Brekkie Boy

They certainly need to lock in 2030 sooner rather than later but seems the CGF have blown it with Canada.

All now confirmed, though still no details on the 10 sports. Guess if it's a model similar to the European Sports Championships it's not necessarily a bad thing. Can't find info on what that cost Glasgow in 2018, though of course the athletics was elsewhere. BBC News - Scotland agrees to host Commonwealth Games in 2026 - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8ddeeklxko

The UK government has refused to fully underwrite it but offered to split the bill with the Scottish Government. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2x01ex48no

Well they've made £500m of cuts today and if the games have to be underwritten with the government picking up the shortfall then we all know games rarely run to budget. Perception is more important than the truth in politics too so even if no tax money is intended to be spent on it the SNP may still be accused of wasting money. Westminster underwriting it might be the better bet at the moment.

The Daily Record suggesting 10 sports, and also reminding us how terrifying and awful the 2014 mascot was. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/australian-taxpayers-could-pay-100million-33580108 I think the trouble is getting the Scottish government to underwrite it. Just not tge time for it, though if they do no better time to announce it than off the back of the Olympics and Paralympics.

Hasn't that plan already been rejected though? As things stand they'll probably use the warm up track as the Olympic Stadium.

Agree with that - it's vasically been reduced to the UK and Australia propping it up and that wasn't sustainable. I get what Alexjc is saying about Victoria though, although when it comes to team sports it depends on existing facilities (Sevens is straight forward stadium wise) and they're probably easier to sell tickets for in the early rounds at least. I think retaining a couple would help mask any downsizing.

This has been so much better than the Olympic ceremony - celebrated French acts abd the athletes far more and the Cauldron lighting even more stunning second time around.

Whilst Paris looked to match London it seems Atlanta will be the benchmark for Brisbane. Were Melbourne and Sydney even sounded out for 2032?

What a surprise Mr Coates is behind this terrible idea.

The symbolism was still there, just without the toxic fumes. If you're such a traditionalist the flame was too - just not centre stage. This cauldron may have been unashamedly fake but it's lighting looked the most real in decades - the idea of the actual torch lighting the actual cauldron has long gone and for decades, not just years, the flame has somewhat lit itself when somebody waved a torch near by. Sometimes they could argue the gas was ignited by the nearby flame, but sometimes clearly not. Worth remembering as beautiful as London's cauldron was only 7 of the 204 petals were lit by the torches, and then of course it was put out, repositioned and relit anyway.

After the Paris handover I wasn't against the idea of future handover ceremonies being done "live" from the next host city, but LA convinced me that they really need to return to doing them in the closing ceremony venue.

They can throw in all the references they want - ultimately if it's crap it's crap.

The advertising has been getting a bit less in recent games I feel, and usually there isn't any at all in the ceremonies. I don't really mind it when it's just a simple white logo that somewhat fits in with the look of the games. Hoping the Paralympic Ceremonies somewhat rescue the disaster that were the Olympic Ceremonies. The setting for the opening feels much better than they had for the Olympics - essentially a more traditional stadium configuration so at least there should be an atmosphere and the majority of events will take place in front of the crowd.

100% agree. Wouldn't even hate them having 2036 even if that means two games in the same time zone back to back, which hasn't been an issue for the Winter games. As for London v Paris - I think I agree London win it by a whisker on the ceremonies, but feel Paris sold Paris more than London sold London, although we made good use of some iconic location too.

Certainly makes things a bit more interesting but don't believe for a penny it wouldn't cost taxpayers a cent.

Think I posted in the wrong thread but so glad there are no plans for this in LA. It's inclusion in Paris was always questionable and the reality was even worse than I feared - seen more talent in "couples choice" on Strictly. It had zero sporting merit at all, unlike other performance based judged events.

Clearly the interest is there to do an actual bidding process and it would probably make sense to make it a combined process for 2036/40, with countries bidding for either or both. There needs to be something more transparent than just handing out the games at retirement parties, even if it is shocking Germany hasn't hosted the games since they won the 1976 Gold Medal in Team Fencing.

Overall the faux cauldron worked really well for the lighting and throughout the games, but they handled the extinguishing of the flame badly last night. There wasn't any need really to do the whole lantern sequence (even if that technically was the Olympic Flame, having been kept alight near the cauldron throughout the games) and they probably should have just left the main cauldron "alight" during the closing ceremony then "extinguished" it towards the end, with the lantern blown out off screen by the person hiding behind the tree. It was a bit of a waste of Leon Marchand really. If they wanted it to go out during the closing ceremony they should have "lit" a proper torch from the show cauldron and bought it in to the stadium and lit something similar to the torch relay cauldrons, then extinguished that later.

Overall the games are up there with Barcelona, Sydney and London but the ceremonies really let them down. The closing ceremony was almost as bad as the opener, but with much less to mock which made it an even tougher watch. It was almost as if it was the Opening Ceremony they wanted to do but couldn't outside the Stadium, though really it was thin on content - just the rings segment they'd forgot to do during the Opener and a couple of stadium performances really. Once again not worth the ticket price and not really putting on a show for the athletes.

I think Diving would stay as the venue is there, even if it's not in Glasgow. It's a pretty high profile sport now for the UK in multi-sport events and Scotland is somewhat competitive in it too, though not as strong as England.

Was reading up on Olympic Parks yesterday - interesting the Squaw Valley basically had everything within walking distance, though I guess considerably fewer venues back then. I'd have forgiven possible corruption for Melbourne 2032 (though IMO Tokyo should have been offered 2032 or 2036), but echo the comments about Munich. It's an architectural masterpiece. Sochi was a nice concept having everything arranged as they did but also quite soulless and didn't really scream Winter Olympics. It does seem the IOC has done a complete 180 though on the requirements for an Olympic Park and the regeneration they begin and as we've seen with Paris the entire city effectively becomes the park. It's worked for Paris though because of the city is it and broadcasters have the obvious focal point to anchor their coverage from. Not so sure LA or Brisbane will get away with that.

One of the BBC Closing Ceremony articles has suggested the cauldron will be bought to the Stade de France for the closing ceremony. Seems unlikely, and if so probably on the back of a lorry rather than a flight through the Parisian skies, but would be a nice idea. It still looks stunning IMO though - caught it lifting off at the end of the one of the OBS feeds yesterday too. Certainly a top 5 cauldron for me and easily the best of the post-2016 environmentally concious efforts.

Great news - we need something to sctatch that itch in the four years between Summer Olympics and the Commonwealth Games will have to do until the European Federations sort out their differences and get behind one European multi-sport event as the Eurolympics we deserve, especially as we only now get a European Summer Olympics at most every 12 years. Would love a European Winter Games too.

No quicker way to go from Olympic Hero to Olympic Zero than joining the IOC!