Brekkie Boy

Isn't it a bit late to be casting the ceremony now?

Would love to see the games return to New Zealand - they did a fantastic job with the Rugby World Cup.

I still can't believe we now talk of the London games in past tense - we spent so long looking forward to them and time just seems to have flown since we hosted them. Then again I still can't quite believe we talk about the Millennium in the past tense either!

A torch like object which lights up - that'll never catch on.

I'm pretty sure that rule has now been scrapped. It served it's purpose and got the World Cup into Asia, Africa and back to South America. I suspect if FIFA want to return to South America for the 100th anniversary in 2030 they'll be open to European bids for 2026.

If they're willing to move the Qatar tournament from summer to winter then they should be willing to move the 2018 tournament from Russia.

God, this is awful. Have they revealed a Paralympic logo yet?

I guess they just can't say "better than Delhi" as that would be seen as a very luke warm complement.

Worth noting for the first time the IPC are bundling the 2014/2016 Paralympics together.

The IPC are bundling the 2014/16 rights together and in the UK at least have said they're only interested in free to air coverage in order to ensure the momentum from London continues. C4 are bidding again, while the BBC want them back too - though I hope C4 keeps them as I just think they'll get lost in the schedules again if they return to the BBC.

Rio I think is only three hours behind the UK, so four behind Germany - but crucially two ahead of the US East Coast. The Rio ceremony will almost certainly be scheduled to suit NBC so they can air it around 8pm ET - maybe 7pm at a push - which would be a 9pm or 10pm start in Rio.

So everyone seemed to hate the London logo when it was first revealed but it quickly became a very effective symbol of the games which looked great everywhere it was used. Everyone seemed to hate the Glasgow logo when it was first revealed - and a couple of years on it still looks ****!

Never mind the Olympics, it would be the worst thing to ever happen to the Paralympics if they were ever merged and talk of merger at a time when they're really beginning to grow as their own event is pretty stupid. Indeed I think a complete separation is probably more likely than a merger, with the Paralympics being switched to non-Olympic years and possibly having it's own bidding process.

Yes - not a bad idea at all and as well as cutting costs it boosts the quality of the field.

It was a shame to see the international aspect axed but I guess it means more people in the UK get to see the flame this year - and hence in four years more people in Brazil will.

Back to diving and any particular reason it wasn't incorporated in the Glasgow Aquatics centre. Seems rather short sighted if it's about saving money and limits prospects for events following the games surely - not least the 2018 Youth Olympics.

Entering the bowls argument and personally I'd remove it as a compulsory sport - but obviously if hosts want it the sport would remain as one of the optional sports. Looking at the list of Core and Optional sports there are regular events like cycling, gymnastics and diving which perhaps should be protected with core status, but moving forward and I think the important thing is to keep the demands for host cities realistic - so no demanding 5000 seater venues when 2000 seaters will be sufficient. The most important thing though is securing it's place on the calendar so events don't have to be held in March or October - and when they do take place in the summer athletes are not forced into choosing between the games and another event.

I think though in terms of both the TV deal and indeed the Olympics as a whole a summer games in the US in 2024 is of more value to the US than the Winter games in 2022, especially as them hosting the Winter Olympics in 2022 effectively rules out 2024 and 2028 for the Summer Games (though LA 2032 would be on!). BTW, has anything been suggested yet by the IOC to mark the centenary of the Winter Games in 2024?

I suspect they'll change it by then if FIFA like the idea of returning to Uruguay in 2030 (or keep it if they fancy it being in Europe). They're certainly not going to leave it 16 years between two European tournaments. The best thing though about talking about 2030 now is it's likely to be a world without Sebb Blatter, which can only be a good thing. As if FIFA care about little things like that.

The Winter Olympics should never be awarded as a consolation prize for weak summer bids failing.

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/costly-delhi-games-deeply-flawed-20110806-1igwo.html Cost: $3.92 billion - 16 times over budget Revenue: $36 million

Must say as a massive Olympics fan I'm already getting fed up with the ads for 2012.

Considering Fiji have been suspended from the Commonwealth they didn't exactly have any Fijian athletes to focus on. And indeed their presence was missed from the Rugby Sevens at least.

Would be interesting to know who was used on the World Feed. Think all broadcasters dipped in at some point - the BBC seemed to use them for the athletics one morning at least on the red button interactive service, but then when it was shown on network the regular BBC guys were commentating. Also anyone found any caps/videos of the Foxtel interactive service. Pushbutton.tv developed the Vancouver one and has some caps and a video on their website. I'd have thought they probably tweaked it for Delhi too, but seen no caps of it anywhere. The BBC unfortunately now just use a standard sports multiscreen layout for all such events rather than the tailored interactive services we saw through to around 2006. Indeed for Freeview viewers I reckon we only had less than half the coverage of four years ago. In Melbourne we had live coverage pretty much from the first event to the last on the network, plus two further streams which were pretty much 24/7 throughout the games. In Delhi though coverage began around 8/9am - 4-5 hours after action began, and we only have one interactive stream, and that was only used for live coverage. We didn't get rolling highlights or delayed coverage at night.

Glasgow handover was very poor IMO - so cliched and stereotypical and not really a fair representation of 21st century Scotland. It may divide opinion but IMO London were absolutely right to give a ceremony which reflected the city in the 21st century rather than the city people expect it to be.