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'The Olympics are dead': Does anyone want to be a host city any more?
UK Guardian ^ | July 28, 2015 | Les Carpenter

Posted on 07/29/2015 6:52:54 AM PDT by C19fan

The reason Boston’s residents didn’t want to be Athens is the same reason the residents of Oslo or Krakow or Stockholm don’t want to be Athens. Hosting an Olympics is a corporate sinkhole sucking billions of dollars and a city’s future into a bottomless abyss of excess.

The internet is clogged with slide shows of empty, broken, useless stadiums built in the euphoria of a coming Olympics or World Cup then abandoned soon after, allowed to fill with weeds, rodents and other signs of human escape. Is there a better sign of Greece’s collapse than a pile of useless sports facilities crumbling since the torch went out in the summer of 2004? What use did Athens have for a baseball stadium anyway? It’s crumbling among the weeds just like the field hockey venue, the canoeing center and the training pool green with algae.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: corruption; olympics
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To: babble-on

And the “girl” with the gold medal is the one with the pe....


21 posted on 07/29/2015 7:08:10 AM PDT by vmivol00 (I won't be reconstructed.)
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To: dfwgator

NBC killed it for me with their 95% sob stories and 5% actual sports.


22 posted on 07/29/2015 7:08:14 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

Another excellent reason to do it!


23 posted on 07/29/2015 7:08:45 AM PDT by Twotone (Truth is hate to those who hate truth.)
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To: C19fan

Why not run an Olympics with the INFRASTRUCTURE you all ready have?

Who cares if the Croatia v Bolivia Woman’s Basketball match up is in a HIGH SCHOOL GYM?


24 posted on 07/29/2015 7:08:47 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: C19fan

The problem is the Olympic demands for the venue designs! They REQUIRE a stadium big enough to handle X-number of spectators (whether they sell that many tickets doesn’t matter), has to be within a certain distance to the venue and/or training facilities, x-number of housing MUST be within a single area for the athletes, if over a certain distance - traffic has to be diverted to allow Olympic traffic as priority, etc..., etc..., etc...! It really IS a nightmare!

I was on a subcommittee when Arlington, Texas was entertaining the idea of bidding for the Summer Olympics. The requirements are ALMOST insurmountable, and the cost of the “wavers” (i.e., BRIBES, KICKBACKS, ETC...) is WORSE! But that is what is MOST OFTEN PAID - the bribes!


25 posted on 07/29/2015 7:09:29 AM PDT by ExTxMarine (Public sector unions: A & B agreeing on a contract to screw C!)
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To: skeeter

I don’t think the “gay” flags helped much either.


26 posted on 07/29/2015 7:09:37 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (America Matters!)
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To: 2banana

And there’s nothing wrong with having different events spread out across the globe. Have basketball in one country, track and field in another. Have the countries bid on individual events instead.


27 posted on 07/29/2015 7:10:39 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: FlingWingFlyer
I think we need to change the events. Instead of watching some Kenyan distance runner, and later watch somebody throw a javelin, maybe we could watch them throw the javelins at the distance runners? And the shooting segment of the decathlon, they could instead shoot at little targets on the heads of the downhill skiers.

I might watch those.

28 posted on 07/29/2015 7:11:00 AM PDT by LouAvul (There is no more GOP. There is RAT, and RAT lite.)
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To: C19fan
Society is collapsing. Screw the Olympics.

Maybe if we crawl out of the rubble, we can think about a new set of Games. Call them the Armageddons or something.

29 posted on 07/29/2015 7:13:09 AM PDT by Lazamataz (Republicans are nothing more than "beards" for Democrats.)
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To: LouAvul

That’s what I was thinking. A DemocRAT scandal event would help also.


30 posted on 07/29/2015 7:13:45 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (America Matters!)
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To: NorthMountain
Host the shooting events in a country that doesn't hate guns. We could have some real long-range, high power events.

Better yet, have this event in Afghanistan or Iraq! Lots of targets, and they are moving! And we rid the world of raving mad, lunatic killers!

That's a win, win...WIN!
31 posted on 07/29/2015 7:13:49 AM PDT by ExTxMarine (Public sector unions: A & B agreeing on a contract to screw C!)
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To: C19fan
And then there is this Olympic moment

Things were a lot simpler then.

I agree with those who say one location: Athens (I have felt that for many years)

But then recall the 1984 Olympics. LA did not go broke, they used (reused) existing facilities and the event was spectacular.

32 posted on 07/29/2015 7:13:53 AM PDT by Michael.SF. (This tagline lists all of Hilary's accomplishments............................)
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To: notdownwidems
For the Winter Games, how about Switzerland? Great location, guaranteed snow, highly efficient, great builders, existing international organizations present, and neutrality.

In other words, it ain't gonna happen. Insufficient opportunities for graft.

33 posted on 07/29/2015 7:14:25 AM PDT by Martin Tell (Victrix causa diis placuit sed victa Catoni.)
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To: dfwgator
Funny, I dislike it for the opposite reason.

ABC had the gold standard for Olympics coverage.

34 posted on 07/29/2015 7:15:14 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: skeeter

Because ABC would actually focus on foreign competitors, like Olga Korbut, Nadia Comeneci, and my all-time favorite...Vasili Alexeyev.


35 posted on 07/29/2015 7:18:12 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: notdownwidems

Siberia


36 posted on 07/29/2015 7:18:19 AM PDT by cll (Serviam!)
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To: Michael.SF.

IIRC, Atlanta made money, but the IOC hated it because they didn’t grease enough palms.


37 posted on 07/29/2015 7:19:14 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: skeeter
The Olympics died when the US broadcasters decided sports mixed with a little patriotism embarrassed them.

I know... B-( BTW, I miss Jim McKay, I think ABC did the best job. Roone Artledge was a genius of ABC Sports.
38 posted on 07/29/2015 7:21:06 AM PDT by Nowhere Man ("I wish we were back in the world of Andy Williams." - My mother, 1938-2013, RIP)
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To: Nowhere Man

Still get a tear when I think of McKay saying “They’re all gone.” during Munich.


39 posted on 07/29/2015 7:22:43 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator
One of the reasons I hate NBC’s coverage is because they are too US-centric in their coverage.

Yeah, skipping three gold medal finals to do a twenty minute profile of a guy from Youngstown, Ohio who finished seventh in the luge and is working at Pizza Hut to put his terminally ill sister through college is not a winning broadcast strategy. :)

40 posted on 07/29/2015 7:23:56 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves (Heteropatriarchal Capitalist)
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