yoshi

Of course they could always fulfill the prophecy of Davey by basing the whole thing in Croydon...or maybe now Crossrail is finally open, Abbey Wood is more appealing ...has Davey completely left the forum? I tried to get his name as an @ but it didn't come up

... I'm confused

If you're going to do that talking about scaled down Games, then wouldn't Birmingham actually be best placed out of any UK city for that? There's surely more land for the village, a stadium that'll have experience of being expanded and reduced, the other 2022 facilities, the NEC already there for just about all the indoor sports - and that way it'd free West Ham from another decade of uncertainty about what'd be done with the stadium after another Olympics, since with UK Athletics moving to Brum I'm sure they'll be looking at turning London Stadium into a proper football ground soon.

Good calls I guess, although I'm a little bit weary of how Australia is basically hosting every big event in the later part of the decade - not because you'll be bad hosts, you're always great hosts* but just because there's normally a spread of these around the world - although I guess it's not much different to the UK in the early 10s, right down to the FIFA men's World Cup-shaped hole. Personally I'd have sooner had Argentina get the chance they deserve or South Africa 2. US is just very intriguing - genuinely no idea how it'll go. Every team getting a home crowd, with the American market finally turned on to rugby is the best case scenario. Getting the venue choice right will be hard - I hope they get Canada involved too, at least to play their pool games at home. *Just keep anyone involved in the Gold Coast closing ceremony as far away as possible. Greenland should do.

Sounds like the IOC have realised even they couldn't be brazen enough to go for St Petersburg now, so they'll try for Putin's Mini-Me instead. I'd have thought Samaranch would be better off convincing his own country to bid now the Winter plan's basically dead and they've finally got a genuine chance for Summer victory.

To be fair, he does have a point. However bad the non bidding process was, Brisbane could still be a hugely important Olympics, simply because it's small. There's a hell of a lot more cities in the bracket of "1-2 million with a supporting region of smaller cities and towns" than "5 million+ metropolis that can do it all alone". No offence but it also strikes as the kind of second tier city that could use the Olympics to kick itself into the top flight if it goes well, Barcelona style. I hope it goes very well, there's at least three regions of the UK you could apply this model to even before you start on the rest of the world (just to make the point about just how many of this kind of city region there are) so it could open things up, as long as the IOC play their cards right.

I really like the third one, whose is it?

You can be a republic and still in the Commonwealth - India says hi . Whether the Games will survive I don't know, she's been such a part of them. There's never even been a King's Baton for example. Hopefully they do survive though, they're a distinctive event that gives the chance for cities like Birmingham to host, and for the home nations and many others to shine in ways they can't at the Olympics. And the cliche of them being a friendlier, less packed event than the Olympics does seem true, at least through a TV screen.

Should've been Adelaide 2026, it's clearly their turn. I'd hope (no offence) that 2026 will be the last we see of the UK* or Australia for a good while. I take it 2030 is Hamilton on lock, Canada have dipped out on enough certain wins for them. After that maybe a New Zealand bid will actually get somewhere, an African bid will finally be helped instead of dumped, Singapore will finally remember they're in the Commonwealth, a Caribbean hosting would be good too (Jamaica? Barbados?). We can only hope something works out. *I'd make an exception for Cardiff or Belfast, as they'd be something different. But Scotland and England have had their turns.

I take it Coates will be the next IOC president if he wants it, it feels like he's been groomed for it in much the same way as how everyone knew Seb was gonna be IAAF president almost as soon as 2012 was done. Are there even any other possible candidates besides Coates, Samaranch and Coe? Unless Bach goes full Putin and changes the rules so he can stick around...

I assume he's resigning so he can lead the Brisbane organising committee, at least at first? That or to begin preparing for the IOC presidency in 2025 (?)

That really was a very pretty cauldron. Hopefully Soyoshi can visit it, then hopefully it'll be relit when Tokyo gets to host a full strength Olympics. The IOC should never forget how much they owe Tokyo and Japan.

They really should've had BMX in the Games, especially after how great it was at the Olympics. I'm sure a top class track/park somewhere in Birmingham would've got loads of legacy use too. Missed opportunity.

Ah good... better get a shift on though Looking forward to these Games, I think it'll will be a really good place for them that can really benefit from the games - I like Birmingham, and this should give it the chance to shout a little bit, hopefully that shot of confidence Manchester got in 2002. I haven't been able to get down there since before the pandemic, I'm hoping to go once the train timetable change happens and it's back to full service - the building works going on there in 2019 should be done now.

Wasn't there supposed to be temporary seating at both ends?