yoshi

And here's the mass @, this year the work was very helpfully done by Rols in the CofC polls, so with the help of copy/paste (he's ok with it, don't worry) & the permission of Fabrizio Romano - Here We Go! @Guilga, @Olympian1010, @Palette86, @cfm Jeremie, @Australian Kiwi, @BTHarner, @antiperspirant, @krow, @AustralianFan, @Daze, @Scotguy, @cfm Jeremie, @venuedesignlover, @Citius Altius Fortius, @Citizen-Seth, @thatsnotmypuppy, @Guilga, @Nacre, @Nacholympic, @PikyoK, @KRATK, @krow, @Palette86, @sebastien1214, @Cyriln, @intoronto, @StefanMUC, @Faster, @baron-pierreIV, @cfm Jeremie, @hiroamorim, @rio2016man, @Ikarus360, @TorchbearerSydney, @TorchbearerAA, @FYI, @Australian Kiwi, @AustralianFan, @Durban Sandshark, @Quaker2001, @Alexjc, @arwebb, @Olympian2004, @Brekkie Boy, @Karenina, @corn_zxl, @panamfan, @Anthony, @Olympian1010, @GBModerator, @DamC, @JMarkSnow2012, @AmaniS, @Tatsh, @WD96, @mr.bernham, @mattygs, @kevzz, @olympiaki-agones, @fatixxx, @zigzag, @Athensfan, @Olympic Fan Darcy, @Shiruba98, @Olympian2005, @BigVic, @Dave, @SkiFreak, @Iceman, @stryker, @Tony E Loves Architecture, @Hansfromdenmark, @Lee, @Kenadian, @venuedesignlover, @Hightowerio86, @BTHarner, @gotosy, @Roger87, @Cape Town 2020, @HenryOaks, @Athensfan, @Michelle Also, a shout out again to the winners of all our past comps: @Rob2012, @DannyelBrazil, @demetrius, @paul, @barrack, @Aussie bum? or is it @Mr Tickle? (Davey Podmore), @aismanggo, @woohooitsme83, @VIK, @JDCLauron, @Jon Will Chambers, @Victorian, @Glacib, @Bear, @Scotguy II

I DECLARE CHRISTMAS 2024...OPEN! One of the very few Christmas songs that can be described as accurate, capturing the true meaning of the season. Namely queuing for an hour at Tesco on a Wednesday afternoon in November because everyone is panic buying a month early. That & realising you forgot something vital at 23:59 on the 24th. Anyway, we all know Christmas is not even the biggest event in December - not when we have THE 18TH ANNUAL GAMESBIDS OLYMPIC LOGO COMPETITION! A year ago, we saw the wombat himself Sir Rols design what is still the closest thing that exists to a France 2030 logo, and we saw Scotguy II finally take his first victory in the summer comp in Dublin. Now, as December begins it's time to determine who will follow them. The format is our traditional one - one winter city, one summer city. You know who they are, because you voted for one & worked the other one out, but let's reveal them anyway! SUMMER 2036: SINGAPORE, er...SINGAPORE! You voted, and here it is - one of the last remaining true city-states, & now our first Asian logo comp subject since 2019. It's about time, you must say. Famous for originating the Youth Olympics, hosting the South East Asian Games several times, somehow forgetting that it could host the Commonwealth Games, & having one of very few airports people actually want to visit, there's no shortage of sporting history or design inspiration. In 2005 the late Jacques Rogge awarded the Olympics to London in a hotel here. In 2010, the same Belgian gave birth to the Youth Olympics in the sea here. In 2024, how will you brand the biggest event of them all? WINTER 2034: SALT LAKE CITY, USA! You didn't vote, but you worked it out, right? The last remaining future Olympics not to have a GB logo for it is getting one right here. SLC is famous for being the city of Mormons, for being where Rhona curled that stone, & for being possibly the only city in the Western world where launching a Winter Olympic bid will win you votes. That was most important for the IOC anyway, which is why it'll welcome its second Games in 2034. As such, there's even more Olympic history here than in Singapore - & lots of design inspiration to work with too. 2034 will mark 28 years since 2002, but how will you brand the Olympics' return to Utah? ------------------------------------------------ And now THE RULES, copied and pasted (mostly) from last year. We don't have to ask John Coates what we can do, so it stays as is: We are, as ever, after logos that encompass the overall feel of the city and local influences that can be tied into a design concept. How can any of these cities articulate graphically what they could bring to future Olympics hosting? What flavour will they bring to the games? Will you end up in Google image searches for 2034 for the next 5 years? The logos should be presented as full colour designs on white background. If you like, however, they can also be presented in black and white or utilised in forms like street banners, t-shirts, apps, vehicles, pins etc. For voting purposes, the main (colour) logo will be used on the polls, & extra stuff is not obligatory, but any extra material you produce may help you “sell” your design better to the wider GamesBids voting membership.  These logos are for the cities as they HOST the games. So you CAN use the rings, and don't need to include the words “Candidate City, Olympic Games 2036” or whatever the IOC want this week. Please post your preliminary submissions on this thread. If you want to hold anything back to be presented as a “surprise” when voting starts you can contact me or Rols via PM and I'll tell you where you can send the extra material. However, it would be nice to see as many on-thread submissions as possible for people to chew over in-thread, & to try & get the old buzz back. We can hope, right? You can submit logos for either or both cities. However, you cannot enter more than one logo for the same city (see below). So entering one logo for each is fine, but two logos for Singapore, say, is not fine. You are able, encouraged even, to enter both 'sides' of the comp. Feel free to post as many logo designs as you like, & to ask for feedback from our famously discerning electorate. If you really can't decide between your own designs for a city, feel free to start a poll (or to ask for one to be started). When the time comes for voting, however, you will be asked to settle on a maximum of ONLY ONE official logo per city as your official entry. The format depends on the numbers. Most likely, it will be the traditional exhausting exhaustive ballot preferred by the IOC, and the winter & summer 'halves' will be entirely separate, there will be two winners in the Olympic comp tradition. The competition is open to all members of GamesBids, or to any new legitimate members who join before the end of the submission period. I, with consultation, will rule on the legitimacy of new members. As you would expect, I will rule on any disputes - always aiming to be as fair as possible in the process. As always, just remember, this is all meant to be fun. Olympic spirit, remember?. Hopefully this will spark up some action on the board. I'll be dipping in, keeping a close eye on things, but otherwise will try and keep my green yoshi-paws off until the polling stages. The deadline for submissions is 1pm London time (that is, midnight in Sydney, as per tradition) on NEW YEAR'S EVE, 31 DECEMBER 2024. Thus, GB will begin 2025, or as Olympic fans call it, the boring one, with the voting. Just one extra thing, there is something of a tradition of that being extended, but I'm hoping not to have to do that this year as we already had 21 members sufficiently interested to vote in the city election back during Paris, and hopefully at least some of you will submit logos within the month. I will @ all those voters (yes all of you) in the next post. And this is just to alert @Rob. Rob to the existence of the new comp in the hope that he'll do his traditional bit of putting up links to various free design programs etc for the benefit of those who want to take part but may not have the facility at the moment, and to alert @GBModerator Rob to the fact the comp is back! In addition, we had a member ask in the election thread about info on programs people use - I don't know that world (those who can't...) but I'd encourage anyone who does to share. All that is left to say is thank you Rols once again, and to all participants for having the guts to put your logos up for the annual GamesBids dissection, & may the best logos win - GOOD LUCK!

FIFA now not just taking the piss, but trampling and burning the piss until it's not even there anymore... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/nov/30/fifa-saudi-arabia-2034-world-cup-football-evaluation-report

It's a 100 day review to determine which international cricket ground in the Gabba area of Brisbane would be the best one to choose for a renovation...

Looking at a map, the actual obvious anchor major city for the snow venues in the high Rhone Alpes is...Geneva. If the IOC were truly flexible they could've killed two birds with one stone! (Although they'd have then been forced to give a Games to Sweden, & we all know that's the reddest of all red lines for the IOC )

It's not Christmas until it launches (and it'll be the 2nd where you are when it does)

This really does feel like a very odd setup. The OCOG is in Lyon, the Alps are nearer Lyon, the snow events are in the same region as Lyon, it's more easily accessible, it's obviously not completely anti Olympics or it wouldn't want to host the OCOG, it has more of the necessary arenas already there...why is this not Lyon 2030?

They're working like a city that knows they're going to be awarded the Games next year...strong Brisbane vibes about this now - in the sense of the city knowing it'll be theirs & soon, not the sense of not knowing where the stadium is. In fact thinking about what we've seen over the last few days, & a couple of comments I've seen elsewhere I'm starting to wonder whether Bach has choreographed this to perfection with Istanbul & Cape Town, to award 36 & 40 as the first Middle East & first African Olympics at his last session. One last legacy & the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize in his bag... (Reading back this sounds a bit too negative about it. They're both reasonable choices. As many of us have said before, better Turkey than Qatar or Saudi for the first Middle East & Islamic country Olympics, & Istanbul is one of the great cities of the world. As for Cape Town I just hope they get properly supported for what'll be a big project. Hopefully the IOC don't dump them like a brick as soon as things get rocky like the CGF did to Durban.)

This is interesting. Really interesting. The African itch scratched. A new frontier without risking Middle East politics, & global acclaim for going to Africa rather than condemnation for Saudi or Qatar. A better Olympic record than India. A European timezone without needing to worry about whether a European bid would survive the ballot box. The chance for Bach's handpicked successor to deliver her ultimate passion project. It even resets the cycle for 2040 because there's no precedent for who follows Africa. If they can get the organisation sorted (maybe Cape Town rather than Durban?) then this might be everything the IOC have been dreaming of.

Just fixing that to be more honest

Looks nice. Doesn't make up for the dull logo or awful font though. (Also between this and the colours of the logo (which do improve it) they're clearly going for a Northern Lights theme... in the Alps. Seems quite odd)

It's become quite an interesting race now with India gone & the Middle East so volatile. It feels like this probably goes to the first safe bid that comes in, & with the current protests I don't think Barcelona really counts. That's why Germany's stubbornness with 2040 is so frustrating, even if it can be understood - they'd be in pole position for 36 if they just enter the race. If I had to place a bet right now, I'd probably put it on Seoul, but it's really too early to be confident.

I wonder if this'll jolt Germany back into action. If India's out & everyone else is back in the game then it should do.

I must admit I find the idea of the closing ceremony of 26 being in Verona absolutely insane. I know the Arena is one of the great Italian landmarks, but why on earth would you have a ceremony in a city that isn't hosting anything else?! I get holding it away from Milan, it's not just their Games & it'll allow AC & Inter to return to San Siro quicker, but why not have the closing in Cortina? The other host city? It makes no sense...

That's certainly an inventive way to deal with the problem! What do the football club who normally play there (part of Jim Ratcliffe's empire iirc) think? They're gonna have to be kicked out for a long time to get all that done...

It's a quite odd set of sports to leave out - hockey and rugby sevens especially, the venues are there & they're always popular - would help with ticket numbers. I'd imagine they're sports where the Commonwealth title means a lot too. Also surely can't cost much to have a road cycling event to show the city off. It's better than nothing, & Glasgow will pull it off well, but I fear it'll be a poor shadow of 2014.

Interesting to hear, that's something that didn't really properly happen for us after London. Obviously Ligue 1 is nothing like the Premier League but I wonder if this is a sign that your legacy will be a very strong one (Although might it damage Ligue 1 even more than it already is...)

I guess the problem with the Ruhr is that you need a big athletics stadium for the Olympics but there's no way it'd get used after. All the football teams that'd want a big new stadium already have one (well I guess the Westfalenstadion isn't new but good luck getting Borussia to go to a stadium with a track). There's not even any other sports that could use it like Brisbane has. So really the only way is to do what London originally proposed, make it mostly or even fully modular.

Literally the most predictable thing about this whole tournament...I wonder which Colombian will be the headliner (Just when you thought the Americans were starting to properly get football...)

Looking forward to seeing the Phryges doing winter sports then lol

Sounds like she'd basically be Medvedev to Bach's P*tin. Even if she doesn't go the whole hog by being just a seat warmer while Bach resets the term limits, there'd certainly be a suspicion that Bach is still wielding the actual power when she's clearly that close & that heavily favoured by Bach. It doesn't sound from @krow report like she's especially independent or would be much of a change sadly. I certainly can't see her releasing the Executive grip on the "bid" process...

Reintroduction? Does that mean the 2024 logo might get used again only with the appropriate names & year? Or...winter Phryges?

I saw a picture of the cauldron being deflated...does that mean they've decided not to try to preserve it, because I thought they'd keep it up if they were just discussing where it should go? I really hope they're just strengthening it so it can stay permanently, I'd rather that than have rings on the Eiffel Tower forever

I know it's Scotland so it's not really "the Poms" but there's still something pretty surreal about the Australians actually paying for the UK* of all people to host a sporting event I'm conflicted. It's good that they've found a way to survive but if it's only as a very pale imitation...is it worth it? Plus if it wasn't bad enough that they were just alternating for what'll now be at least 20 years, it's not even doing that now. The only thing we can say is at least it's not England again. Even Glasgow as a city only hosted 12 years ago & as people remember that - a great games - this WILL suffer by comparison if it's low-key. Oh & also they're now one whole year behind on finding a host... for 2030. Good luck. *I know, I know, Commonwealth Games. This'll be Scotland's party as it should be

Phew, so dismantled doesn't necessarily mean fully dismantled - it sounds like what happened to Ozzy the Birmingham bull, he had to be taken into storage for a while (I think about a year?) after the Commonwealth Games so they could a) find a spot for him & b) do all the necessary stuff to enable him to be on display permanently. Finding a spot for the cauldron balloon shouldn't be as hard so hopefully it won't be as long PS I was thinking yesterday watching the party that I was feeling a bit meh about 2030 before Paris - you know, France again after only 6 years when it could've been Sweden - and now I can't wait to see the Winter games in French hands too. Hopefully the spirit of 2024 will live on down in Nice