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Commercialization of the Olympics has been around for a long time.
I remember when the Olympics came to Los Angeles in 1984. It was a really big deal locally. I was only 12 at the time, but even then I noticed how comical it was that everything was "the official product of the 1984 Olympics".
And I'm talking about some really ridiculous things, like "the official disposable razor of the 1984 Olympics".
On a side note, how did this great 2012 Dream Team barely manage to defeat Spain?
Greece handled the finances of building an Olympic-caliber city just as badly as they have every other financial issue in recent memory. Don't know why you would think otherwise. Especially when there's like no evidence of it anywhere.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
The Athens 2004 Games played a part in fueling Greece’s enormous debt, the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said yesterday, blaming the overhead on the organisation’s notorious delays.
“You can fairly say that the 2004 Games played their part,” Jacques Rogge told Kathimerini daily during a visit to Athens earlier in the month.
“If you look at the external debt of Greece, there could be up to two or three percent of that which could be attributed to the Games,” he said.
But Rogge insisted that the competition “could have been staged at a much lower cost, as there were delays that rendered double shifts necessary, and having people work at night does cost more.”
Many of the installations were completed just weeks before the competition with a change of government five months before the Olympics compounding delays. Rogge had later praised organisers for hosting “unforgettable, dream Games.”
The Athens Games cost around 13 billion euros, including an estimated one billion euros spent on securing the first Summer Olympics held after the Al-Qaeda attacks on the United States in September 2001.
Several of the venues constructed for the Olympics never found a viable use in the years that followed.
The Greek government is still trying to lease many of these facilities to investors to help trim a national debt of over 350 billion euros (USD 457 billion) but has not ruled out tearing down some of the stadiums if necessary.
http://www.macaudailytimes.com.mo/sp...-debt-ioc.html
Like I said before, blaming the Olympics is a much better option than admitting you can't run your country.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowe DiddlyGreece handled the finances of building an Olympic-caliber city just as badly as they have every other financial issue in recent memory. Don't know why you would think otherwise. Especially when there's like no evidence of it anywhere.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
Did you see advertising at an Olympic venue? Soccer pitch, arena etc. Yes or no?
What kind of debt do you think countries would face without advertising dollars?
Yeah, but you also saidQuote:
Originally Posted by Anal_HershiserLike I said before, blaming the Olympics is a much better option than admitting you can't run your country.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowe Diddly
Athens is the obvious example of you being wrong. There are others, but Athens was the blatantly obvious example that directly contradicts your statement.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
Montreal and Calgary both put themselves into about 30 years worth of debt each for hosting their games. These aren't things that are in dispute, as far as anything I've ever seen.
I said they were blaming the Olympics, I never stated that I actually believed money was lost. I don't believe money was lost. But I believe it was easier to blame the Olympics than admit they simply had no idea what they were doing. If you were in their government would you say, "We were incompetent and bankrupted our nation through idiotic economic policies" or "IT WAS THE OLYMPICS FAULT!"Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowe DiddlyYeah, but you also saidQuote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
Athens is the obvious example of you being wrong. There are others, but Athens was the blatantly obvious example that directly contradicts your statement.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
Montreal and Calgary both put themselves into about 30 years worth of debt each for hosting their games. These aren't things that are in dispute.
I simply don't believe that a nation can go into debt for 30 years because of the Olympics. It's a convenient excuse, but I don't buy it. I'm not calling you stupid or ignorant for believing it. I'm just saying I think there is more to it than what is being "reported".
I found these Olympics the most boring of my life. All Olympics post-Cold War are a shadow of the games previously. The weight of each competition between the US and the Soviet Bloc was palpable back then. I've never cared as much since.
I think the reason I found these Olympics particularly boring just stems from the fact that the locales for the various competitions were limited by what's available. There isn't a great disparity in geography in Great Britain like a lot of countries. A pool is a pool anywhere, but a lot of the outdoor events just lacked any flavor. Also the opening and closing ceremonies were really bad imo. Rio in 2016 should be killer, as it has a lot of what these games lacked.
Neither Montreal nor Calgary are nations, and Canada (a nation) didn't foot the bill for either place.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_HershiserI said they were blaming the Olympics, I never stated that I actually believed money was lost. I don't believe money was lost. But I believe it was easier to blame the Olympics than admit they simply had no idea what they were doing. If you were in their government would you say, "We were incompetent and bankrupted our nation through idiotic economic policies" or "IT WAS THE OLYMPICS FAULT!"Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowe DiddlyYeah, but you also said
Athens is the obvious example of you being wrong. There are others, but Athens was the blatantly obvious example that directly contradicts your statement.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
Montreal and Calgary both put themselves into about 30 years worth of debt each for hosting their games. These aren't things that are in dispute.
I simply don't believe that a nation can go into debt for 30 years because of the Olympics. It's a convenient excuse, but I don't buy it. I'm not calling you stupid or ignorant for believing it. I'm just saying I think there is more to it than what is being "reported".
Fingers were faster than my brain, but my position doesn't change.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowe DiddlyNeither Montreal nor Calgary are nations, and Canada (a nation) didn't foot the bill for either place.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_HershiserI said they were blaming the Olympics, I never stated that I actually believed money was lost. I don't believe money was lost. But I believe it was easier to blame the Olympics than admit they simply had no idea what they were doing. If you were in their government would you say, "We were incompetent and bankrupted our nation through idiotic economic policies" or "IT WAS THE OLYMPICS FAULT!"Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowe Diddly
I simply don't believe that a nation can go into debt for 30 years because of the Olympics. It's a convenient excuse, but I don't buy it. I'm not calling you stupid or ignorant for believing it. I'm just saying I think there is more to it than what is being "reported".
I pretty much agree with this. Although the commercials have gotten to a point where they are almost unbearable, I ended up watching most of it on DVR and ff'ing thru the all the bs advertising. Big win.Quote:
Originally Posted by limitlesAre you talking about tv commercials? What do you think pays for the cost of bringing those games to you. Otherwise the Olympics goes to great lengths to keep secondary advertising out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
And for the op's point. No, every four years the Olympics is must see tv. Where ya been?
I have been a huge fan of the Olympics ever since I was a kid and have been as into them since the 70's as I am today. Can't wait for Sochi!!!
Willie is right though, the social media aspect of it has probably made it more popular with the general public.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowe DiddlyYeah, but you also saidQuote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
Athens is the obvious example of you being wrong. There are others, but Athens was the blatantly obvious example that directly contradicts your statement.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
Montreal and Calgary both put themselves into about 30 years worth of debt each for hosting their games. These aren't things that are in dispute, as far as anything I've ever seen.
Are sure that the economic collapse of Athens and Greece had nothing to do with the government covering up debt, the country having no real exports or manufacturing capability, and the overall failure that is the euro?
Wait nope, must have been the olympics.
Was a great game to watch. Spain pulled out all the tricks, much like a JV team trying to beat the varsity in a scrimmage, they knew they couldn't win on talent alone, so they had to gameplan all the way and take advantage of anything they could. Their bigs (the Gasols and Ibaka) played well against our small lineup, and Spain would also intentionally foul on any fast break opportunity for the Americans to slow the game down, which worked to their benefit. Spain also switched to a box'n'one zone in the 4th quarter which seemed to take us by surprise, and we had a lot of possessions of kind of standing around until someone jacked up a 3.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Druff
Durant, LBJ, and Kobe all had good games, but it was Chris Paul who sealed the deal for us at about the 5:00 left point in the 4th, by nailing a 3 and then making a great driving layup in consecutive possessions to push the lead to 9.
Lets say you owned a rather large plot of land, and a really big band decided to come out for one time only, for a weekend festival on your land. Being a smart capitalist, you would probably construct a basic stage, and some other rudimentary seats and whatnot, just enough to make the concertgoers happy, and then let the other paying companies/vendors who would want in pay for any upgrades.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_HershiserI said they were blaming the Olympics, I never stated that I actually believed money was lost. I don't believe money was lost. But I believe it was easier to blame the Olympics than admit they simply had no idea what they were doing. If you were in their government would you say, "We were incompetent and bankrupted our nation through idiotic economic policies" or "IT WAS THE OLYMPICS FAULT!"Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowe DiddlyYeah, but you also said
Athens is the obvious example of you being wrong. There are others, but Athens was the blatantly obvious example that directly contradicts your statement.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
Montreal and Calgary both put themselves into about 30 years worth of debt each for hosting their games. These aren't things that are in dispute.
I simply don't believe that a nation can go into debt for 30 years because of the Olympics. It's a convenient excuse, but I don't buy it. I'm not calling you stupid or ignorant for believing it. I'm just saying I think there is more to it than what is being "reported".
Now imagine if you decided to go build a whole subdivision of million dollar houses for people to rent for this one weekend festival...because if you don't build all these million dollar homes, the festival will go elsewhere. Then after the festival is over, you gotta figure out some way to make money on these homes, even though there's nothing appealing about these homes or the land that they are on. Thats what happens to these olympic cities.
:sftrueQuote:
Originally Posted by BCR
Nothing will ever come close to the USA hockey team beating the hated Soviets at Lake Placid in 1980. It was the single greatest sporting event I have ever witnessed.
In the UK we had 24 HD TV channels on the BBC dedicated to Olympic coverage. Enough that every single sport could be broadcast live for the entire duration of the games. These channels were completely free of charge, you don't even need to register, or subscribe to anything. Best of all they were 100% free of advertising. So from our viewpoint the Olympics didn't seem commercialised at all.
The whole UK went Olympics crazy. It completely dominated all day-to-day conversation. TV, newspapers, Facebook and Twitter went on Olympics overdrive. The entire country got swept up by the excitement and most people got overwhelmed by a national feel-good factor, including those who'd been critics of the Olympics during the 7 year run-up.
The unanimous view is that the games were a big success, just about everybody is feeling very patriotic and proud. GB athletes performed above expectations, which helped obviously. Team GB shipped 29 golds in London 2012. As recently as Atlanta 1996 they managed only 1 gold. Lottery funding has made a huge difference to performance. All amateur sports here used to be run on a shoe-string budget. Nowadays facilities have been greatly improved and all promising sportsmen are granted funding to let them concentrate on their sport full-time. If you proportion medals to population GB out-performed both USA and China.
By the way, basketball is considered a minority sport over here. Very few people paid much attention to the gold medal match, most probably didn't even know it was on and wouldn't be able to name a single player in the USA team. At best all it got a brief mention at the end of a few sports news summaries.
I enjoy the Olympics but it's no different than Beijing, Athens, whatever. I'm certainly not an Olympics hater but the coverage from NBC has grown stale, like 2 Olympics ago. It's the exact same shit every year: Bob Costas, Andrea Kremer, pool guy, gymnastics guy etc.
Lots of US athletes will be in the public sphere for the next month (Phelps, Lochte, Missy Franklin, Allison Felix, women's gymnasts) and then will fade away simply because we don't care THAT much. The only ones that will have lasting impact are Michael Phelps and Gabby Douglas, the latter because she's black. Nobody gave a shit about Nastia Liukin until the Olympics started up a couple of weeks ago and she did the same thing Gabby Douglas did.
It's a fun shindig every four years and we'll have new athletes to root for in 2016.
There was zero advertising at any of the venues for the games and of course watching it in the UK on the BBC we had multiple live channels running all day covering every event with not 1 single ad break. It was probably the least commercialised and least cynical sporting event i've ever seen, and had a profound feel good effect around the UK and has given us many priceless memories.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_HershiserThe Olympics have become a giant joke. You can't watch a single event without seeing a Coke, McDonald's, Visa ad splashed everywhere. That is the very much abridged list. I even saw an article about a US sprinter who hoped to medal in his event, not because he wanted to represent his country, but because he wanted to "secure an endorsement deal with Gillette." I admire the sacrifices these athletes make, but despise what the Olympics have turned into.Quote:
Originally Posted by JUSTIFIEDhomicide
I will now "fuck off back to DD".
The Olympics is a crock of shit really.
IOC are a bunch of greedy crooks, the athletes are mostly drug enhanced hypocrites who we put up on pedestals for all the wrong reasons.
I find it hard to watch knowing the majority are drug cheats... athletics for example 60% drug cheats is conservative, cycling 90%.
Feed the machine!
http://deadspin.com/5931226/was-this...ng-match-fixed
The Olympics were ok.
- no new uber stars emerged, still Phelps and Bolt
- nice to watch everything on HD
- twitter got you closer (Liv Boeree tweets with pics for example)
- lots of fit young people strutting their stuff, with outcomes uncertain, that can't lose
- became a bigger fan of beach volleyball, don't really care who wins, just hope the game keeps going and they don't switch to woman's weightlifting
All you need to know about the Olympics was revealed last night in the closing ceremony when Jacques Rogge (Rogue) in his closing speech said "London, you have given us a great soundtrack for the games" - he really said that!
Im not an NBA fan at all, but for you to imply that Brits dont know who Lebron James or Kobe Bryant are is laughable.Quote:
Originally Posted by GaryQQQ
So apparently i'm just late to the party
Quote:
Originally Posted by WillieMcFML
great observation. i agree with weiss, it seemed to blow up but it just appears that i was more connected to it. the social chatter must be the reason. i was so happy for little grenada getting a gold and easily wasted 2 hours on the coverage, especially on grenada's reaction. no way i would have done that before.
i only rooted for north koreans cause i figure they would get life in prison for a bad performance. one of the problems of a dictatorship is that "yes" men move up the ranks including coaches probably telling fearless leader that a gold is obtainable, when most of the time its impossible....then the athlete gets blamed for the "failure" of running his best physically possible time. honestly any country that punishes their athletes like ive heard n. korea does should not be allowed at the games.
I thought alot of new stars emerged. The USA just dominated in most sports even more then usual. I really liked it this time more then years past at least from an American perspective. Its funny how all the top athletes from other countries all train here as well. Im always happy to see Germany, Canada, England win, but fuck the rest of the world especially the chinks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Dad
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser:lolQuote:
Originally Posted by limitles
After that statement, I will not be responding to you any further in this thread.
God, can one thread start w/out this cancer coming in and ruining it?
You know this azzhole was bitching about NBC tape delaying shit, before, now he is watching commercials? He is like Tony Robbins, always finds the positive.
The OP was 100 % correct, these Olympic games simply kicked ass.. I watched the main 4 hour Bob Costas thing every night.
My fav's
Anything w/Bolt, the women's track relays, the swimming, the gold medal basketball game, beach volleyball, women's gymnastics
I'll save you a post, Azzclown
"Gee, do you have sand in your vagina?, Gee."
Favourite Olympic word.......
repêchage
I thought the best part of the games was when Jessica Ennis won the Heptathlon (sic) and sprinted past everyone at the end.
She was beat down with injuries for a long time. And she won a race she did not even have to win.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9Opgt3Haq0
Where else did you see it? There was absolutely no advertising at the venues or patches/advertising allowed on athletes clothes and gear. I don't think Greece is blaming the olympics ALONE for their financial problems and I don't think anyone in this thread is saying that but people are saying it seems to be a widely accepted fact that they did horribly on the games.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_HershiserIf you only saw advertising during the commercials, we didn't watch the same Olympics.Quote:
Originally Posted by danzo
Calgary (I live here) lost money in the 1988 olympic games and nobody here disputes that. The city did try to cover up the loss and not include the infrastructure and venue construction costs on the balance sheets. If I remember correctly that amount was around 500 million and the city claimed a profit of about 150 million so it was a substantial failure financially. Since that time city officials have admitted it was a financial failure but considered a success in every other way for the city. Calgary also is not like Greece, this city is very wealthy and there were no other financial issues they tried to cover up with olympic losses, they just lied about the olympic financials period. Despite the finanacial loss which the city quite easily rebounded from everyone here was happy with the benefits from the games. The sporting infrastructure was great for the community, the Calgary Olympic Development Committee was founded and continues to be funded today. Many athletes (especially youth) have benefitted from this over the past 25 years including myself when I was a teenager.
Where did I see it? EVERYWHERE! I'm not just talking about the games themselves. During competition. For the last 3 months I haven't been able to read a newspaper, magazine, go to a grocery store, fast food restaurant, webpage without being bombarded with ads from national/international conglomerates "celebrating" the Olympics. I didn't watch one commercial, but I can tell you that Coke, Acer, GE, McDonalds, Omega, Visa, and Samsung are all Olympic sponsors. They MADE SURE I knew. There are many more that I can't remember off the top of my head, but I'm sure a quick google search will have the whole list. Thank God they are over so I don't have to see their constant bullshit.Quote:
Originally Posted by peter mcneilWhere else did you see it? There was absolutely no advertising at the venues or patches/advertising allowed on athletes clothes and gear. I don't think Greece is blaming the olympics ALONE for their financial problems and I don't think anyone in this thread is saying that but people are saying it seems to be a widely accepted fact that they did horribly on the games.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
Calgary (I live here) lost money in the 1988 olympic games and nobody here disputes that. The city did try to cover up the loss and not include the infrastructure and venue construction costs on the balance sheets. If I remember correctly that amount was around 500 million and the city claimed a profit of about 150 million so it was a substantial failure financially. Since that time city officials have admitted it was a financial failure but considered a success in every other way for the city. Calgary also is not like Greece, this city is very wealthy and there were no other financial issues they tried to cover up with olympic losses, they just lied about the olympic financials period. Despite the finanacial loss which the city quite easily rebounded from everyone here was happy with the benefits from the games. The sporting infrastructure was great for the community, the Calgary Olympic Development Committee was founded and continues to be funded today. Many athletes (especially youth) have benefitted from this over the past 25 years including myself when I was a teenager.
Looks like that sand is still wedged up in your vagina. Better go see a doctor about that. Either that or you are just a whiny bitch by nature.Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyG_415
Comas are a bitch.......welcome to 2012Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_HershiserWhere did I see it? EVERYWHERE! I'm not just talking about the games themselves. During competition. For the last 3 months I haven't been able to read a newspaper, magazine, go to a grocery store, fast food restaurant, webpage without being bombarded with ads from national/international conglomerates "celebrating" the Olympics. I didn't watch one commercial, but I can tell you that Coke, Acer, GE, McDonalds, Omega, Visa, and Samsung are all Olympic sponsors. They MADE SURE I knew. There are many more that I can't remember off the top of my head, but I'm sure a quick google search will have the whole list. Thank God they are over so I don't have to see their constant bullshit.Quote:
Originally Posted by peter mcneil
thats not what you said, you stated thisQuote:
Originally Posted by Anal_HershiserWhere did I see it? EVERYWHERE! I'm not just talking about the games themselves. During competition. For the last 3 months I haven't been able to read a newspaper, magazine, go to a grocery store, fast food restaurant, webpage without being bombarded with ads from national/international conglomerates "celebrating" the Olympics. I didn't watch one commercial, but I can tell you that Coke, Acer, GE, McDonalds, Omega, Visa, and Samsung are all Olympic sponsors. They MADE SURE I knew. There are many more that I can't remember off the top of my head, but I'm sure a quick google search will have the whole list. Thank God they are over so I don't have to see their constant bullshit.Quote:
Originally Posted by peter mcneil
The one place you would not have seen any of that advertising is when you turned on the olympic games and actually watched them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
I mistyped. I've probably pathetically typed 10,000 words in this thread. I'll take 95% accuracy. I also stated cities were nations twice. Do I know Montreal and Calgary aren't countries? Yes. Is that what I typed? No. My entire point is that the Olympics aren't about the games anymore. If others disagree, I don't think they are wrong or stupid. The last Olympics I enjoyed were Barcelona in 92.Quote:
Originally Posted by peter mcneilthats not what you said, you stated thisQuote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
The one place you would not have seen any of that advertising is when you turned on the olympic games and actually watched them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
In this case piling on is justified. We were pointing out a well known fact that the Athens games produced a big deficit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_HershiserAnother example of why arguing with limitles is pointless. Athens lost money hosting the Olympics? I don't even know what to say to that. If you think Greece's financial problems are due to the Olympics, then you will believe anything any "expert" writes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowe Diddly
IOC President Jacque Rogge backed that up saying the Athens games losses certainly didn't help the countries current woes
I went to the Calgary Olympics and had a great time I had some friends competing in some of the skiing events, I would think that Nakiskia is the biggest blunder for those Olympics. (very windy and huge exposure to the elements lake louise would have been a better venue as they already hold a women's WC DH) and think they still may use the jumps and luge track for training and thrill seekers.Quote:
Originally Posted by peter mcneilWhere else did you see it? There was absolutely no advertising at the venues or patches/advertising allowed on athletes clothes and gear. I don't think Greece is blaming the olympics ALONE for their financial problems and I don't think anyone in this thread is saying that but people are saying it seems to be a widely accepted fact that they did horribly on the games.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anal_Hershiser
Calgary (I live here) lost money in the 1988 olympic games and nobody here disputes that. The city did try to cover up the loss and not include the infrastructure and venue construction costs on the balance sheets. If I remember correctly that amount was around 500 million and the city claimed a profit of about 150 million so it was a substantial failure financially. Since that time city officials have admitted it was a financial failure but considered a success in every other way for the city. Calgary also is not like Greece, this city is very wealthy and there were no other financial issues they tried to cover up with olympic losses, they just lied about the olympic financials period. Despite the finanacial loss which the city quite easily rebounded from everyone here was happy with the benefits from the games. The sporting infrastructure was great for the community, the Calgary Olympic Development Committee was founded and continues to be funded today. Many athletes (especially youth) have benefitted from this over the past 25 years including myself when I was a teenager.
Yeah, as far as the venues Nakiska was the only mistake, like you said, awful location with tons of wind. Weird choice with Louise around as well, not sure what the logic was there. Canada Olympic Park where the luge, bob sled and ski jumping was held is still the training center for a lot of the olympic teams and more sport training centers have been built around there. The olympic oval is still very much in use and is home to many high level athletes as well. Mind me asking how old you were when you came here for the olympics?Quote:
Originally Posted by Baron Von StruckerI went to the Calgary Olympics and had a great time I had some friends competing in some of the skiing events, I would think that Nakiskia is the biggest blunder for those Olympics. (very windy and huge exposure to the elements lake louise would have been a better venue as they already hold a women's WC DH) and think they still may use the jumps and luge track for training and thrill seekers.Quote:
Originally Posted by peter mcneil
nineteen (young dumb and full of cum.)Quote:
Originally Posted by peter mcneil
went for ski trip to fernie and lake louise and Jasper, the highway between lake louise and jasper may be the best driving experience i have ever had. got floor licking drunk at the athabaska hotel IN jasper three nights in a row.