After The Flame Goes Out: The Fallout/Legacy/etc.

[Ziggy]

Olympics are over and I am really interested in two things:

1) The opinions on how London did in delivering the games. What worked, what didn't work, etc.

2) Did they games earn London (and UK) money? Were they a big financial loss? What next? As we all know, most cities really struggle on that part (Barcelona being an exception). Athens, for example, was a disaster.

I guess it's too early to say much about the second part (time will tell) but London seemed to have a pretty good plan of making use of the facilities and a lot of regeneration has been done in East London.

Anyways, share any good articles and thoughts here.

[A.H.Black]

1- I think they did fine. Many things beyond their control helped - weather, no serious security threats etc. London did catch the Olympic Spirit and that always makes things wonderful.

2- This is hard to judge. "Olympics" is a buzz word that is used by countries and cities to do many things that might not be completely necessary in order to host the games. Nagano built roads and airports. London revitalized the east end. Beijing - who knows how many things Beijing did in the name of the Olympics. The Olympics are the excuse for doing them but I don't know if you can really say the money spent on these things is the cost of the Olympics.

In 1976 Montreal went into huge debt to fund the Olympic Stadium and other venues. The debt was finally paid off in 2006. This debt plus the boycott of the games in 1980 put the Olympic movement in jeopardy.

In 1984, when the Olympics were really in trouble and Los Angeles hosted the games, they built only 2 structures for those games - the velodrome and the diving venue. Both of those structures were built with private sponsor moneys (I think it was 7-11 and McDonalds). No highways, airports, or new stadiums (although the coliseum was spruced up). They were the first games to include major private sponsorship money. The '84 games made a huge profit. The moneys made, in part, went to form the Olympic Foundation and those moneys are still used to help Olympic athletes. The Olympics have grown ever since then.

So - It's really hard to say whether the London Olympics will be a financial success. If the east end of London is revitalized because of all the building, then it will probably be worth it. Did the Olympics require that building and expenditure in order for the games to take place? Probably not. It's all point of view.

[floskate]

I think we did more than just 'fine'. Even Aussie journalists are admitting that this was the best games ever. Sydney Morning Herald

For me, the legacy is all about the British psyche and how we perceive ourselves and whether we are able to be introspective enough to make a change as a nation. Seb Coe is absolutely the right man for the job of following through on the 'legacy games' and his appointment yesterday is good news to me - whether you agree with his politics or not. He has done the most fantastic job with these games and has got the job done. He's the go to guy, a doer who gets results as he always did in his competitive days.

I freely admit that I fell into the stereotypical British trap of doubting we could pull this off. We're so used to incompetence and mediocrity that many suspected this would follow suit and we would be embarrassed in front of the world. I was proved totally wrong and am glad of it. I couldn't be prouder of my nation right now. For two weeks we lived up to the 'great' in Great Britain. Now I need to translate that into my own life. Positivity can make huge differences!!

Financially it is too early to tell, but if the games have inspired generations both old and new, to try new sports or make changes to habits of a lifetime; well that can only be a good thing. As a teacher I am confronted on a daily basis by apathy, self-righteousness, self-entitlement and neuroses bred on a diet of media driven materialism and banality. For the last two weeks we have seen a different set of role models; those who have dedicated their lives and made unimaginable sacrifices to acheive their goals. We're being reminded once more that you actually have to work hard for something you want and that can only be a good thing. Whether the afterglow can last long enough to transform into something lasting and more tangible remains to be seen.

ETA: But I'm seeing lots of introspection on facebook ( at the contradiction there). It's almost like New Years day with various resolutions being made.

[allezfred]

How Americans rated London Games?

I was a bit WTF about these:

Tomato soup: A

British restaurants aren't much for vegetables but across the board they made a mean bowl of tomato soup.

Air conditioning: F

Unless you like a soft push of lukewarm air to cool you off.

Air conditioning? Seriously? It wasn't that warm.

[allezfred]

Quotes of the Games

"I saw the board with number 31 on it and thought my brother had got a penalty. I thought 'What an idiot Alistair, you've got a penalty'. Then I looked at my arm and realised I was number 31."

- Britain's Jonathan Brownlee took bronze in triathlon after receiving a 15-second penalty for getting on his bike too early. His brother Alistair took gold.

[skategal]

Yes, London did a great job. I haven't followed the games really closely this year, but I heard little if any negative media reports over here about the Olympics. GOOD JOB, London.!!!

As for point number 2....my DH works in tourism and came home and told me that air-flight tourism in London is WAY down this summer. Usually London gets 300,000 tourists in a summer and this year, even with the Olympic visitors, only got 100,000. Apparently, everyone stayed home or visited other places this year because the Olympics were in London. So that will definitely have an economic impact.

Where we live we have 5 direct flights per week to London and each flight carries about 200+ passengers and usually they are at least 3/4 full each night. The week before the Olympics the flights were going with only 60 passengers on them (ie. 3/4 empty.)

It will be interesting to see if this plays a role in the future. (ie. if major tourist destinations will consider not hosting Olympics because of this factor....)

Hopefully, inter-country tourism or European tourists driving over mitigated some of the loss due to air-flight tourism being down.

[SHARPIE]

I
For me, the legacy is all about the British psyche and how we perceive ourselves and whether we are able to be introspective enough to make a change as a nation. Seb Coe is absolutely the right man for the job of following through on the 'legacy games' and his appointment yesterday is good news to me - whether you agree with his politics or not. He has done the most fantastic job with these games and has got the job done. He's the go to guy, a doer who gets results as he always did in his competitive days.

I freely admit that I fell into the stereotypical British trap of doubting we could pull this off. We're so used to incompetence and mediocrity that many suspected this would follow suit and we would be embarrassed in front of the world. I was proved totally wrong and am glad of it. I couldn't be prouder of my nation right now. For two weeks we lived up to the 'great' in Great Britain. Now I need to translate that into my own life. Positivity can make huge differences!!

I so absolutely agree with all this Flo - Im hearing of kids turning up at cycling and boxing clubs locally already, I am sure it's going on all around the country and hopefully around the world too.

As for those of us a bit too long in the tooth to be taking up an Olympic Sport then yeah, taking some positivity forward from these games and the fact that this country isn't as crap as we all make it out to be is going to be the way forward.

What a hell of a summer to be patriiotic with the Jubilee and all. The Tower Of London is my most favourite building in the UK and seeing the marathon runners run past it yesterday almost made me cry.

Despite the bleak economy, despite the antipathy of a lot of Brits, despite us all expecting us all to show ourselves up in front of the world - we shone .... as did the sun even - That's what I am taking from this too.

[floskate]

I so absolutely agree with all this Flo - Im hearing of kids turning up at cycling and boxing clubs locally already, I am sure it's going on all around the country and hopefully around the world too.

As for those of us a bit too long in the tooth to be taking up an Olympic Sport then yeah, taking some positivity forward from these games and the fact that this country isn't as crap as we all make it out to be is going to be the way forward.

What a hell of a summer to be patriiotic with the Jubilee and all. The Tower Of London is my most favourite building in the UK and seeing the marathon runners run past it yesterday almost made me cry.

Despite the bleak economy, despite the antipathy of a lot of Brits, despite us all expecting us all to show ourselves up in front of the world - we shone .... as did the sun even - That's what I am taking from this too.

Great to hear that Sharps, and I'm sure you're right; it will be going on all over the country and the world. That's half the battle - just getting the kids off the sofas, away from their laptops, PS3's and X-boxes and out the front doors. Of course many will quit or lose interest, but some will stay, and some will have the talent and drive and learn to work hard for the chance to change their lives for the better.

I just hope the PC brigade who veto competition and say it's wrong for kids to be allowed to lose are not going to come along and piss all over everyone's chips. Some level of competition is very healthy and develops work ethic, mental strength and self-sufficiency. We've done too much molly coddling and pandering already - that's a big part of the problem!!

[SHARPIE]

From The Australian ( Quote nicked from the BBC - cant directly link as needs a sub)

As awful as it is to admit, London 2012 was bigger, slicker, almost as friendly and more thoughtfully planned than Sydney in terms of the legacy it will leave the host city. As the post-mortems begin on how London compares with other Games in terms of crowd numbers, finances, sporting excellence and that beast of many faces called "legacy", there is one simple indication of the success of the past two weeks. That is the feeling of surprise among ordinary Londoners and people close to the Games that after all that anticipation and all their doubts, they had pulled it off so well. It is not a sense of 'We told you so', more one of 'My god, we actually did it!'"

[floskate]

As for point number 2....my DH works in tourism and came home and told me that air-flight tourism in London is WAY down this summer. Usually London gets 300,000 tourists in a summer and this year, even with the Olympic visitors, only got 100,000. Apparently, everyone stayed home or visited other places this year because the Olympics were in London. So that will definitely have an economic impact.

Doesn't seem to be the case. The BBC news just reporting that London saw 300,000 tourists and 5.5 million day trippers during the period of the games, although some shops reporting a downturn in trade as everyone was all about the O's.

[skategal]

Doesn't seem to be the case. The BBC news just reporting that London saw 300,000 tourists and 5.5 million day trippers during the period of the games, although some shops reporting a downturn in trade as everyone was all about the O's.

Oh good....maybe it picked up during the second week. Or people from other parts of Britain travelling to London made up the difference in the downturn of air passengers.

Would have hated to see the tourist industry hurt due to the Olympics. It's supposed to help.

[millyskate]

This whole year has been rather "therapeutic" for GB... with the Royal Wedding, the Jubilee... I wonder if the Olympics would have been such a popular success if we hadn't had these other events to warm up.

It's been a lot of fun, and finally give us something to rejoice about in this depressing economic climate. I definitely think that having positive role models to counteract the instant celebrity culture is a bonus for British children.
London has been cleaned up and looks great. Hopefully the infrastructures will continue being used. We've gained a new landmark with the orbit (I love it).

We've inherited a lot of beautiful stuff from the olys - art, film, photography. It's all very inspiring.

[Rob]

From what I saw on TV, it just looked amazing, and most importantly, security was a success.

Ok, well Wenlock looked like a dancing tooth from behind/far away. But how unimportant when the venues and transportation got A ratings.

[allezfred]

Doesn't look like US coverage is going to get any better in Rio!

NBC Olympics coverage breaks record

Meanwhile, Rio welcomes the Olympic flag....in an Air France plane.

[floskate]

Well at least it's a better time zone for the US but if it has to be NBC - for the sake of all of us here at FSU - please sack all of your commentators and editors apart from the diving woman who the American FSUer's seem to like.

K thanks

[Garden Kitty]

Well at least it's a better time zone for the US but if it has to be NBC - for the sake of all of us here at FSU - please sack all of your commentators and editors apart from the diving woman who the American FSUer's seem to like.

K thanks

Griping about the NBC commentators is an Olympic sport unto itself!

[Prancer]

I freely admit that I fell into the stereotypical British trap of doubting we could pull this off. We're so used to incompetence and mediocrity that many suspected this would follow suit and we would be embarrassed in front of the world.

That is so odd to me, as I expected GB to do a great job and wasn't at all surprised that you did.

Well at least it's a better time zone for the US but if it has to be NBC - for the sake of all of us here at FSU - please sack all of your commentators and editors apart from the diving woman who the American FSUer's seem to like.

K thanks

We do bitch a lot, and I don't see any of it changing. Maybe we could have one thread for complaints and require all whining to be confined there.

Yeah, that would work.

[elka_sk8]

Well at least it's a better time zone for the US but if it has to be NBC - for the sake of all of us here at FSU - please sack all of your commentators and editors apart from the diving woman who the American FSUer's seem to like.

K thanks

Haha yes cant recall her name but I liked her! She always does a good job- technical but not overly so.

The use of the NFL commentators made me though. They never seemed to be doing anything useful. Ah well, I'm sure this has all been discussed to death already.

I was def. a bit lost last night, can't believe the Olympics are over.

[floskate]

That is so odd to me, as I expected GB to do a great job and wasn't at all surprised that you did.



We do bitch a lot, and I don't see any of it changing. Maybe we could have one thread for complaints and require all whining to be confined there.

Yeah, that would work.

As I said - we're a neurotic and paranoid nation. Our worst fear is that the rest of the world laughs and points at us : Maybe now we'll know better. I really should have trusted Seb Coe more. He was one of my idols growing up.

As for the one NBC thread, I'll believe that when it happens

[algonquin]

That is so odd to me, as I expected GB to do a great job and wasn't at all surprised that you did.

Agreed on all points.