Olympics2028

Really good choice. This time around, he should have Tom Cruise pretend to be James Bond jumping out of a helicopter. But instead of Queen Elizabeth, he can have Meghan Markle of Monteceito (who met and knew Liz) and lives 90 miles north of LA, jump out of the same copter. Meghan was shown the other day at the World Series game at Dodgers Stadium and would be a good symbol of the 2028 Olympics. I really liked this segment from the closing ceremonies of the 2000 summer games. Seeing the guy driving around the stadium in this small vehicle and crashing into the stage and causing people standing on it to fall, and then chasing spectators on the field to run around in mock panic, was hilarious. You done good, Sydney. Real good. ^ haha. That was such a great moment in Olympic ceremony history. Only equaled by the tricycles of 2016 and the pick-up trucks of 1996

Hey, you're a bigot...and racist, xenophobe and homophobe too. And really stupid. You'd make an ideal producer for the 2016 Olympics ceremony! Or the 1996 one. Nothing better than this segment from the opening of the Centennial games. You done good, Atlanta---and David Mischer, the TV producer from LA. Too bad Mischer isn't still alive so he could work on the ceremonies in LA, right in his own backyard. I want the 2028 OOC to be inspired by this. They hopefully duplicate it minute by minute. The tricycles of Rio were no match for the pick-up trucks of Atlanta.

So the hicks of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil are somehow better than the hicks of Omaha, Nebraska? If the 2016 Olympics were hosted by Kansas City and its OOC had an opening that featured pick-up trucks, I'd write that off too. Even more so if those trucks added to the cost of the ceremonies. Plenty of people have claimed the 2016 Olympics weren't better because the' budget wasn't bigger. If so, the 2016 OOC could have saved money by getting rid of the tricycles and customized uniforms. They could have stuck with more conventional stuff and not just lowered the budget but probably also made the ceremony more serious instead of geeky. This looked dumb: It's analogous to the LA OOC doing a ceremony that celebrates Randy's Donuts stand. And if they're cheesy enough, they very well may do exactly that.

Just from a sales standpoint, I bet a mascot that has a more recognizable, less abstract design will appeal to more customers at the Olympics store.

https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/la28-celebrates-1-000-days-to-go-with-youth-sports-and-olympians ^ Another reason why the ceremonies for the 2028 summer games should upend Olympic charter rules. They should be border-less and more international. Just about all games for decades have been overly themed to the host city and host nation. London 2012 or Beijing 2018 in particular to me came off as way too localized. The 2012 Olympics seemed like the UK-BBC-BAFTA games and the 2008 Olympics seemed like the China-CCP games. With so many cities hosting venues beyond the political boundaries of the city of Los Angeles, both in southern California and hundreds of miles away in Oklahoma, time for a change.

^ Good glance at how more recent games have become increasingly overdone and non-ceremonial. Their openings have become way too gimmicky and more like a Super Bowl halftime or music awards show. 2016 to me one of the major low-water marks. It wasn't because the Brazilian organizing committee didn't spend money enough on their ceremony, but because their producer loved WTF?! ideas. They had placard bearers riding in on big tricycles with spinning signs of the participating nation and a rear basket piled full of stuff found at a Dollar Tree store. A real WTF?! moment. As for Olympic mascots, most of them for over 30 years have grown more and more freaky or bizarre. I don't know when the 2028 games will announce their mascot, but I recommend they go back to the future. They can honor both the first games in LA and also return to the idea of a mascot looking like something other than an amoeba, a space alien or stalk of asparagus

Doesn't seem like many people are listening to this forum in general. How many users even post here regularly? I see your name and just a few others showing up here over and over again. Several years ago I didn't think a subject as geeky as 'Olympic games" and particularly as fruity as "Olympic ceremonies" would attract the type of idiotic infighting found on political message boards. Duh. Wrong. lol. As for some of the comments above that both focus on highlighting "America the Beautiful" while also politically throwing shade on the US, that's a strange contradiction. In my case, politics or not, I want to downplay the 2028 game's host city and host country. That's because a local angle was already done in 1984, 1996 and 2002. So in 2028 it will be too much a case of "been there, done that." London 2012 also already played up the theme of the movie industry. Anyways,the UK's capital increasingly is more a mecca for film production than LA is. And the 2012 games' already featured things like James Bond, TV shows (albeit largely British ones) and show business in general. I thought that was junk, not to mention other segments like the one that saluted British fashion designers. LA 2028 needs to focus on a more international angle and get rid of the local yokel angle.

After posting this to the video to the thread about venues for 2028 (diving will now be held in Pasadena, several miles outside of LA), I only watched the first few segments of it. But after watching the entire clip, this person interviewed towards the end is why the LA 2028 games really should be treated as a stand-in for the entire world. Its ceremonies need to reflect that. This is another reason why the LA 2028 ceremonies should be treated as a non-local, non-US setting for the summer Olympic games: https://youtu.be/P85ZXcz2GSk?si=eYxkjmEyaobAKk5Z&t=154

The LA OOC and Washington DC will be so caught up in funding issues and potential security threats to be strong arming one another about the creative aspects of the 2028 games. I was watching the 1992 opening ceremonies and, damn, they stuck in so many segments into the presentation, it ended up being "a camel is a horse designed by committee." It went off the deep end the most, however, whenever it focused on Spanish-Barcelona culture and history. In both 1992 and 2012, when local industries like clothing (I guess both Barcelona and London have major clothing companies) were saluted, ridiculous fashion shows occurred. There was a runway model show in 1992 (right after the Olympic flag had been raised) and in 2012 there were parade floats themed to major fashion labels based in London. The 2012 ceremonies to me made London come off like a bunch of local yokels, not a big-time international city. The 2012 OOC also focused on music and movie-TV talent based in London, which admittedly was popular with a lot of TV viewers of those games. But the "show biz" angle was already so overdone 13 years ago, there's no need to repeat it in 2028. LA 2028 needs to ditch the Olympic charter that says host cities should give a history of themselves and the nation they're a part of. I want Peter Rice and his team to say, "forget Los Angeles and the US! Let's celebrate cities and countries throughout the world!" That will be a nice change of pace. And for Olympic ceremonies, that's long overdue.

^ I was surprised when the site of the 1932 swimming events was even considered as a venue for 2028. At most Olympics, both swimming and diving are in the same location. In 1984 they took place in a pool and diving tower built on the USC campus, funded by McDonald's. The original plans were to build a temp pool on top of the main baseball field of USC. But plans were changed to a temp pool in SoFi Stadium. I don't really know why USC can't be used again instead of venues in Inglewood and Pasadena. However, the cost of one new venue alone can cause an OOC's budget to rocket. This was the pool at USC in 1984. Most summer Olympics for at least 40 years have built indoor locations for their pools. So in LA's last games it was different with an outdoor setting. Although the 1992 games in Barcelona held diving in a outdoor location with a great city backdrop.

This moment to me is one of the most fitting kind that can be in an Olympics ceremony. The other video segment of the final portion of 1984's opening didn't show the participants as well. The sight of hundreds of people dressed in clothing associated with their native or ancestral land marching into a stadium works with an Olympics international theme better than I've seen done at other summer games for quite awhile. In comparison, In 2008, it was China/Beijing--and lots of drumming. In 2012 it was UK/London--and the Spice Girls. In 2016 it was Brazil/Rio--and bicycles loaded down with stuff from a Dollar Tree. In 2020 (2021), it was Japan/Tokyo---and anime. In 2024, it was France/Paris---and severed heads. In 2020, I recall Sydney's producer doing a segment for the closing that parodied a tragedy on the playing field: A maintenance truck trying to mow down people. It did occur, however, one year before 9-11. In 1992, after the Olympic flag was raised, a fashion show broke out. Uh, huh? If LA 2028 avoids playing up a local/national angle, it might by default be less likely to continue the decades-long business-as-usual, where there's way too much "huh?!"

Huh? If anything the idea of inclusivity and diversity for over 10 years have gotten louder and louder. If anything, IOC bylaws that for decades have said a host city should theme ceremonies to local and national history seem way more passe. That's far more "been there, done that." Last night I watched segments of the ceremonies of Barcelona 1992 and Athens 2004, and the local angle to me grew tedious. In 2012, the ceremonies made London look provincial. It was almost like a bunch of villagers bragging about their hometown. It reminded me of the joke about going to a dinner party and the hosts ending the night by bringing out their home movies. I'd prefer the producer of the 2028 games to limit "Los Angeles," "Hollywood" and "United States" to just brief portions and instead honor peoples and places throughout the world. Since immigrants from all over the globe reside in LA, that thematically makes sense too. Now that the LA OOC has already gotten the IOC to change rules about the names of venues, no reason why the rules about ceremonies, which are even more open to interpretation, shouldn't upend tradition too. As for mascots (I don't believe mentioned in IOC bylaws), I definitely want the trends of the past decades for the 2028 games to be changed. Instead of some abstract or oddball thing, the 2028 OOC should honor the first games in LA by basing the 2028 mascot on the informal one from 1932. ^ I bet a mascot as relatable as that would be more popular and a better seller than something that looks like a space alien from Romulak. BTW, the 2004 ceremonies spent big bucks on a huge tarp that also doubled as a liner for a big pool of water. For what? It looked unnecessary and was more of a gimmicky extravagance. That along with lots of flying parts, and kids and adults floating around on guidewires. Which is another reason why I don't care for Olympic ceremonies housed in domed stadiums (full or partial), such as SoFi. Firework displays are also harder to see.

I don't know how accurate that video is or isn't. I watched it yesterday and was going to post it here right now, but that's already been done. I know when it comes to the 2028 OOC, building even a whitewater course would have added hundreds of millions of dollars to the budget. So now LA is going to rely on an existing course in Oklahoma City, which is over 1,300 miles away. Several years ago, promoters of another Olympics in LA pushed the idea of an Olympic village being built north of downtown LA.. That too would have added way too much to the budget. Why promoters back then didn't go with the 1984 and 1996 format of using existing college dorm rooms shows that bid committees easily start taking the cost of things for granted. The distance of Brisbane to Sydney is over 573 miles. Or way less than between LA and OKC. I get hometown pride and don't mean to piss off Brisbaners. However, if support for the Olympics among a lot of them has dropped due largely to the price tag, and since it's good that LA 2028 has some venues in another city, how about if the 2032 summer games split sections between Brisbane and Sydney? However, I admit I have a bit of a soft spot for Sydney due to its 2020 Olympics. But Rio 2016 (etc) proves that going broke for an Olympic games isn't worth it. 7 years later and Brazil's games are off the radar and easily forgotten.

Personally, I thought 2008 was over-produced and had the charm of regimented human drones. Impressive in one way, but sort of steel-hearted. Olympic traditions and symbols seemed lost in a China-centric ceremony. In 2012, I thought "Olympics" got lost in a ceremony that seemed more like a music concert, a BBC sitcom/broadcast and a training film sponsored by the London Chamber of Commerce. Those 2 games were like the opposite sides of the same extreme. As for 2016, almost not one part of it seemed weak because its budget wasn't bigger. That's an excuse often made by people explaining why the OOC of Rio didn't do a better job. As for LA 2028, since the city can't outdo Paris in the looks department, it's another reason why the next summer Olympics should celebrate the entire world. That theme fits LA better too since various other cities aren't as full of immigrants as LA is. This hasn't been played up as much at a lot of other Olympic ceremonies, and I missed it in ceremonies in 2008, 2012, 2016, etc:

If that prevents acres of nylon or synthetic tarp being laid out on the grass, that will save time and money. Artificial covers becoming a big thing in the first place proves that ceremonies easily are more expensive than they have to be. I think tarps stated in 1992 when a big roll of plastic was rolled out on the field in Barcelona, I recall the same thing in Atlanta, which looked too plastic and unnecessary. Although maybe they're used to protect the turf, but I suspect it's mainly because producers think a cover on a field looks better.