Embarrassing: Military now being used to fill empty seats at London Olympics

[JLumme]

Barcelona is still paying for their games in 1992. They cost around $12bn, and were scheduled to be repaid by 2010. They weren't, and never will be. The Germans are going to foot that bill.

The Athens 2004 games will never be paid off by the Greeks, but by Germany as well. Cost well over eur 10bn.

Turin, a small affair, cost around eur 4bn, and still isn't paid off. Eventually the Germans will pay for that too.

What do Spain, Greece and Italy all have in common today? Record high debt to GDP, unemployment over 20%, near 50% for youths and billions in oylmpic debts. They got to this position by reckless government spending, the olympics being a great exmaple of the 'who cares about the future attitude' so many politicians have.

The UK is now officially in a recession (again, double-dip), and are currently holding the games. The cost? No one knows yet, but it's been estimated at about eur 10bn. How many decades will it take to pay off these games? You'll read in the newspapers about the 'pop' that the UK economy will receive from tourism and infrastructure developments, but don't fool yourself, its borrowed money, and simply short term gain for long term pain.

But hey, as long as a few kids get to live out their dreams its all worth it right? Who needs jobs and government solvency when you've got olympic glory!

[Columbo]

Why is everyone talking about this like it's such a huge deal?

Oh wow, not as many people as we thought want to pay hundreds of dollars to see countries they know nothing about compete in random things like fencing, weightlifting, and trampoline, and see countries playing each other in sports that no one cares about for 3.9 years out of 4. Not to mention the hundreds of qualifying events that don't even give out medals and many of which don't even include Great Britain.

And who cares if they give tickets to people in the military? Is it better to leave the seats empty? Reallly, what's the big scandal here?

[Columbo]

Barcelona is still paying for their games in 1992. They cost around $12bn, and were scheduled to be repaid by 2010. They weren't, and never will be. The Germans are going to foot that bill.

The Athens 2004 games will never be paid off by the Greeks, but by Germany as well. Cost well over eur 10bn.

Turin, a small affair, cost around eur 4bn, and still isn't paid off. Eventually the Germans will pay for that too.

What do Spain, Greece and Italy all have in common today? Record high debt to GDP, unemployment over 20%, near 50% for youths and billions in oylmpic debts. They got to this position by reckless government spending, the olympics being a great exmaple of the 'who cares about the future attitude' so many politicians have.

The UK is now officially in a recession (again, double-dip), and are currently holding the games. The cost? No one knows yet, but it's been estimated at about eur 10bn. How many decades will it take to pay off these games? You'll read in the newspapers about the 'pop' that the UK economy will receive from tourism and infrastructure developments, but don't fool yourself, its borrowed money, and simply short term gain for long term pain.

But hey, as long as a few kids get to live out their dreams its all worth it right? Who needs jobs and government solvency when you've got olympic glory!

[Sharpshooter]

Vancouver man jailed for trying to re-sell his own tickets.

LONDON - A London newspaper reports that a Vancouver man caught trying to sell two tickets for Olympic tennis ended up spending two nights in jail.

The Telegraph says Kenneth Gaba, 38, was arrested on Saturday for trying to sell two tickets to another man for 100 pounds.

Gaba says he was only trying to get the money back for the tickets he had bought legitimately and couldn't use.

The newspaper says Judge Ken Grant accepted that Gaba bought the tickets legitimately and only sold them at face value because he had been separated from a friend and didn't want to go to the match alone.

Grant waived the normal 300-pound fine because of the two nights Gaba had already spent in custody.

Gaba's lawyer said his client was in the United Kingdom for a 10-day holiday to watch the Olympics.

[key2thecup]

What kind of cheap medals are these?

London 2012 Olympics: Brazilian Judo Champ Felipe Kitadai Breaks Medal In Shower, Asks For Replacement

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/07/30/london-2012-olympics-brazil-judo-champ-felipe-kitadi-medal-broken-shower_n_1718958.html

[Shift-4]

Vancouver man jailed for trying to re-sell his own tickets.

Way to not over-react London 2012.

[Sharpshooter]

Is scalping illegal there?

[Shift-4]

Don't know, tbh.

But in light of the empty seat scandals, it seems 'they' are trying to go after the small fish who legitimately wanted to re-sell their tickets because of one simple reason or another, instead of looking at the real causes of all those empty seats....namely, corporations who don't care enough about the games themselves versus the profits to be made, to use those seats, and the IOC delegations who are looking to make a buck from their allotment of tickets.

[goalie13]

Is scalping illegal there?

[Shift-4]

I don't know about British law, but I did a little digging and found this in the ticket agreement from the games:

I guess it's a double-edged sword. I hate that people will scoop up thousands of seats strictly for the purpose of reselling the tickets and not seeing the games. But on the other hand, how can you always know ahead of time that you will still be able to attend the event? Plans change. It shouldn't be a crime to try and recover your cost.

Although there were greedy people there too, I did like how Vancouver had a legitimate resale website.

[goalie13]

It still doesn't make sense to me that the seats would be that empty though.

But I am biased. I love this event.

[goalie13]

It turns out I didn't read far enough down the page...

17.4 Tickets purchased from LOCOG may be transferred by a Purchaser to a third party via the London 2012 Ticket Resale Scheme. The transfer of a Ticket via the London 2012 Ticket Resale Scheme shall not contravene clauses 17.1 and 17.2.

[JLumme]

LOL, are you trying to blame the Olympics for those countries' current economic woes?

You've got the chicken and egg backwards. The reason those countries still haven't paid of their Olympic debts are because their economies are in the tank, not the other way around. Greece, Spain and Italy have a million systematic problems that are all WAY bigger than the fact that they once hosted the Olympics in one of their cities.

[Common sense]

I don't know about British law, but I did a little digging and found this in the ticket agreement from the games:

I guess it's a double-edged sword. I hate that people will scoop up thousands of seats strictly for the purpose of reselling the tickets and not seeing the games. But on the other hand, how can you always know ahead of time that you will still be able to attend the event? Plans change. It shouldn't be a crime to try and recover your cost.

Although there were greedy people there too, I did like how Vancouver had a legitimate resale website.

[Columbo]

Nowhere did I blame the Olympics on those countries' current economic woes. But, those countries are in trouble because they waste their money on things like the Olympics.

You've got to admit, the Olympics are very expensive. And you don't think that those 3 countries would be better off now if they weren't still in debt for hosting the Olympics? Logically it follows that they shouldn't have hosted the games.

[Buddhas Hand]

Sydney's homeless to be removed for Olympics

By Mary Beadnell

3 February 2000

Despite public criticism following leaked media reports of their plans, the New South Wales State Labor Government and the Sydney City Council are proceeding with measures to rid Sydney's streets of homeless people in preparation for the Olympic Games this September.

In response to a front-page report in Sydney's Sun Herald on January 16 revealing the new procedures, government spokesmen denied that the scheme had anything to do with the Olympics. But their measures bear a striking resemblance to those used in Atlanta four years ago to clear the streets of the poor.

A city council task force will draw up a dossier on every homeless person in the city, detailing all aspects of their lives. The dossiers are meant to include information that can be used to induce people off the streets and into boarding houses or hostels. A "flying squad" of social workers will have first contact with the homeless and then rely on police to remove those unwilling to cooperate. Among homeless people, hostels and boarding houses throughout the Sydney metropolitan area have the reputation of being more dangerous than the streets, because of the increasing frequency of violent assaults, theft and food poisoning that occur there.

Sydney City Council Rangers and private security guards employed by various local and Olympics authorities have been handed new powers to remove "by reasonable force" anyone deemed a nuisance. "Offences" ranging from drinking alcohol to demonstrating, begging, or camping in The Rocks, Circular Quay, Darling Harbour and Olympics sites will be subject to the new measures.

Police will use the Bail Act for the same purposes. The Act allows police to set conditional bail for people charged with minor street offences such as causing a "social nuisance". The result is that people are temporarily removed from an area. These measures are already being used in tourist areas like Kings Cross. In addition recent legislation introduced by the Carr government has given police "move-on" powers. This legislation particularly targets youth, and is used by police to "move on" those considered by them to be "obstructing, intimidating or harassing" people.

In addition, the government is planning to bus homeless people up to 200 kilometres from Sydney to Wollongong, Newcastle and the Blue Mountains, and house them in disused hospitals, government buildings and caravan parks, in an attempt to triple the amount of emergency housing during the Olympics.

Some of these measures were first mooted last August when Sydney Lord Mayor, Councillor Frank Sartor announced a $1.2 million offensive to rid Sydney of homeless people. In reference to the anticipated increase in the number of people being attracted to Sydney seeking jobs during the Olympics, Sartor commented: "The city is not a financial nirvana, and people need to make sure they have enough money to care for themselves and to get home again. Also, people need to make sure they have somewhere to stay before coming." When asked about the planned dossiers, Sartor commented "We want to know what it will take to get these people off the streets."

Showing his utter contempt for the homeless, Sartor added: "You could shine lights on them to make life uncomfortable, but they will only move to another hole somewhere else. There has to be a solution. We cannot afford to be a world city, with fantastic fireworks and the Olympics without also showing that we are dealing with our problem of homeless on the streets."

Apart from making tens of millions of dollars from visitors and tourists during the Olympics, federal, state and city authorities, together with the tourism industry, regard the Games as a gigantic public relations exercise to showcase Sydney and Australia as a major tourist destination for the next several decades. Any intrusion by the homeless—one of the most visible signs of the city's immense social problems and inequality—will damage the advertising image.

While state government politicians have been more guarded than Sartor in their comments concerning the issue, it is clear that their perspective is the same. After years of ignoring the plight of the homeless, the government recently formed a Homelessness Action Team (HAT). One of its briefs is to deal with homelessness in the period preceding and following the Olympics. HAT has the role of finding permanent accommodation for chronically homeless people, particularly those with complex problems like mental illness or drug and alcohol related conditions.

Denials by Sartor and Premier Bob Carr that their measures are timed for the Olympics fly in the face of the fact that the government has conducted detailed studies of all aspects of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Four years ago, 9,000 homeless people in Atlanta were arrested during the eight months leading up to the Olympic Games for begging and loitering. Homeless people were shunted up to 300 kilometres out of Atlanta for the two weeks of the games

as usual the poor spoil the view for the rich so they are shifted some where else where their plight will not upset the more affluent members of our societies , this was a frackin disgrace and it seems to happen at most olympics in the last 20 years .

[Hobble]

Would be nice if they put the homeless to work somehow, simple tasks, so they can also earn some money instead of just shipping them off somewhere else for the time being.

[Buddhas Hand]

Would be nice if they put the homeless to work somehow, simple tasks, so they can also earn some money instead of just shipping them off somewhere else for the time being.

[Columbo]

that would be helpfull, but i believe that rather than spending our money on athletes and olympic games we should looking after the most vulnerable members of our societies.

[Common sense]

Would be nice if they put the homeless to work somehow, simple tasks, so they can also earn some money instead of just shipping them off somewhere else for the time being.