Times report: Japanese government has "privately concluded" that the 2021 Olympics will have to be cancelled

Jimmio wrote:

You do not lend much credence to human nature and its palpable foibles. You might have solutions that look good on paper but this is not what actually happens.

I agree on your points regarding human nature and "palpable foibles".

However using the metaphor of "concert-goers" vs Olympic athletes isn't a good one. Two extraordinary groups on very different ends of the spectrum.

Most concert goers don't for example, have to dedicate any part of their life to prepare to go to a festival (except paying for a ticket and getting to the venue) and if one was to say, be removed from said festival the chances are that they never get to experience another festival again in their lifetimes is fundamentally zero (in that there will be plenty of festivals in the upcoming decades they could go to).

For an athlete, the Olympic Games are clearly a different set of circumstances. You don't just pay your entry fee online and pay your airfare. You don't just roll up having not dedicated basically your entire life to training for it over the past 2-3 years and in some cases even more. There is zero guarantee that if you were to be removed from a games that in 4 years you would be in the same position as you are today (ie. even able to qualify etc). Why do you think so many athletes are losing sleep over the status of these games? You think the crew that hits up Glastonbury is feeling the same way right now?

The basic principal at play here is that this would be in the hands of the athletes. If they can't make the sacrifice to not stay in a bubble with the incentive of the Olympic Games then they lose the right to take part. As someone who was fortunate enough to experience that and what the Olympic Games means, I can tell you that not a single person I knew at the Games I went to would ever put that privilege at risk.

So yes, human nature is human nature and so are our flaws, but it's not very relevant in terms of application to the Olympics Games in this circumstance.

Summer games in Japan 2022. Winter games in China 2023. Then the regular schedule can continue after that.

Is it really that big of a deal ?

Powerful people must be out some serious money with the delays and rescheduling. For a peasant like me, its hard to see what all the fuss is about.

Why would they cancel the games? Competition can be held with no spectators,and it has worked successfully in track and field and can work in swimming. There is still a lot of money to be made with tv, online streaming, advertisements. This is absurd.

Maybe they can make a separate games for weightlifting, track, and swimming because those sports can be held with little spectators.

holterskolter2 wrote:

rojo wrote:

This is the type of 'journalism' I hate. THey find a single person with an agenda and then quote them.

Bro, he works for you. And ironically, Gault is by far the closest you have to a journalist in staff. He's still a bit of a hack, but much less of a hack than you and your brother. I mean that in the nicest way. Not meant as a personal attack we all have our strengths. Writing isn't any of yours.

rojo just emphasised to those that don't know yet, that he know nothing about journalism.

Reputable news outlets protect their sources, this is how they break news. It has happened since way before Woodward and Bernstein

Banned in 60 Seconds wrote:

This is a good read. I agree that the Olympics need to be re-structured and I am partial to a six-continent rotation using cities that have already hosted The Games and have the stadium/competition infrastructure in place. Only Africa has yet to hold an Olympics but, South Africa has many stadiums built for the soccer World Cup in 2010 and Capetown would be an excellent venue.

Yes. The notion that the IOOC is there to give a country the opportunity to be showcased and get 'free' infrastructure has long been exposed, but countries keep bidding.

Even Sydney made a huge loss on the Games that the tax payer has funded, with a legacy of an Olympic precinct and stadiums unfit for purpose.

After the games the OG stadium was repurposed from a 110,000 seat to 83,000 stadium, but is still running a loss because it is unfit for both rectangular and oval sports.

The NSW govt planned to bulldoze it and rebuild a new stadium as part of its greater Sydney stadium redevelopment, which includes the new Parramatta 30,000 seat rectangular stadium ($500M), and bulldozing the Sydney Football Stadium and rebuilding >$1B and counting as we speak.

Public anger and court actions, forced them to shelve the OG stadium bulldoze/rebuild and instead and $800M renovation to 70,000 seat. That was also shlved now due to opposition...govts don't like the threat of being voted out.

The OG has long lost its original ideals. It is not there to leave you with usable and necessary infrastructure. The IOOC is the only one making money

Rotating to same cities in the different continents makes better long term sense, with a model to spread money/development to other cities in that country/region as time goes on.

.....The Sydney situation is like spending $6.5M on building your dream home, but after the parties have ended, the house is so unliveable and unfit for purpose, expensive to maintain, friends don't visit you etc, your kids have grown up and wife left you because of all the hassles and arguments, you are left with a huge pool that is increasingly more expensive to maintain.

You finally knock it down, sell some of the land you don't need (at a huge loss) and rebuild a modest liveable home, and have all the niceties that your new girlfriend from Tinder will immediately warm to. Your bank account shows a huge mortgage and you struggle to meet your new partner's demands.