Brekkie Boy

Just as the games appeared to be rising from the dead they’ve gone and hammered the final nail in their own coffin.

Seems the closest they've got to filling their 132,000 capacity stadium is 111,000. The trouble with a stadium that big is you can sell 66,000 tickets and it'll feel like the stadium is half empty.

A return to a competitive bid process is a must - games should never be awarded behind closed doors before rivals who have expressed interest in hosting even know the bidding was open. I think a dual games awarding is wise though - effectively had that for 2024/28 and 2030/34 and there are no real downsides to it.

Agree - and of course the Paralympics being cheaper to attend open it up more, especially to locals. Practically merging the two would add to the requirement for hotel rooms, training facilities etc. and if events were cut to enable a merger you can guarantee it would be the Paralympics that suffer most. The current split arrangement is the most cost effective way of staging both and really gives the host city an added bonus to stage in the post-Olympics glow and effectively makes the games an 8 week event.

Really disappointing to see swimmer Ben Proud sign up. He justifies it with the money on offer but that's like justifying drug dealing because it pays well.

Not to a month or even three weeks but amazed they've never bought the Opening Ceremony forward to Thursday night given that is traditionally a peak viewing night in the US. Similarly pushing back the Closing Ceremony to Monday would give them an entire slate of events on the Sunday. In theory that two day extension could mean no need for any events pre-Opening Ceremony.

That's a good point - instantly removes a few thousand rooms though I guess with the lack of a significant games stadium and events like Rugby 7s there will be significantly less spectators. Really hard to get excited about these cut price games.

Seem the hot favourites and want to restore the games to full size too.

Well it completely glossed over the questionable way they got the games but agree other than that most the issues outside the Olympic Stadium fiasco were just the standard you get in the run up to any games. I actually think the 11 year window is more of a hindrance than a help too - gives cities too much time to faff about amongst themselves rather than the ticking clock tgat encourages things to get moving.

A good video summing up the story so far.

A And they'd likely be done before the season begins anyway so probably their first game away but then OK beyond that. The issue would be if West Ham end up involved in any of the early qualification rounds for the UEFA competitions.

The schedule now out. https://www.glasgow2026.com/news/4328872/session-schedule-unveiled-for-the-uks-biggest-sporting-event-next-year

Realistically Birmingham the only out of London option for the Paras. Would be a great host for it but I think bidding for both in the same year isn't the best idea as if will look like it's getting second tier treatment by being taken out of the capital to a stadium half the size.

Ideally Madrid would get's it's shot in 2036 but that doesn't seem to be on the cards.

It was the British Universities and Sports Championships. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Prepares_series

Back when officially at least Olympics were bid for, rather than bought... 20 years ago today since London beat hot favourites Paris and a strong bid from Madrid - plus New York and Moscow. Games wise worked out for London and Paris in the end.

The transparency of bidding processes would usually expose corruption so to solve that problem it seems organisations remove the transparency rather than the corruption.

Yes, SLC is probably a contender and really liked the ceremonies being partly on ice and a modern yet classic Olympic cauldron. Mostly remembered by Brits for the Curling I guess and by many for Stephen Bradbury. I just don't have a huge recollection of the games as a whole but thinking about it that was when I was at Uni and didn't have a TV in halls that year so only watched bit when I was at home for the weekend.

Just thinking whilst a few of the summer games have been proclaimed, or self proclaimed, as the "best ever" Olympic Games is there really a consensus on who takes that title with the Winter Games? Recency bias always applies in the Olympics but I do think during my life time Barcelona, Sydney, London and now Paris all had the right to claim that title but it feels like perhaps the Winter Olympics are judged more against themselves. Perhaps too with Britain not being such a dominant force (although now far more regularly winning medals than was the cast previously) we just don't have the connection to it to particularly care. For me from an armchair perspective I'd probably narrow it down to two. I loved Lillehammer and always will - the first Winter games I really immersed myself in as a kid so I think that's always a factor, but it just feels like the last games before the bigger cities dominated hosting the games. Of the later games it's probably Vancouver - always helps being held in a country that actually is competitive in a range of Winter sports and I think the games being welcomed in Whistler and Vancouver came across in a way that hasn't really been the case in subsequent games and I suspect if I was old enoughto remember it Calgary might be in this conversation for me too. I'm sure from an organisation, visiting and sporting point of view there would be arguments for others, but in recent years both Sochi and Beijing felt particularly soulless.

Still think overlooking Ireland for 2023 was a huge mistake, especially given the team Ireland had become by then. If they weren't going to win the bid then get why they don't see much point in a future bid. I don't think the expansion is too much of a burden as it's only an extra 4 games (compared to 40 for the football expansion), although does mean 12 games each weekend in the first 3 weeks rather than 8 to 10. I suspect though they might spread the group games more - two on weeknights and three on weekends with a one day break between each round of games would fit into 17 days with a Friday launch.

That would make sense just to shore up it's future but they'd probably need a less risky candidate for 2034.

Seems Channel 7 signing a two games broadcasting deal might actually include two games then. Hope whereever 2030 ends up they're a bit more than the bargain basement event planned for Glasgow - just bringing back a couple of team events would lift it hugely. https://www.commonwealthsport.com/news/4247352/two-games-deal-with-australian-broadcaster-seven-announced

Glad there is finally a plan to make the games look respectable but really highlights why a full bidding process needs to be restored to sort out most issues prior to selection. Brisbane would never have been elected with the mess that was their previous plan.

Could the Peoples Republic of America come to the rescue if the US become an "associate member" of the commonwealth? https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/breaking-donald-trump-agrees-make-34908203

Well at the rate the dollar is crashing that'll be loose change by the time the games come around.