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Military drafted in to fill empty seats at London Olympics
msnbc.com ^ | July 29, 2012 | Ian Johnston, NBC News

Posted on 07/29/2012 5:54:24 AM PDT by John W

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To: John W
Photobucket The non-military section.
21 posted on 07/29/2012 8:42:05 AM PDT by RetSignman
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To: John W

After all the bravado demonstrated by the Brits towards Romney, it appears Romney was right. I guess the Brits didn’t have anyone as competent as Romney to do this circus up right.


22 posted on 07/29/2012 9:12:58 AM PDT by pallis
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To: John W

I remember plenty of empty seats at some of the events I went to in 96. Face it, unless your kid’s participating, watching the preliminaries of team handball or something just isn’t that exciting. I spent half a day watching early rounds of track & field events, and wanted to shoot myself. Later, my wife and skipped a BB game to hang out at Centennial Park and trade pins. That was fun, and we met lots of nice people from other countries.


23 posted on 07/29/2012 9:16:58 AM PDT by Trailerpark Badass
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To: driftless2

Traffic, perhaps? It’s not uncommon for Olympics to ‘outsource’ specific events to other areas outside the host city.


24 posted on 07/29/2012 9:17:50 AM PDT by newzjunkey (Pontius Pilate 'voters' are arrogant, delusional, lilly-livered collaborators.)
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To: John W
...or they could do what the Italians do...

Photobucket

25 posted on 07/29/2012 9:47:18 AM PDT by Roccus
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To: John W

helluva way to run a show.


26 posted on 07/29/2012 9:52:13 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Sounds like the London Olympics are one massive screw-up

Does it? Evidence? The much-reported problems have either been trivial or have been swiftly rectified by good contingency planning. As for empty seats, this has been feature of all modern Olympics, Beijing in particular, and it's been a major objective of LOCOG to minimise these. I've no doubt they will succeed. What neither LOCOG nor the IOC can control is no-shows on seats pre-allocated to the various national federations.

It's inevitable that local sales will reflect the popularity of each particular sport in the host nation. For instance, it's not surprising that all seats for every event at the velodrome were sold out within days, since Britain currently heads the world rankings in cycling and completely dominated the track cycling events in Beijing. Handball, however, is a sport almost completely unknown in Britain, so selling those seats will undoubtedly be more difficult.

Incidentally, over a million people watched yesterday's road race from the roadside; and in the torch relay in the six weeks prior to the games, the Olympic torch was carried to every corner of the UK by thousands of athletes, and was cheered from the roadside by an estimated 2.9 million spectators.

For two views on how the Games are going I offer you Rogge, head of the IOC, who has called the London Games the best prepared ever; and my wife, who is a Gamesmaker (volunteer steward) at the Olympic Park and who tells me the atmosphere and general efficiency are equally superb.

27 posted on 07/29/2012 11:43:44 AM PDT by Winniesboy
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To: Winniesboy
You don't understand the situation.

Reality and truth have nothing to do with anything, anymore, when it comes to state-controlled media.

I'm just playing state-controlled media's game back at them.

The London Olympics are a massive screw-up.

Barack Obama is the worst US president in history, and will be the first US president tried for treason, convicted, and given the usual sentence for traitors.

See how this works?

28 posted on 07/29/2012 12:08:38 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the sociopath.)
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To: snarkytart

I guess Mitt was right!!


29 posted on 07/29/2012 12:16:59 PM PDT by ontap
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To: Winniesboy
Beijing??? please, don't even try to go there... for most of the world it costs two to three times as much to get there and back let alone time to get there, AND back, and i won't even start on the language barrier
30 posted on 07/29/2012 1:53:34 PM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: Winniesboy

Dont bother.

We are just a bunch of useless Limeys who cant hold this thing. Unlike the good old US of A, where nothing would go wrong, ever.


31 posted on 07/29/2012 5:26:16 PM PDT by the scotsman (i)
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To: driftless2

Because the Olympic organisers here are trying to show that this is a British olympics for all of us here, they are wanting the whole of Britain to be part of it.

Also the soccer season starts here very soon, and many major London/SE clubs simply dont want to host games.

BTW, the games in Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester are all getting 35000+ crowds.


32 posted on 07/29/2012 5:29:08 PM PDT by the scotsman (i)
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To: pallis

No, he wasnt.

Find me an Olympics with no errors and I will find you an Olympics that didnt take place. Funny how Americans have short memories. 1996 anyone?.


33 posted on 07/29/2012 5:32:29 PM PDT by the scotsman (i)
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To: the scotsman

Yeah, he was, and that will become more obvious as events roll on. It has nothing to do with memory.


34 posted on 07/29/2012 9:23:00 PM PDT by pallis
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To: wrench

“I worked a venue at the Atlanta Games...”

One of my bigger regrets was not attending the Olympics in Atlanta. I was on vacation in Chattanooga, only a few hours north.

I considered changing my schedule of visiting some Civil War battlefields and driving down and taking in an event. I wasn’t sure which one and I wasn’t quite sure where I needed to go.

Even if I found tickets for an event, it probably would have been a water polo game between Malaysia and Ecuador. But at least I could have said that I had attended an event.

OTOH, my luck would have been that I got stuck in traffic somewhere in Atlanta and have driven down there for nothing.


35 posted on 07/30/2012 10:36:42 AM PDT by MplsSteve (General Mills is pro-gay marriage! Boycott their products!)
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