Things I don't want to have happen in 2024

[wlu_lax6]

Olympics in my backyard
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[brian]

Olympics in my backyard
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics- ... 26814.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rent your house out for those two weeks for a mint and take a two week vacation with the profits. Problem solved.

[degenerasian]

Exactly! A friend of mine is doing this in Toronto for the 2015 Pan Am Games.
He wants to rent it out to some rich Argentine freeloader.

[A_B]

Didn;t that end up being less than ideal for a bunch of people in london who thought they were going to strike it rich?

[Pruitt]

Exactly! A friend of mine is doing this in Toronto for the 2015 Pan Am Games.
He wants to rent it out to some rich Argentine freeloader.

Hang on - who the hell gives a crap about the Pan Am Games? I say this as a Torontonian in all seriousness. Anyone who expects a run on seats or accommodation must work in city hall.

Good luck to your friend, but the Pan Am games have generated as much excitement in the city as the CFL season.

[brian]

Didn;t that end up being less than ideal for a bunch of people in london who thought they were going to strike it rich?

I haven't seen too much about it, but I presume supply may have been higher than a lot of people had thought leading to people not getting the windfall they expected. But if you don't want to be around town for those two weeks anyway and are realistic about how much money you can earn it still seems like a pretty solid move.

[Scottie]

Renting one's hut seemed to work okay (that is okay, not brilliantly) in Vancouver 2010. One of the issues is that people who are coming from a distance, especially from another country, want to stay in accommodations about which they can do some research. Hotels, motels, hostels and suchels. Coupled with the internet's nasty tendency to attract scammers, a lot of those houses for rent are sometimes not what they purport to be (if they even really exist). You can't really "ask around" or Google what renting particular some stranger's house is going to be like.

There may well have been some dodgy experiences. You pays yer money and ya' take yer chances. And that works both ways; you may not exactly know to whom you are really renting in that situation. Although, honestly, I didn't hear about any bad ones. The few with which I am familiar seemed to work out quite well.

Of course, hotels are almost entirely out the question anyway. It's not just ticket-holders looking for rooms; seems like every single media outlet in the world sends enormous crews over. In the case of Vancouver, the city delegated who went where. So my wife's hotel, which at the time was the YVR Holiday Inn (a huge and expensive hotel out at Vancouver International Airport), was completely booked with the CTV (Canadian television network) crew. Hundreds of 'em. And a few floors of the Italian network RAI's people, I believe.

[rass]

My wife works in a town just down the highway from the Meadowlands and there has been word of people putting their houses up for rent for the week of the Super Bowl at what seemed to me to be ridiculous prices.

[The Sybian]

My wife works in a town just down the highway from the Meadowlands and there has been word of people putting their houses up for rent for the week of the Super Bowl at what seemed to me to be ridiculous prices.

I'll take it!!!

[degenerasian]

Exactly! A friend of mine is doing this in Toronto for the 2015 Pan Am Games.
He wants to rent it out to some rich Argentine freeloader.

Hang on - who the hell gives a crap about the Pan Am Games? I say this as a Torontonian in all seriousness. Anyone who expects a run on seats or accommodation must work in city hall.

Good luck to your friend, but the Pan Am games have generated as much excitement in the city as the CFL season.

nobody cares in Toronto.
BUT if you were an Argentine head of I don't know, Handball wouldn't you be excited to travel to a place like Toronto on the expense of the Argentina Sports Federation? Or some cameraman from an Argetine network. And you'd need a place to stay! My friend wants a piece of the money that's just thrown away at these events.

Even for the Pan Am Games, hotels are out of the question.

[Steve of phpBB]

1. Having the Olympics in your back yard is a blast. Wlu, as a follower of the more obscure sports, you'd get a lot out of the chance to see the various competitions.

2. I did the apartment online rental thing for Vancouver, and it did work out. But looking back, I would have been an easy mark for a scammer. I did get a reference for the guy, and was able to call that reference at work (at a place that had a legit-looking web site, etc.), but anyone who wanted could have scammed me. The guy I was renting from was more interested in confirming my references, which seemed strange since I was sending him a cashier's check for half the rent up front.

Those rental scams are happening a lot around here (Park City) these days. I think now, the best way to protect yourself would be to ask the supposed owner to send a picture from inside the apartment, using a GPS-enabled cellphone camera to confirm the location.

[wlu_lax6]

I saw 4 soccer games as part of the 1984 Olympics that were played at the US Naval Academy (group games played all across the US, not just centralized in LA).

My son will be going into his senior year of high school. My daughter will be starting her first year of high school. Maybe they can be entrepreneurial and make some dough.

Also I will take deposits now from any swamper who wants to rent my basement room (with full bath), high speed internet, less than 2 miles from 2 metro stops. I will also take deposits to sleep in the tree house out back (but no promise it will still be there in eleven years)

[The Sybian]

I saw 4 soccer games as part of the 1984 Olympics that were played at the US Naval Academy (group games played all across the US, not just centralized in LA).

My son will be going into his senior year of high school. My daughter will be starting her first year of high school. Maybe they can be entrepreneurial and make some dough.

Also I will take deposits now from any swamper who wants to rent my basement room (with full bath), high speed internet, less than 2 miles from 2 metro stops. I will also take deposits to sleep in the tree house out back (but no promise it will still be there in eleven years)

Can I move into your basement now? Are socks included?

[Rush2112]

I loved that we had an extended vacation during the 1980 Olympics (the elementary school was right next to the torch site and a media centre, the high school is next to the speed skating rink/Olympic Centre and was taken over by media as well.) but hated the extra 3 weeks of school in the summer.

My son will be going into his senior year of high school. My daughter will be starting her first year of high school. Maybe they can be entrepreneurial and make some dough.

[Pruitt]

nobody cares in Toronto.
BUT if you were an Argentine head of I don't know, Handball wouldn't you be excited to travel to a place like Toronto on the expense of the Argentina Sports Federation? Or some cameraman from an Argetine network. And you'd need a place to stay! My friend wants a piece of the money that's just thrown away at these events.

Even for the Pan Am Games, hotels are out of the question.

Makes sense.

I guess there's untold thousands of government types flying on the public purse. These "mega events" are ridiculous.

[Keg]

I was in Mexico during the last Pan-Am Games and there was always a crowd around the TVs when the games were on at the bar.

[rass]

I was in Mexico during the last Pan-Am Games and there was always a crowd around the TVs when the games were on at the bar.

Were you anywhere near Guadalajara and if so did you get gouged on lodging? Did you see any Argentinians?

[Pruitt]

I was in Mexico during the last Pan-Am Games and there was always a crowd around the TVs when the games were on at the bar.

Were you anywhere near Guadalajara and if so did you get gouged on lodging? Did you see any Argentinians?

I have heard rumours that those Argentinians will pay crazy pesos for their Pan Am fun

[Keg]

I was in Mexico during the last Pan-Am Games and there was always a crowd around the TVs when the games were on at the bar.

Were you anywhere near Guadalajara and if so did you get gouged on lodging? Did you see any Argentinians?

I was in Puerto Vallarta, which is a 4 hour bus ride away from Guadalajara. I am not sure if there were any Pan-Am events in PV, but the resort prices were a little more expensive in 2012 than in 2011.

[Johnny Hotcakes]

I lived in Vancouver in 2010, and it was an incredible experience. I went to about 12 or so hockey games, some curling, and a speedskating event. And the atmosphere around the city was amazing. I continued to work most days (commuting via car from Vancouver to Richmond), and surprisingly enough traffic was actually much better DURING the Olympics. It was almost as if everybody was avoiding driving, so those on the roads were free and clear for the entire two weeks. The city also put on more buses, so overall the infrastructure handled the influx of people quite well, from my experience. Maybe Steve (as a visitor) has a different opinion, but as a local I had a great time and had very few issues (notwithstanding the Olympic Village scandal(s), increased taxes, etc.). I can certainly see how one might object to it from that standpoint.

Now that I live in Toronto, I can also confirm that nobody I've talked to seems to give two shits about the Pan-Am games. Though maybe we're just too far out at this point, who knows.

[BTTG]

Dude, seriously? Living in an Olympic city is fucking awesome, and I say this as someone who moved to London in 2008 thinking that I would likely spend July-August 2012 in a bunker. In 2008, transport was just a disaster, especially my on my commute (using a key artery approaching Olympic Park) and the Brits are notoriously inefficient at improving things like that. I anticipated a complete debacle, or at least a sever disruption to normal life, as did most London residents. How wrong we were. The organising committee did a phenomenal job, they somehow managed to incentivise the very stodgy transport networks to improve infrastructure to help accommodate hundreds of thousands of extra people with minimal local sacrifice. It was not only smooth during the games, it's been a lasting improvement to the area.

It also didn't hurt that the Brits had their best games since the days of empire, adding to a sense of local pride that is impossible to not get caught up in. Even absent that, it is just the coolest thing to have all this amazing stuff going on, right down the road, with the world watching. I saw a Chinese dude lift something like 5 times his body weight to win a world record gold and an American wrestler offer me the first and, to date, only time I've ever sung the Star Spangled Banner in a non-ironic way. The entire area felt like the scene of a very long and friendly party and you get all sorts of peripheral events to make it even more fun - closing ceremony concert with New Order and Blur in Hyde Park was a nice touch.

DC is already a phenomenal city, possibly the best poised to host the games in America given how used to hosting massive events and important people it is. You (and the rest of the world) will no doubt suffer from America Overload if it comes, but take it from a hard-to-please cynic, the Olympics are the best.

[Pruitt]

Lots of fun having the Olympics in your city - but ask the folks in Montreal or Athens about the costs associated with hosting a two week long TV event.

A brief overview from the Atlantic...

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... me/260111/

Chicago spent a reported $100 million in its losing campaign to host the 2016 summer games.

These days the summer Games might generate $5-to-6 billion in total revenue (nearly half of which goes to the International Olympic Committee). In contrast, the costs of the games rose to an estimated $16 billion in Athens, $40 billion in Beijing, and reportedly nearly $20 billion in London. Only some of this investment is tied up in infrastructure projects that may be useful going forward.

While the Olympics are fun to watch, the I.O.C. it is a venal organization that no responsible government should be dealing with.

[degenerasian]

I think the Winter Games can still break even (unless you're Putin). The Summer Games are now just a dick-swinging contest.

The Vancouver Games lost 300mill? which is pretty good. But not included in that is the improved infrastructure and tourism for years to come.

[Steve of phpBB]

Maybe Steve (as a visitor) has a different opinion, but as a local I had a great time and had very few issues (notwithstanding the Olympic Village scandal(s), increased taxes, etc.).

I had a fantastic time in Vancouver in 2010. Probably my only regret was that everywhere in the city was crowded, so it was real hard to get around and see the sights. Which is why I made Hotcakes wait an extra couple of hours for the privilege of giving me hockey tickets.

[degenerasian]

We should all crash Tokyo in 2020. Plus wrestling is back.

It was a long, tense battle to save the sport, but it appears to have worked as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted Sunday to include wrestling as a provisional sport for the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games.

[Keg]

Out of all the useless sports in the olympics, why would they go after wrestling?

[Scottie]

Out of all the useless sports in the olympics, why would they go after wrestling?

Doesn't make much sense, does it? Can't say it was due to inability to sell advertising. It's an, if not the, original olympic sport. Plus it's always sold out. It's a standard sport in colleges all over the world. And there are no shortage of lesser sports currently included in the summer games. "Walking" comes to mind. As do sports whose names include "synchronised" or "artistic".

Maybe it is based on number of participants worldwide. Some sports are. Some, not all. I have a hard time believing that there are millions of amateur Race Walking participants out there. I'd confidently wager that there are far more amateur wrestlers than, say, people who practice fencing or equestrian or white-water slalom canoeing.

[degenerasian]

Out of all the useless sports in the olympics, why would they go after wrestling?

Doesn't make much sense, does it? Can't say it was due to inability to sell advertising. It's an, if not the, original olympic sport. Plus it's always sold out. It's a standard sport in colleges all over the world. And there are no shortage of lesser sports currently included in the summer games. "Walking" comes to mind. As do sports whose names include "synchronised" or "artistic".

Maybe it is based on number of participants worldwide. Some sports are. Some, not all. I have a hard time believing that there are millions of amateur Race Walking participants out there. I'd confidently wager that there are far more amateur wrestlers than, say, people who practice fencing or equestrian or white-water slalom canoeing.

Can't get rid of race walking, it's not a sport, it's a discipline of Athletics. Anything synchronized or artistic is part of Swimming or Gymnastics. Once a sport is allowed, they can put in whatever events they want. Those are the big three so they're not going anywhere.

The Olympics has gone pro, they've added golf so that Tiger Woods will be in Brazil. I believe boxing and wrestling are the only amateur sports left in the summer games.

[Scottie]

Weirdly, "artistic" gymnastics is the real sports (rings, vault, bars, etc), whereas the goofy ones are "rhythmic". Speaking of disciplines, why the hell isn't "trampoline" a discipline of gymnastics? I make that argument based on trampoline being, well, gymnastics. And it's another sport where I doubt worldwide competitive participaction merits olympic presence. And those Canadian Tire or Wal*Mart trampolines that dudes buy for their kids? That get abandoned once the novelty wears off in a week or two and then the damn thing rusts and is just some huge obstacle in the way of mowing the lawn? Those? Those don't count.

[degenerasian]

oh i thought they were all disciplines.

Syncro Swimming and Rhythmic Gynastics are sports? Get rid of them

I like Trampoline, that looks really difficult, they go as high as 20 feet.

[wlu_lax6]

Wrestling getting back on the Olympic program is proof that the US, Iran, Iraq and USSR can figure out how to work together for a common goal.