yoshi

Well, you liked my post, baron, so I can't be that strange

I might be imagining it, but I think I remember a while back, an image appearing here showing the arrow implanted in the field behind the stadium. Either way, it's very well known that the arrow never went in the cauldron, it was never meant to. The actual arrow itself is in the Olympic museum, I presume it'll go on display when it reopens. Goodness knows how you'll light your cauldron in Tokyo, maybe a real Yoshi might be used

Grab this while you can, the whole artistic section of the Beijing 08 OC, without commentary! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=vvrp2USH_LY

Obviously this is a bigger scale, the Commie hosting & Glasgow is much bigger city, but looking at that just makes me think of what Bristol could do if the city had a bit of guts. A proper arena might now be on the go, but it may well not be usable for sport, like in Leeds. And we're still stuck with the pathetic Gate for our main stadium. The new UWE stadium will at least be better, but it'll still be tiny.

So, found a full (it will be full, this is part 1 of 2) vid of the Doha 2006 OC, not the best quality, & with a very annoying thing in the corner, but I don't think a full vid of this has ever appeared, so (hope this works) : <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/aAfkOrjfEgg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Damn, that didn't work Right, let's try this, take 2: <object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAfkOrjfEgg?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAfkOrjfEgg?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> How do you embed a Youtube vid into a post???

Canada (& possibly China) is different in that women's football is significantly bigger than the men's game. In terms of pure men's footballing tradition, Canada probably isn't that much better than Qatar. IMO, Canada should go for a Toronto summer Olympics before a WC. As Rob says, a Canadian WC would be massively expensive. It would be cheaper, & more feasible, to go for the SOG for Toronto.

Loreen is but one. A Swedish closing ceremony would probably retire the trophy if there was one.

I don't think many people have a beef against Russia. Yes, FIFA could've made it clearer if they really wanted a new land, especially for the European cup. That would've saved many of the bids (including England) a lot of time, effort, money, & grief if FIFA had made their intentions clear at the start instead of making them evident at the end. Unlike Qatar, Russia's bid made sense on a purely footballing level (the laws of Russia are another story), with them being an ex-power quickly rising in the football world, and emotionally, with the whole new area of Eastern Europe never having hosted. Not to mention that Russia can (& will) play the event at the right time of year. The problem is Qatar, their lack of football, their status as a city-state smaller than many American states, their climate, and their backward stance on almost every possible issue. It all adds up to a scenario that seems to get more & more likely every day - that instead of going through a fair, level, transparent bidding process back in 2010, Qatar simply went to the FIFA voting committee, & in the words of another member here, 'bought the World Cup'.

Is it close in polls?

When is the referendum? I thought it was alongside the Bavarian election.

It seems like no matter what the bid is, no matter what the circumstances are, there's always some (censored) who gets ludicrously overprotective.

Since our old Sochi ceremony topic doesn't seem to have made it to the new subforum, I'm starting this one dedicated to the OC, as there's only 4 months to go. The stadium still doesn't look too ready, but I'm sure they'll get there, even if Putin himself has to get a hard hat on & pitch in I'm sure the opening will be a frozen Beijing, with Russia going all out to impress the world.

If your city has a natural beach, why would you hold BV in an artificial beach?

Que?

This is the polar (pun unintended) opposite of the 2020 race. Bar Almaty, all 4 of the main possibles look like great places to hold the games. Could be a very close vote, maybe Mr Bach could need to do more than just announce the winner at his first host city election

Munich has this the 50th anniversary of 72 as well. I'd be very pleased for them, hopefully Germany can finally host an untainted Olympics.

If we don't see Matilda in GC, I'll eat my hat (and get one first )

That suggests that Bach knows for sure that FIFA will move the tournament to November, even if noone else has any idea what they're planning, myself included.

Are Canada going to use 2015 to try & launch a World Cup bid for the men's competition?

Not sure where to put this, appears to be a mock OC for a fantasy Olympics in Amsterdam, could be a good basis for one of our trusty GB-comps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNMy1mMnWc

I assumed you were Russian with your updates on Sochi, Kazan, & the WC 2018.

Don't know if this has been posted before, but a compilation vid of the OC of the 2005 Med games in Almeria, Spain, from La Fura dels Baus. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uTfKrzzc4-Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Looks quite spectacular for a small event in a very small city. Edit: oh s**t, the embedding hasn't worked for some reason, here's the link: http://youtu.be/uTfKrzzc4-Q

I know of Sheffield's history in the industrial revolution, it's not called the Steel City for nothing. What struck me was the similarities between that picture & the pics from London. It's what the OC would've been like if London had hosted the Olympics in around 1984.

I haven't actually seen a Cirque show, only bits on TV. Problem is, they have a tendency to perform in pitch darkness, so on TV, it's difficult to see what they're doing. The one thing by them I have seen was the the amazing opening of Eurovision in Russia, I'll post that up if you want.

I think they're probably in safeish hands with Cirque. They certainly know what they're doing, I don't think they've done an OC before, but you only need to look at baron's posts from London to know how many things have been borrowed from Cirque. Could this signify Toronto really going all out to impress & try to 'pull a Rio' & land 2024?