August 16, 2004

What Olympics? : Apparently the masses of people swarming to Greece from all over the world for this grand spectacle never showed up, so now they’re giving tickets away. Lucky the Athenians spent all those years and all that money getting ready for this. This is not the first time -- the same thing happened in Sydney and Seoul. So tell me why it's such an honor to host these games again?

read story | posted by dzot to Olympics at 8:10 AM CDT (24 comments total)

I dunno if this is worthy of a FPP, or if it is complementary to/highjacking of your thread dzot (apologies in advance if so), but here are the Athens 2004 website hyperlinking policies. No wonder everything is so fucked up with attendance at these events, since they clearly don't understand the consumers of the Olympics as people, rather than marketing points of contact.

btw, I would encourage a simple collective action against the Athens OC: directly contravene these rules and link any damn way you please from your own web sites...

posted by smithers at 8:39 AM CDT on August 16

So tell me why it's such an honor to host these games again?

$$$$$$$$$$

posted by sixpacker at 8:54 AM CDT on August 16

sixpacker: every olympics for years has cost the hosts billions, even counting all the indirect tourist impact.

posted by tieguy at 10:21 AM CDT on August 16

My mistake. In light of that, dzot's point is well taken (and I'm a bit more confused).

posted by sixpacker at 11:00 AM CDT on August 16

ha ha ha, which I intend to comment on both dzot's post and smither's comment. But smithers, I thought the Olympics were making you sleepy!

posted by billsaysthis at 11:23 AM CDT on August 16

Dude, the Olympic cops are gonna get ya.

posted by NoMich at 12:35 PM CDT on August 16

Are the Olympic cops well armed?

posted by kokaku at 2:19 PM CDT on August 16

I ate a bagel today.

posted by DrJohnEvans at 2:34 PM CDT on August 16

sixpacker: every olympics for years has cost the hosts billions, even counting all the indirect tourist impact.

I presume you are talking about indirect tourist impact during the actual Games themselves, which has certainly been disputed. However, there is still the belief that by becoming a "world-class city", for lack of of a better term, that the tourism benefits far beyond the Games themselves are worth the investment. (This group, among others, disagrees...)

posted by smithers at 3:27 PM CDT on August 16

With a little thought, you could probably come up with a formula, or at least a set of criteria, for whether hosting the games makes sense. Something like:

- What are the most expensive facilities that you need to supply? Note that this doesn't just include athletic venues, but also infrastructure such as roads and airports.

- How many of these do you have already? Of the ones you don't have, how many could be created by expanding/adapting existing facilities, and how many would have to be built from scratch?

- How much reuse value would you get from anything you had to build -- and how much of that use would benefit the local community directly, rather than some hypothetical group that would come in to use the facility (e.g., a general purpose athletic training facility that could be used by local teams, as opposed to a velodrome whose local appeal would be very limited)?

Above all, I think that it's probably best to throw out the idea of an actual benefit in dollar terms. I hate all these vague, "Think of the money flowing in!" arguments -- they're pretty dishonest, if you ask me.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 3:54 PM CDT on August 16

Yeah, this is quite egregious.

posted by worldcup2002 at 4:01 PM CDT on August 16

posted by chicobangs at 4:51 PM CDT on August 16

Chico, is that a new demonstration sport. And BTW, DrJohn, I ate an Atkins bagel today, toasted with CarbOptions Peanut Butter!

posted by billsaysthis at 5:16 PM CDT on August 16

Tasty, yet morally ambiguous.

posted by DrJohnEvans at 9:53 AM CDT on August 17

Chico, I have nothing to add except for the fact that that's the best picture I've ever seen anywhere.

posted by Samsonov14 at 1:16 PM CDT on August 17

Chico, is that a new demonstration sport

Yes, it's called Mexican Farm Animal Stacking and the Antarcticans dominate the sport. Them penguins can stack the fuck out of some farm animals.

posted by NoMich at 1:26 PM CDT on August 17

You guys are frigging hilarious. Mexican Farm Animal Stacking, indeed. I'm dying here.

posted by lucyacheson at 2:15 PM CDT on August 17

Funny, their front page also states this hooey:

"With such a high selling rate, the tickets of the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games are already hard to find. Purchase yours in time and be part of the greatest celebration of humanity"

Riiiiiiiiight. I'd call that good old wishful thinking.

posted by lucyacheson at 2:21 PM CDT on August 17

Ay, chihuahua! Es Stacking de Farm Animal Mexicano!! Whoa!

posted by smithers at 3:03 PM CDT on August 17

What I like is that the Olympics is about friendly competition and human endeavour. Thankfully it isn't run by a bunch of money-hungry cock-whores.

posted by grum@work at 3:37 PM CDT on August 17

Ha! grum said COCK!

posted by worldcup2002 at 7:09 PM CDT on August 17

Actually, it's only a sport for the goat.

In the spirit of fairness, all countries use the same ass, so the ape and the cock are the only real variables from team to team.

(And as always, go Antarctica!)

posted by chicobangs at 10:12 AM CDT on August 18

And I knew that picture would come in useful.

posted by chicobangs at 10:23 AM CDT on August 18

chico said ASS!

posted by worldcup2002 at 1:12 PM CDT on August 18

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