Olympics and Paralympics 2012 (and now the legacy-part one)

Iris wrote:I am just plain sick of wading through Olympic tat in the shops, where the "real" stuff should be. And there's loads of it, it's all going to be half price in a couple of weeks. Who wants to buy a t shirt with a giant walking penis on the front of it? My job takes me all over Scotland at the moment, and I am yet to see any interest at all in the Olympics, in any of the places I have been. Everyone I have spoken to perceives it to be an "English" thing, bringing zero benefit to Scotland, although we'll have to pay for it along with everybody else. I was in Glasgow last week and the people I saw there were much more interested in the Commonwealth Games in 2 years time.

I commented the other day it is being called the "London Olympics " and for the meagre events Wales and Scotland have been given the organisers might as well not have bothered. I would like to see a list of Loccoq Members who organised this, Boris Johnson got it right regarding the Olympic
Rings.

This was in yesterday's Daily Express,nauthor Quentin Letts, more believable than James Murray.

1. Some 2,000 taking part in opening ceremony have been told they must wear Adidas or unbranded trainers but Sponsor Adidas will not provide them.
Locog suggests any offending logos be covered with masking tape.

2.Police Guards at Olympic venues were ordered to empty their packed lunches into clear plastic bags to avoid advertising brands such as Walker's crisps and Ginster's pasties which are not among the Games official Sponsors. Locog later told the Thames Valley Force had misinterpreted it's guidelines ,petty things such as food procucts aren't the target of them.

3. Visitors to the Games should bring their Wellingtons and waterproofs Chief Organiser Lord Coe warned yesterday. He said those outdoor fans with tickets to outdoor events should bear in mind that London was in a" northern European Country " with unpredictable weather.

4.There is a photo of Tom Daly , the young Diver and his Bedroom in the Village.The beds are 6'5 ins and for several Competitors too short. the Argentinian rower, 6"1 ins says she has applied for an extension......what are the Basketball teams going to do?

Hotels are charging premiums of up to 300% to families staying in London during the Olympics, according to research.

Those in the centre of the capital were £2,891 a week or 139% more expensive on average over the period when the sporting event is taking place than after the Games, according to a study for Santander.

Researchers also looked at prices near the Olympic Park in east London, which is hosting up to 180,000 spectators a day, and found that while most hotels were booked up, one of the few with vacancies was charging an extra £5,054.

This was the equivalent of a 301% increase on its rates after the Games.

The study compared the cost of a week-long stay for a family of four in two rooms starting on the day of the Olympics opening ceremony next Friday with prices in late August, after the event has finished.

Four star hotels in central London were found to be particularly likely to apply big rate hikes, with one venue increasing its prices by 245% over the period, an uplift of £5,666.

A Santander spokesman said: "This research highlights just how enormous the demand to stay in London during this summer's biggest sporting event is.

"The fact that the few limited rooms available near the Stratford Olympic Park can charge such expensive rates demonstrates how holidaymakers are willing to pay the extra costs."

The increases were found to be bigger than a typical London hotel price hike of 54% over the bank holiday weekend marking the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, which was recorded in a previous study.
Article:
Oldest Marathon Runner Takes Torch Oldest Marathon Runner Takes Torch
Updated: 9:27am UK, Saturday 21 July 2012

By Jay Singh-Sohal, Sky News Producer

The world's oldest marathon runner is carrying the Olympic torch through the streets of east London later today.

Fauja Singh, who is 101 years old, will be undertaking the relay for the second time - he carried the torch in Athens eight years ago.

He has since grown attached to it, describing it as his child, and says he cannot wait to add another torch to his collection.

Born in Punjab in 1911, Singh came to the UK to stay with his son Sukhjinder in 1992. He began running at the age of 86 in order to keep himself occupied and ran his first marathon at the age of 89.

Singh has since completed six London marathons, two in Toronto - where he set eight track records - and the New York marathon.

:: See more on London 2012

There, in September 2011, he achieved his ninth track record, running 10,000 metres in 87 minutes.

Singh says he is spurred on by his faith and, on a physical level, his vegetarian diet helps him keep in shape.

His endeavours have attracted attention from around the world, with students from California currently following and filming him for a documentary that highlights his achievements.

"Fauja Singh is truly remarkable, unique even for he oozes with enthusiasm and passion for being active both in mind and body which is infectious to all who have come into contact with him, yet he remains humble and grateful to the powers above for allowing him to help others," said coach Harmander Singh.

To mark the special occasion of Singh carrying the Olympic torch, Sikhs all over the UK will congregate in the capital to hand out thousands of vegetarian meals along the 30-mile Olympic route from Greenwich Park to Waltham Forest Town Hall.

They will distribute free communal food (langar) in accordance with the Sikh principles of selfless service (seva).

Singh says his aim now is to run at the 2016 Olympics - when he will be 105 - to add to his torch collection.
Enlarge Video:
Olympic Flame Lands In London
Just seven days to go until the Games begin - and the Olympic Torch relay has finally reached London. And it entered the capital in style - abseiling from a helicopter with the help of the Royal Marines.
Enlarge Article:
Olympic Flame Arrives In London Olympic Flame Arrives In London
Updated: 9:44pm UK, Friday 20 July 2012

The Olympic torch has arrived in London after a 63-day trip around the British Isles - in a scene akin to a James Bond film.

The flame was delivered to the Tower of London by a Royal Marine Commando who abseiled from a helicopter carrying it in a lantern.

Marine Martyn Williams arrived at Tower Wharf in a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter, and undertook the 180ft descent from the aircraft at 20:12 hours - to mark the year of the Games.

He held the flame up proudly for media representatives gathered to witness its arrival in the host city, with seven days to go until the start of the Games.

The 23-year-old, who comes from Ipswich, was chosen to deliver the torch as he had been badly injured in a bomb blast in Afghanistan, but fought his way back to fitness.

Dame Kelly Holmes then lit a torch and took the flame around the ramparts of the historic landmark, stopping to be photographed as she went.

Large numbers of security personnel were on hand, including numerous other Royal Marines.

Having arrived at what is arguably the safest place in the capital, the flame is spending the night in the most secure room within the Tower - Jewel House, where armed guards defend the Crown Jewels.

The 11th century Tower had already been pressed into Olympic service as a secure location where medals have been stored ahead of the Games.

The flame's arrival was welcomed by London Mayor Boris Johnson and Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Olympics host borough Tower Hamlets.

Mr Johnson said that as the torch goes on its London tour "its radiance will dispel any last remaining clouds of dampness and anxiety that may hover over some parts of the media in this country".

He added: "It will spread the crackling bushfire of Olympic enthusiasm throughout this city and the country.

"I pledge that we will keep that flame burning brightly, that it may illuminate the many wonderful things about our city and our Olympics, tonight and tomorrow and in the weeks ahead."

The Tower is not its final resting place - the torch will end up at the Olympic Park after being paraded through every London borough over the next week.

Around 8,000 torch-bearers - includiing the Queen's granddaughter Zara Phillips - will have carried the flame when it reaches its final destination next
week

21 July 2012 Last updated at 14:13 Share this pageEmail Print Share this page


Any spare Olympics tickets should go to troops called in at short notice to help with venue security, the head of the British Olympic Association says.

An extra 3,500 troops were drafted in last week after contractor G4S admitted a shortage of staff, with 1,200 military personnel more on standby.

"If anyone deserves to fill any empty seats it's those forces in their down time," Colin Moynihan said.

London 2012 said it would be allocating extra tickets to the armed forces.

"We have already given 10,000 tickets to the troops through our Ticket Share programme and we are in the process of allocating and distributing extra tickets to troops now they are providing additional support to the Games," a spokesperson said.

Lord Moynihan said the military presence at the Olympic Park had already had a positive effect on the UK team.

"I know the sacrifices many of then have made personally to be here to support the team and the stress they are under in delivering their day jobs.

Continue reading the main story
London 2012 - One extraordinary year

The BBC's home of 2012: Latest Olympic news, sport, culture, torch relay, video and audio

"I want to reflect that every single member of the British team is 100% grateful to them for giving up their time at short notice to make sure we have a safe and secure Games," he said.

"If there are any spare tickets it makes eminent sense for the armed forces to have them and would be a great way to say thank you to them."

On Tuesday, Locog announced that it was reducing capacity for Olympics football events in Glasgow and Cardiff - withdrawing 500,000 tickets from sale - but releasing 200,000 additional tickets for other sports.

London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe said some of the remaining tickets could be issued using London 2012's Ticket Share system, which provides free tickets to children, servicemen and women and their families, and sportspeople, funded through hospitality packages.

On 12 July Home Secretary Theresa May said 10,000 Olympic and Paralympic tickets had been donated to the armed services.

She said there would be access for 2,000 military spectators in the Mall for road events and that troops had the opportunity to buy 2,000 Olympic Park tickets.

'Situation becoming intolerable'

In Scotland a senior G4S manager has resigned because of the crisis over recruiting security guards for the Olympics.

GS said the duty security manager held an "overview" role and had "felt the situation was becoming intolerable".

If follows an announcement by Strathclyde Police on Friday that the force was taking control of security at Olympics venues in Scotland.

In other developments. the Border Force announced that customs officials last week seized 10,000 counterfeit Olympic flags at London's Heathrow Airport.

The flags would have been worth about £100,000 if they had been sold and the Border Force said they had been sent from China.

And the Olympic torch has begun its seven-day tour of London in the final countdown to the Olympic Games.

Hi Iris,

the Olympic Cafe in Stratford, it is a disgrace the guy cant call it the same as it has
been called for many years I cant see why he shouldnt be allowed to keep the name the same!


One of the good things is that many parts of East London have had a makeover, shop fronts painted, walls cleaned, new canopies, new signeage, rubbish taken away, and these streets are in areas which have always been very run down and shabby, the shop owners are delighted but as one said - now we have to keep it like this! Lets hope they do, now its all done up hopefully they will have new pride in the area and keep it looking nice.

A message to all the Olympic moaners... BELT UP!
By Des Kelly
PUBLISHED: 23:21, 20 July 2012 | UPDATED: 10:10, 21 July 2012
Comments (39) Share
It's a crisis. It's a complete disaster. It's not just a shambles out there, people; it's an Olympic omnishambles. The Games are six days away and nothing works, absolutely everything is broken and the only solution is to cancel the event and send all those arriving at Heathrow straight back home on the next available flight.

Why? Because according to reports, any fool venturing into London will die of carbon monoxide poisoning as they sit in month-long traffic jams. Or drown in their body sweat on overcrowded Tube trains. Or sink into oblivion trying to negotiate the mud flats otherwise known as the Olympic Park.

The mobile phone networks will fail, the internet will collapse into a black hole in cyberspace, pickpockets will steal everything, including your kidneys, and the entire country will end up bankrupt. It's a nightmare - and all because of the 2012 Games. You have been warned!


Welcome to the pre-opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, a spectacle staged under the Latin motto Nos faciem malignus fatum, which loosely translates as 'We're doomed'.

This is what Britain does before any major event. The country moans en masse. We predict the worst. We produce a Doomsday Book of impending disasters and then imagine extra problems just so we can moan a bit more. Read the papers, turn on the radio or try the television news and it's moan, moan, Olympics, moan. The outlook could not be gloomier if Huw Edwards were reading the weather forecast. Carping and whining is the order of the day. But can I just make one request of the Olympic complainers? Shut up. That's right. Shut up. Cheer yourselves up or put a sock in it.

There are some aspects of the London Games that deserve scorn, such as the private security firm fiasco and the unresolved issue of what happens to the stadium after the Games. But the country has gone way beyond expressing reasonable doubts on specific issues.
People are now complaining for the sake of it, moaning on and on about every tiny aspect of daily life in London - and then blaming it all on the Olympics. The Games haven't started yet. There is a last-minute dash to make sure all the pieces are in place for the most complex, detailed and demanding party staged not just in sport, but anywhere.

A Royal wedding is a village fete by comparison. At a World Cup, everyone plays football. The Olympics is 36 different world championships being staged simultaneously. But because it hasn't started yet, and nature abhors a vacuum, the empty space has been filled with the sound of non-stop moaning.

Just look at some of the so-called 'calamities' that we are told 'threaten the Games'.

Transport crisis
A bus took a wrong turn this week. Yes, that's right. A driver with a faulty satellite navigation system went the wrong way while shuttling American athletes from Heathrow Airport to the Olympic Park. Somehow, this made it to the top of the news agenda and the front page of one newspaper.

Had the man behind the wheel driven his vehicle off the cliffs at Beachy Head in his confusion, I could have understood. Instead, he merely took the wrong exit road, stopped, looked at a map, found the correct route and completed his journey.

But when one athlete on board whined about this via Twitter the story took on a life of its own. Former world champion 400 metres hurdler Kerron Clement complained: 'Um, so we've been lost on the road for 4hrs. Not a good first impression London.'

Obviously, London only exists to impress Clement. But it transpired the journey took a little over two hours, not four. And the runner might not be the most reliable witness anyway, since a day later he announced: 'In Wales. I'm so loving this city…' Yes, welcome to the city of Wales, Kerron, in that great country of London.

So, one bus out of 100 or more took a wrong turn. One athlete out of around 10,500 from 204 nations landing in London during Britain's biggest peacetime transport operation complained. And this was enough for the moaners to say, 'See? I told you so'!
Road crisis
London always has traffic jams. There was a stinker at the Blackwall Tunnel on Friday. There is always a jam at the Blackwall Tunnel, but the difference this time is that it was because of the Olympics and Mayor Boris Johnson.

And there'll be more jams during the three weeks of the 2012 Games. But so what? Don't drive unless you have to. The public transport works. This week I timed how long it would take to get from the Houses of Parliament to the Olympic Park in east London. The Tube took 19 minutes to Stratford on the Jubilee Line.

On the way back, I jumped on the new Javelin train and I'd barely settled in my seat when we arrived at St Pancras seven minutes later. If that were Japan or France we'd be saying how brilliant it was. Here, we just grumble that it'll probably break down at some point.

When Sydney hosted the Games, more than a quarter of the city took annual leave, another quarter changed their working hours and more than a fifth worked from home. They enjoyed their Olympics. Try it too, London.

Go to the concerts, the festivals and in the parks and the different spectacles staged along the Thames. Put a prawn on the barbie. If you're in a flood zone, it'll probably swim right up to your door.


Olympic Lanes
No, you can't drive in them. Boo hoo. They are annoying, but they are a necessary evil. They've been at every Olympics and London is no different. Did you think staging the world's biggest sporting event would cause no disruption whatsoever?

Or did you believe Usain Bolt really runs to the start line just like he does in that advert?

Weather
It might rain. I believe there has been the odd spit and spot of the stuff lately. But if it does, try not to panic.

Wear a waterproof mac, or put on some wellies if you are heading to a field. But don't go on and on about it. We live in a country where it rains on occasion. Weather happens. And although the meteorological process is often considered page one news at the Daily Express, the rest of us can probably stay calm and carry on. The sun will come out for the Olympics anyway. Just so Londoners can then complain it's 'too hot'.

Opening Ceremony Fears
This will be the world's most-watched television event. One billion will tune in to Danny Boyle's curtain-raiser. But we hear the show has already been 'slashed' by 30 minutes. I know, it's unbelievable, isn't it? What a disgrace.

A performance we have very little prior knowledge of is about to have some of those unknown scenes shortened to make sure it doesn't overrun. Now, we may never see what we didn't know we were going to see in the first place.
And I, for one, am furious. I'll have to make do with just the three hours and a finish time around midnight.

Insecurity
This certainly has, on the face of it, been a mess. Private security contractors G4S are short of around 1,500 temporary guards. If you're wondering why, it's because the recruits, mainly students and habitual part-timers, decided they could do without being paid the pittance on offer.

So our squaddies, who have no choice, are covering the deficit and sleeping on chairs shoved together on site. The Olympic Park is now filled with the incongruous sight of soldiers in full camouflage pulling on high-visibility vests. None of it is ideal. It's been bungled.

But, if anything, Olympic security is tighter with the military in place than it was when we relied on Colin, a student of international tourism management at the University of East London, to master
Some have even moaned about the fact there are twice as many soldiers at the Olympics than in Afghanistan. Let's ask the 1st Battalion the Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment where they would rather be deployed? On patrol in Helmand Province, dodging snipers and landmines, or keeping an eye on proceedings at the women's beach volleyball on Horse Guards Parade.

Some mistakes have been made. For instance, the ground-to-air missiles stationed in east London seem superfluous. All the organisers had to do was ask the locals for help.

In the event of any security threat, residents in east London could have been alerted by text message and simply reached for their handguns and fired at any incoming object from their windows, as is traditional in many neighbourhoods. It would have saved a few bob.

So, if you can hear me above the deafening whine of moaning, shall we let the Games begin? It is a wonderful spectacle and a chance to showcase some of the best of Britain to the world. Of course something will go wrong.

There'll be a glitch here and there, hopefully nothing more. Some idiot will undoubtedly try to disrupt an event, people will have to queue to get home, something will break - that stuff happens. I'll be among the first to report any genuine botches as they happen at the Games, too. But I'm not going in with a miserable scowl.
This is an enormous festival, a sporting and cultural event that will live in history for ever. If you believe everything is a complete waste of time, money and energy, then it's your right to say so. But you've pretty much done that, I'd say. So can you shut your face now and let the rest of us enjoy the bash?

The truth is, Britain loves a grumble. But most moan and gripe right up to the point when the actual event begins - and then wave their Union flags like crazy in celebration. So come on. It's time. Let's enjoy ourselves.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2176672/London-2012-Olympics-A-message-moaners--BELT-UP-Des-Kelly.html#ixzz21H3AQmC5

The opening ceremony...9pm"!!!!!


Why?


We pander too much to other countries.....so they can watch it at an agreeable time yet WE...not that I will....have to stay up till 12am...

And did you see where the troops have been put up?


Measley put you up beds !!!!


No travel lodge for them...no......they just dodge bullets for people who they train and who in turn shoot them in the back.

Dear Londoners™ the UK,

Your Olympics™ start in just a few days and we hope that you're excited! They are your Olympics™ that have cost you £2.5bn£9bn £11.7bn possibly £24bn of your money, that's 38p per household, that you really need in these times of austerity but were forced have chosen to spend on what is sure to be the best Olympics™ ever ever. So you have to enjoy them, you don't have a choice. We've put lots of measures in place all for your Olympics, including allocating tickets via a lottery system. We thought this would be better than giving free tickets to people in the local area as who knows what ruffians that may allow inside the Park™, so instead many of you used your VISA™ credit cards which all of the people we'd like to invite clearly have at their disposal to deposit unaffordable amounts of money only to get tickets to watch a horse dance™ or speed walking™ while our corporate executives get to watch Usain Bolt™, because it's your Olympics™.

Because it's your Olympics™ we've made sure it's all completely safe from any terror at all, which is why we hired a company to do the security who only days ago realised they didn't have the appropriate staff to do the job. So we've got the army in, which may leave lots of other troops stranded out in Afghanistan for longer than they planned to be. Not only that, but these army personnel are specifically trained for such family friendly sporting events with months of firearm training and warfare strategy, so will provide an appropriately intimidating presence making sure no terrorist or anyone without a ticket gets anywhere near. We now have more army personnel at the Olympics than have been deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan, which means that in 2022 tons of troops will probably still be around Stratford for no reason at all. Because it's your Olympics™ we've had the MoD position huge surface to air missiles on top of blocks of flats nearby without consultation or permission needed, to ensure that if we have to shoot down any threats the local residents will be showered in debris and shrapnel. This will ensure they are safe.

Because it's your Olympics™, please refrain from meeting with friends anywhere near the Park™ or you'll be seen as a threat and be removed. For your safety. In fact please avoid being anywhere near the Park™ while the Olympics are on. Please avoid Central London™. Please avoid Greater London while the opening ceremony is on. Please avoid the UK for the duration of the Olympics™. Please avoid the Tube when people seeing the Olympics™ need to get to it even if its exactly when you need to get to the job you've been doing for years and are currently struggling keep with all the cuts. We've kindly asked Boris Johnson™ to make a tannoy message to warn Tube travellers about overcrowding, hoping that his pompous voice alone will ward many away. Please avoid the roads, especially the Olympic™ lanes that will remain empty while you sit in traffic getting later and later for where you need to be while people who are trained to run fast glide by in cars. Because it's your Olympics™, you'll be charged £130 for going in those lanes. We've also made sure it's far harder to park anywhere nearby by closing all shopping centre car parks in the vicinity and removing parking spaces all over Stratford to make sure lots of you gain massive, expensive parking fines for even daring to live or work in the area. It's your Olympics™. We'd like to encourage people from all over the London™, sorry the UK, to travel to the Olympics™ though don't drive there, or get a train, or a Tube or walk anywhere nearby. All because it's your Olympics.™

Because it's your Olympics™ please don't use the word Olympics™ unless you are authorized to do so, or we'll take you to court for breach of copyright. Other words we've also copyrighted are sports™, park™, track™, field™, ball™, swimming™ (see also swam™, swim™, swan™), diving™ (see also dive™, dove™), javelin™, torch™, running™ (also see run™, ran™, rain™, Ray™), rings™, men™, women™, stadium™, tickets™, army™ and Ancient Greece™. Because it's your Olympics™ we suggest you refer to it as 'That Thing', 'Coe & Hunt's Beautiful Lovechild' or ' Swimmy Runny Jumpy Throwy Lifty Times Event'. Because it's your Olympics™ no shop in the near vicinity or in fact anywhere over the UK, or Europe, or the World can use any of those words for fear of the law, unless we have allowed it like we have with our main sponsors that we feel embody the heart and soul of such an athletic healthy event, like Coca-Cola™ and McDonalds™. Those are foods all athletes eat and drink and so we believe that you should enjoy eating them too to make sure you remain fat, stupid and gullible. It's your Olympics™.

Because it's your Olympics™ it will bring in £13bn to the UK. When we say UK we mean our corporate sponsors who will ensure they don't pump any of it back into the desperate economy by dodging as much tax as possible. Because it's your Olympics™ we want to make sure that when all these companies leave and the events are over that you are left with tons of derelict buildings that almost definitely won't end up being used to help the surrounding community. You know the surrounding community we've made sure you can't see from the Park using clever sculptures, just in case their poverty makes you ill while you eat your McDonald's™ authorised fries™. Because it's your Olympics™ we'd like you to clean it afterwards. It's as though it's your flat and people are coming round. People you haven't invited. People who are going to use all their money making a lot of mess. You have to scrub and clean it after. You do. It's your Olympics™.

It's your Olympics™ that you can watch on 24™ HD™ BBC™ channels. If you have Sky™. Because you all have Sky™. You can all afford it.

You will enjoy it. It will be amazing, your Olympics™ Londoners Britain, so don't ruin it for everyone by pretending you won't.

Yours sincerely

Your Olympics™

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tiernan-douieb/dont-forget-its-your-olympics_b_1674212.html[b]

Thats a very good article and very true!

I thought the Opening Ceremony would be during the day or at least early evening, 9pm late start especially as a lot of children will want to watch it.


I had heard there wasnt proper accommodation for the armed forces, thats a disgrace!

cherry1 wrote:I thought the Opening Ceremony would be during the day or at least early evening, 9pm late start especially as a lot of children will want to watch it.


I had heard there wasnt proper accommodation for the armed forces, thats a disgrace!

What really angers me is that the army & police who have been drafted in to the save the day due to G4S total incompetence (and trying to get as much money as possible) will get no bonus and be told that they are only doing their job and line of duty....whilst at the same time the corporates and organisers will be giving themselves a huge bonus!!! This is so wrong it makes me fume. Even worse is that they will also be dodging paying the tax back into the city and keeping it all for themselves

I agree - certainly Police are not happy at all

why should train drivers get more money but not the police and armed services,
some of the police have been pulled off other jobs, I know its in their contract they
can be put anywhere but I still think its mean they are not going to get more money cos
its not really their everyday routine work! The security firm are getting loads of money for their
contract, cos they have messed up and police and army having to help out, I dont see why the security firm cant give up some of the money from the contract to pay the police and army a bit extra.

cherry1 wrote: I agree - certainly Police are not happy at all

why should train drivers get more money but not the police and armed services,
some of the police have been pulled off other jobs, I know its in their contract they
can be put anywhere but I still think its mean they are not going to get more money cos
its not really their everyday routine work! The security firm are getting loads of money for their
contract, cos they have messed up and police and army having to help out, I dont see why the security firm cant give up some of the money from the contract to pay the police and army a bit extra.

GS4 are still asking for their 57 million fees in organising the employment of the guards!!! But they have only employed 25% of their contracted agreement! And most of them are normally unemployable because they cost the company next to nothing, they even employed 2 supervisors who were later discovered to be illegal immigrants!! As Keith Vaz said this week regarding the 57 million GS4 are claiming "I find that absolutely astonishing'!

I find this astonishing too....And sums up what the London olympics is about

No Coe zone: London 2012 chief Seb sparks sponsorship row
His comment that rival firms' clothing could see people banned is quickly walked back

LONDON 2012 chief Seb Coe was at the centre of a row today after insisting ticketholders wearing clothing made by non-Olympic sponsors risked being turned away from The Games

Speaking this morning Lord Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee, said: “You probably would not be walking in with a Pepsi T-shirt because Coca-Cola are our sponsors.”

He added: “They have put millions of pounds into this project but also millions of pounds into grassroots sport. It is important to protect those sponsors.”

But a spokesperson for the Games insisted that fans would only be refused entry if their clothing was part of a coordinated attempt to publicise a sponsor.

A spokesperson said: “Any individual coming into our venues can wear any item of clothing, branded or otherwise.

“The only issue is if large groups come in together wearing clearly visible branding/marketing.”

The International Olympic Committee is determined to protect the investment of sponsors who help to finance the Games.

Coca-Cola are among 11 companies who have paid £612million for worldwide rights to market their products on the back of the Games over a four-year cycle.

Local organisers have raised around £700million from an additional 41 sponsors for the London Games.


http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/olympics/4440875/No-Coe-zone-London-2012-chief-Seb-sparks-sponsorship-row.html

-------

.....Branding is not just an issue for the Olympic Movement, but for the sponsors of the Games as well.

The organisers have been attempting to clarify their restrictions after the head of the London Games suggested a shirt bearing the logo of Pepsi - the arch-rival of Olympic sponsor Coca-Cola - would probably be banned from Olympic venues.

"No, you probably wouldn't be walking in with a Pepsi T-shirt because Coca-Cola are our sponsors," said Lord Coe.

"They have put millions of pounds into this project, but also millions of pounds into grass roots sport. It is important to protect those sponsors.".......

Adidas is another big sponsor, but Lord Coe said visitors wearing Nike trainers would "probably" be allowed in.

And the organising committee insisted Nike shoes are definitely OK for spectators to wear - but not necessarily for Games staff or participants.

Guidelines sent to children who will be forming a guard of honour for the athletes' parade on July 27 have been advised to wear "unbranded or Adidas shoes".

The confusion follows a swirl of rumours about the event's complex commercial rules, including reports of visitors to the Olympic Park being forced to carry their crisps in a clear plastic bag because the brand was not an Olympic sponsor.

Locog insisted that was another Olympic myth.

Nevertheless, advertising is banned in "event zones" around the Olympic venues, and hundreds of uniformed officers are being dispatched during the July 27 to August 12 games to look for infractions.

Violators can be fined up to £20,000.

http://news.sky.com/story/963075/london-mayor-slams-olympic-rings-brand-army

I think Coe is too jumped up, who does he think he is!


Pity I havent got a ticket - if I did - I would go in wearing a Pepsi T Shirt, I hope everyone goes in wearing Pepsi T shirts to show Coe he cant dictate to people what they wear!

cherry1 wrote:I think Coe is too jumped up, who does he think he is!


Pity I havent got a ticket - if I did - I would go in wearing a Pepsi T Shirt, I hope everyone goes in wearing Pepsi T shirts to show Coe he cant dictate to people what they wear!

I would be even more daring and would go in with a packet of walkers crisps and some chips from KFC!

you cheeky thing!

cherry1 wrote:

you cheeky thing!

Its true though!!! Walkers crisps are not allowed, nor hot chips on their own which have not been sold by McDonalds (McDonalds-The heathy of all healthy foods promoting a sports event!!)

Go in with the chips and crisps and make sure you plonk yourself down in front of
Lord Coe! and then offer him a chip and a crisp and take a big cup of Pepsi and offer
him a sip of that!

I'd offer Coe a doughnut, recommended by a Cafe in Camberwell!!!



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2176814/London-2012-Olympics-brand-expert-attacks-clampdown-shops-businesses-using-Games-logo.html

I think Lord Seb Coe should have a word with the Sponsors, they should not dictate everything , he should have refused to give in to Adidas about the
trainers the 2,000 children will be wearing and the Cafe owner who had to comply with Olympic , whose Country is this!!! Boris got it right again, he
may yet be PM, although I reserve judgement on his capability in that role.