. :roll:

but I have to add:- 27 million just for the opening ceremony. :shock: £27,000,000. Twenty Seven Bollocking Million.

It's a good job that the country can afford it and that we are not in any financial difficulties.

Cressers

I heard it was £40m. Hey, but it's only our money...

Secteur

Cressers wrote:

I'm going to crawl inside one of those Poundland emergency foil tents until it's over...

Pound land sell emergency foil tents?!

Kieran_Burns

Alien invasion.... have you seen that they don't bend their little finger when drinking tea? Just saying....

Cressers

http://www.poundland.co.uk/product-rang ... y-shelter/

As do the 99p store.