I am not sure what education has to do with the fact there is simply a f*cking stupid amount of empty seats in the largest event GB has hosted in about a century. How can people not be able to get tickets to events when there are banks of seats empty at the majority of them. It's a joke. Whether you like the olympics or not - the organisation behind it has been, and remains, terrible.

I agree that the fact that there are a load of empty seats is a complete balls up.

But it doesn't turn me against the entire idea of the Olympics.

I actually don't understand what "anti-Olympics" means? What can you have against the best people in the world competing in their sports for the entire world to see?

It's like saying I'm anti-F1, anti-Wimbledon, anti-UniversityChallenge, anti-WorldCup and anti-GoogleCodeJam.

They sold tickets, they made it difficult to sell them again if you turn out not to want or be able to go. Some seats are empty. State Of Emergency MutherFugglers!!!

Also a good point.

Just because the seats are empty doesn't mean that the tickets weren't sold.

OK, I know a lot of them were down to sponsors being given tickets but not all of them.

it shall be done ...

I'm not anti-Olympics so much as I'm anti-spend £10 billion on something Britain doesn't need. And that's before it got ridiculous with the missiles and the the fish and chips debacle, shutting down ATMs that accept MasterCard etc.

Agreed with the point, I don't mind an alternative viewpoint it's not really on to regard the DM as a reputable source of information. The only alternative the DM is is to sanity.

Latest word seems to be that the empty seats are not 'ticketed' seats, they are seats 'reserved open' for competitors, team support staff and IOC dignitaries, who all have the right of entry to every venue and event as they wish as a perk. So if you're an 800m runner, in theory you could go to the aquatic centre and sit in one of those seats if you wanted to. Official line is they aren't seats where the tickets have been given to corporate sponsors and they just haven't turned up. But then they would say that wouldn't they?

While the principles nice, the bare fact is your 800m runner isn't going to turn up to the first round of the 400m butterfly, he's too busy getting ready for the 800m. So in reality the seats are empty at the beginning and fill up later in the games when people are finished with their own events and have free time. Of course then its too late for some of the venues because they're finished with.

LOCOG apparently have petitioned the IOC to allow them to re-use the seats if they're not used 30 minutes into a session. They do sell 'Olympic park only' tickets as it is and there also people who are milling around because the event they came to see is done. So there is a 'walk up' market there to buy in and fill the seats. apparently, it's a question of whether the IOC is willing to be flexible. Good luck with that...

With all due respect, if we only ever spent money on stuff we need, the world would be a really chuffing dull place. The analysis has to include benefit as well as cost.


well yeah, but that's down to our idiot government more than the people competing in the hockey.

how many days does olympics last for? shame I havnt watched any of it yet

Couple more weeks, basically

Also, the first resort in modern satire

I do agree, but what does annoy me that for some of the sports (pretty much all the professional ones), it's not the best people, or if it is, they're not necessarily giving their best as it's not the pinnacle of their sport.

Is there really any medal on offer that Bradley wiggins would rather have than winning the tour? I think not. As for the football, we already have a world cup and i'm not sure I've heard of 90% of the players i've seen so far.

That's two out of a very large number. There are arguably four sports at the Olympics where there are other competitions that have same or greater significance than the Olympic final. They are

Mens & Women's tennis
Men's football (In women's football, it's touch and go which is more important, the WC or the olympics - the Olympics aren't age restricted like the men's games are)
Men's road cycling - in the velodrome stuff the Olympics is the top prize and I'm not sure if there is a women's equivalent of the TdF.
Men's Basketball - mainly because of the worldwide popularity of the NBA.

So that's five competitions in four disciplines out of a total of a total of 36 different disciplines and over 300 separate competitions.

There's a saying - 'If you gave some people a suitcase full of money, they'd complain about having to carry it'.

Jon

Yes, I agree.

All of the athletics, swimming, gymnastics, weight lifting, archery, shooting, cycling and many others all have their own world championships but I doubt any of the competitiors in those sports would count anything above the Olympics.

I do agree, I just think some of the sports shouldn't be in there and also the sponsors should eff off. Though now it's started, I realise that the whole sponsorship thing only applies to the build up and if you're actually there as I haven't seen one tiny bit of sponsorship on the telly.

Obviously, it's because we've hosted it that we've seen all this corporate bollocks that we wouldn't normally see unless we had tickets and were watching it live.

I do feel very strongly though that the Olympics are a celebration of minor sports and not those that are well paid and we see on telly all year round.

It seems to me we are all ( well most of us ) agreeing with each other. Generally a good thing but some sports shouldn't be there.