2012 London Olympics Thread

[xTr1pleXx]

After hearing all this, it makes me all the more glad I spent that time watching Beavis and Butt-Head Do America on MTV2 instead.

I have to give London credit, they did a wonderful hosting the games, but I hate to see the poor saps who have to clean up the mess after the games and what will become of the arenas now (I remember hearing that after all of that stuff was built in Beijing and Athens, they were like ghost towns or something...)

Now the next games are the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.... I know it's on the Black Sea, but where exactly is Sochi?

Most of the seating for the swimming venue were designed to be deconstructed afterwards. The arena for water polo, and basketball are going to be deconstructed as well. The Copper Box, Velodrome and field hockey stadium will all be retained. Olympic Stadium last I had read has four bidders to take it over.

Speaking of Sochi if anyone is into building design, there are a couple of structures going up for the Sochi 2014 that are really sharp.

Supposedly the basketball arena is not only going to be dismantled, but then shipped in pieces to Rio and reassembled there for 2016.

The last I heard, they were considering doing that, but didn't believe it was viable.

Really, it's an interesting idea, though. Many Olympic venues really serve no purpose once the games are over. London has a slight advantage since they're such a large, major city, that there will be some demand for a reduced-size aquatics venue or for a velodrome, etc., but the Olympics has a ton of events that necessitate venues which you would never use outside of the Olympics (or Commonwealth Games, I suppose). Hell, nothing better exemplifies that that the Olympic Stadium itself, which is immediately a subpar venue for anything other than athletics because of the track, and will never have much of a use in regards to athletics outside of the Olympics.

So the notion of reusing venues in different cities is a very interesting one. It may be hard in terms of the logistics, but if you get a few Olympic Games out of a venue that's relatively easy to transport (i.e. not a main Olympic Stadium or gigantic arena), it would more than pay off. Obviously, they'd have to be designed to be easily disassembled, as were many of the London venues.

I don't think a basketball arena was the best thing to test this theory out with, though. Something smaller, like the beach volleyball stadium, a velodrome, the seats used in the rowing venue, etc., might've been good to use as a test pilot for transportable venues.

[-kj]

It's interesting the things they've done with some of the Olympic stadiums. I've been to two of them: Turner Field in Atlanta, home of the Braves; and ANZ Stadium in Sydney, which is convertible between oval and rectangular setups.

[The_Admiral]

Should've disassembled this pile of crap.

[-kj]

Oh, yeah, forgot that I'd set foot in that one as well.

[NJTank]

Oh, yeah, forgot that I'd set foot in that one as well.

Never been to LA?

The Coliseum though crumbling is a classic venue

[dfwabel]

Pele is not just the most famous athlete from Brazil, he is the most famous Brazilian. Plus it is not his fault Soccer was not an Olympic sport back than, and his success on World Cup rosters makes him familiar on the world scene.

BTW Rio is a great place for 2016, and is in our basic Time Zone if NBC does not show things live its time to get pitchforks and torches.

Poor Tank. You forget both history and economics.

1996 in Atlanta did have some preferential times, but the gymnastics team contest was live in Europe but delayed here. Kerri Strug's vault did not matter, but NBC built it so for TV.

Less you forget that NBC gained Olympic rights with Dick Ebersol's help. The Soviet boycott in 1984, when you probably became a fan, was when the "Up Close and Personal" stories were the item and that was a major factor of Roone Arledge.. Arledge did not think of the Olympics as a sporting event, he thought of it as a "mini-series" with stories to tell over 14-17 days. Ebersol learned to package events from his mentor, and sell that idea to the IOC who now took the TV rights for all Games in 1971 a year after Montreal won the bid for the Games.

[Saintsfan]

After hearing all this, it makes me all the more glad I spent that time watching Beavis and Butt-Head Do America on MTV2 instead.

I have to give London credit, they did a wonderful hosting the games, but I hate to see the poor saps who have to clean up the mess after the games and what will become of the arenas now (I remember hearing that after all of that stuff was built in Beijing and Athens, they were like ghost towns or something...)

Now the next games are the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.... I know it's on the Black Sea, but where exactly is Sochi?

Most of the seating for the swimming venue were designed to be deconstructed afterwards. The arena for water polo, and basketball are going to be deconstructed as well. The Copper Box, Velodrome and field hockey stadium will all be retained. Olympic Stadium last I had read has four bidders to take it over.

Speaking of Sochi if anyone is into building design, there are a couple of structures going up for the Sochi 2014 that are really sharp.

Supposedly the basketball arena is not only going to be dismantled, but then shipped in pieces to Rio and reassembled there for 2016.

The last I heard, they were considering doing that, but didn't believe it was viable.

Really, it's an interesting idea, though. Many Olympic venues really serve no purpose once the games are over. London has a slight advantage since they're such a large, major city, that there will be some demand for a reduced-size aquatics venue or for a velodrome, etc., but the Olympics has a ton of events that necessitate venues which you would never use outside of the Olympics (or Commonwealth Games, I suppose). Hell, nothing better exemplifies that that the Olympic Stadium itself, which is immediately a subpar venue for anything other than athletics because of the track, and will never have much of a use in regards to athletics outside of the Olympics.

So the notion of reusing venues in different cities is a very interesting one. It may be hard in terms of the logistics, but if you get a few Olympic Games out of a venue that's relatively easy to transport (i.e. not a main Olympic Stadium or gigantic arena), it would more than pay off. Obviously, they'd have to be designed to be easily disassembled, as were many of the London venues.

I don't think a basketball arena was the best thing to test this theory out with, though. Something smaller, like the beach volleyball stadium, a velodrome, the seats used in the rowing venue, etc., might've been good to use as a test pilot for transportable venues.

I think you have no idea what it would take to build a transportable velodrome. Much, much more complicated than a standard rectangular arena. Its bigger for a start, and the banking and so forth make it generally very difficult to build even a temporary velodrome. The basketball arena was not that big really, the later rounds of the basketball were played at te O2 Arena, oops sorry, North Greenwich Arena. it's a relatively small arena.

The Olympic Stadium can and probably will be converted in some form or another soon, it's more the bidding process and subsequent legal issues that was messed up rather than the design of the stadium.

[NJTank]

Pele is not just the most famous athlete from Brazil, he is the most famous Brazilian. Plus it is not his fault Soccer was not an Olympic sport back than, and his success on World Cup rosters makes him familiar on the world scene.

BTW Rio is a great place for 2016, and is in our basic Time Zone if NBC does not show things live its time to get pitchforks and torches.

Poor Tank. You forget both history and economics.

1996 in Atlanta did have some preferential times, but the gymnastics team contest was live in Europe but delayed here. Kerri Strug's vault did not matter, but NBC built it so for TV.

Less you forget that NBC gained Olympic rights with Dick Ebersol's help. The Soviet boycott in 1984, when you probably became a fan, was when the "Up Close and Personal" stories were the item and that was a major factor of Roone Arledge.. Arledge did not think of the Olympics as a sporting event, he thought of it as a "mini-series" with stories to tell over 14-17 days. Ebersol learned to package events from his mentor, and sell that idea to the IOC who now took the TV rights for all Games in 1971 a year after Montreal won the bid for the Games.

There was no Twitter back than and people now want to see things live.

1984 was the first Olympics I really watched and it was fun with no commies btw.

[McCall]

Could we be seeing 3-on-3 basketball in Rio 2016?

Also, in Bill Simmons mailbag article, someone asked why not have events like a Slam Dunk competition or 3-point, or even mixed 2-on-2 (women, men) as a way to help further basketball on a global level. I actually think they may be on to something. Gymnastics has team AND individual events, just like swimming and athletics. Would give players on a team more chances to win more than just one medal for 2 weeks of play.

I don't know. Discuss if you want.

[BrySmalls]

After hearing all this, it makes me all the more glad I spent that time watching Beavis and Butt-Head Do America on MTV2 instead.

I have to give London credit, they did a wonderful hosting the games, but I hate to see the poor saps who have to clean up the mess after the games and what will become of the arenas now (I remember hearing that after all of that stuff was built in Beijing and Athens, they were like ghost towns or something...)

Now the next games are the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.... I know it's on the Black Sea, but where exactly is Sochi?

Sochi is the furthest southerly city of Russia's territory along the Black Sea. The city is located at the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains and borders the contentious Georgian province of Abkhazia.

[DarkJourney]

Here is a shot of the Olympic complex currently under construction in Sochi

Picture taken back in May

[bosrs1]

After hearing all this, it makes me all the more glad I spent that time watching Beavis and Butt-Head Do America on MTV2 instead.

I have to give London credit, they did a wonderful hosting the games, but I hate to see the poor saps who have to clean up the mess after the games and what will become of the arenas now (I remember hearing that after all of that stuff was built in Beijing and Athens, they were like ghost towns or something...)

Now the next games are the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.... I know it's on the Black Sea, but where exactly is Sochi?

Most of the seating for the swimming venue were designed to be deconstructed afterwards. The arena for water polo, and basketball are going to be deconstructed as well. The Copper Box, Velodrome and field hockey stadium will all be retained. Olympic Stadium last I had read has four bidders to take it over.

Speaking of Sochi if anyone is into building design, there are a couple of structures going up for the Sochi 2014 that are really sharp.

Supposedly the basketball arena is not only going to be dismantled, but then shipped in pieces to Rio and reassembled there for 2016.

The last I heard, they were considering doing that, but didn't believe it was viable.

Really, it's an interesting idea, though. Many Olympic venues really serve no purpose once the games are over. London has a slight advantage since they're such a large, major city, that there will be some demand for a reduced-size aquatics venue or for a velodrome, etc., but the Olympics has a ton of events that necessitate venues which you would never use outside of the Olympics (or Commonwealth Games, I suppose). Hell, nothing better exemplifies that that the Olympic Stadium itself, which is immediately a subpar venue for anything other than athletics because of the track, and will never have much of a use in regards to athletics outside of the Olympics.

So the notion of reusing venues in different cities is a very interesting one. It may be hard in terms of the logistics, but if you get a few Olympic Games out of a venue that's relatively easy to transport (i.e. not a main Olympic Stadium or gigantic arena), it would more than pay off. Obviously, they'd have to be designed to be easily disassembled, as were many of the London venues.

I don't think a basketball arena was the best thing to test this theory out with, though. Something smaller, like the beach volleyball stadium, a velodrome, the seats used in the rowing venue, etc., might've been good to use as a test pilot for transportable venues.

Just to be clear it's only one of the basketball arenas that we're talking about here. The main one inside the O2 isn't going anywhere.

[raysox]

There's also this proposal

[RedRenesis]

There's also this proposal

The idea of a Formula 1 Olympic race got shot down in early July.

[DarkJourney]

What's become of some of the venues in Athens since the 2004 games:

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/list/201208/greece-athens-olympic-decay#1

[Seadragon76]

After hearing all this, it makes me all the more glad I spent that time watching Beavis and Butt-Head Do America on MTV2 instead.

I have to give London credit, they did a wonderful hosting the games, but I hate to see the poor saps who have to clean up the mess after the games and what will become of the arenas now (I remember hearing that after all of that stuff was built in Beijing and Athens, they were like ghost towns or something...)

Now the next games are the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.... I know it's on the Black Sea, but where exactly is Sochi?

Sochi is the furthest southerly city of Russia's territory along the Black Sea. The city is located at the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains and borders the contentious Georgian province of Abkhazia.

What I put in italics scares me a little... I hope that things can cool off there in a few years, but this is a reason of concern for some people, I think.

[The_Admiral]

You're scared of Beavis and Butt-Head Do America?

[ninersdd]

What's become of some of the venues in Athens since the 2004 games:

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/list/201208/greece-athens-olympic-decay#1

Kinda reminds me of the Six Flags New Orleans, how it got abandoned after Katrina.

[Sport]

What's become of some of the venues in Athens since the 2004 games:

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/list/201208/greece-athens-olympic-decay#1

Kinda reminds me of the Six Flags New Orleans, how it got abandoned after Katrina.

It's very "Life After People". Anyone remember that show?

I don't know why nobody with the Athens Olympic committee thought to build temporary venues back then. It looks like Beijing and London even moreso learned Athens' lesson and went with mostly temporary facilities. I mean, what was Athens gonna need with a permanent softball stadium after the two week tournament?

[NJTank]

What's become of some of the venues in Athens since the 2004 games:

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/list/201208/greece-athens-olympic-decay#1

Kinda reminds me of the Six Flags New Orleans, how it got abandoned after Katrina.

It's very "Life After People". Anyone remember that show?

I don't know why nobody with the Athens Olympic committee thought to build temporary venues back then. It looks like Beijing and London even moreso learned Athens' lesson and went with mostly temporary facilities. I mean, what was Athens gonna need with a permanent softball stadium after the two week tournament?

Well the entire country of Greece is crumbling.