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The Road to the 2012 London Olympics Thread

leomac08

leomac08

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 12, 2009
2,096
0
Los Angeles, CA
There are 499 days till the 2012 London Olympics which will start on July 27, 2012- August 12, 2012 in the city of London, England UK.

Ticket Request Phase for the games began today March 15, 2011 and end in late April 2011 and are made available via the 2012 London Olympics Website or vary per country as for example since I am from the United States, I have to purchase the tickets and available hospitality packages from the US authorized reseller of the tickets which are cosport.com

I requested roughly 8 tickets as I am going with another person, but sadly I could not get the opening ceremony tickets; This will be my first time going to England or for the matter Europe itself and would like to hear information from residents of the UK, about hotels, places to go, airline recommendations? etc..

Anyways, are there any MR members that are currently interested or are going?

Are there any people from the UK that have heard news or information about the games? Changes in London? etc...
 
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robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
I live about a mile away from the middle of the stadium. The less I say about my opinion on the "improvements" (or complete and utter lack of them) made to the infrastructure for the games the better. I have never been in favour of us hosting them but I will probably still apply for some tickets anyway. Seems silly not to when it's literally on my doorstep.

I will be accepting applications for my spare room for the period of the games. The successful application will be attractive, female, aged 21-25 with low standards and a whiff of desperation!
 
rdowns

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
12,521
leomac08 said:
There are 499 days till the 2012 London Olympics which will start on July 27, 2012- August 12, 2012 in the city of London, England UK.
Click to expand...

I admire your restraint for waiting until it was less than 500 days away.
 
iStudentUK

iStudentUK

macrumors 65816
Mar 8, 2009
1,439
4
London
I'm about 30 mins from the stadium. Guess I'll have to give people the typical London welcome when the time comes-

Don't talk to them
Don't look them in the eyes
Scowl when they stop in the middle of the pavement!
Resist the urge to shoot people who stand on the left on underground escalators. :mad:

robbieduncan said:
I will be accepting applications for my spare room for the period of the games. The successful application will be attractive, female, aged 21-25 with low standards and a whiff of desperation!
Click to expand...

:D

Probably more fun than renting the room out for the 2 weeks!
 
youknome

youknome

macrumors 6502a
Nov 22, 2010
547
19
Has anyone applied to buy tickets yet? They're actually pretty expensive.

Beach volleyball anyone? :D
 
Fuzzy14

Fuzzy14

macrumors 65816
Nov 19, 2006
1,357
1
Renfrew, Scotland
We're probably going to go for tickets for the velodrome and the diving. We're 400 miles away but the way we see it, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity (at least until 2014:rolleyes:). Since I don't meet Robbie's criteria will probably stay in a hotel in Hertfordshire and get the train in.

Still not worked out my ticket strategy yet, should I apply for the tickets I want and get none, or apply for loads, win them all and then be £800 out of pocket for 8 months until the ticket swap website is launched.

Also plan to go to the football in Glasgow, £20 to watch two matches is not bad these days.
 
Fuzzy14

Fuzzy14

macrumors 65816
Nov 19, 2006
1,357
1
Renfrew, Scotland
OllyW said:
It's only fair, your Council Tax is helping to pay for the games. :D
Click to expand...

I think you'll find that the majority is being funded by us northerners having to subsidise the poor south east!:p

Wikilies said:
According to Games organisers, the funding for this budget broadly breaks down as:

* 64% from Central Government;
* 23% from National Lottery
* 13% from the Mayor of London and the London Development Agency
Click to expand...
Dubious source
 
robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
Fuzzy14 said:
I think you'll find that the majority is being funded by us northerners having to subsidise the poor south east!:p


Dubious source
Click to expand...

Considering that on a per-person basis we probably pay more tax into the "central government" part we are paying twice over for something we were given no choice in hosting, no vote over anything :(
 
Fuzzy14

Fuzzy14

macrumors 65816
Nov 19, 2006
1,357
1
Renfrew, Scotland
robbieduncan said:
Considering that on a per-person basis we probably pay more tax into the "central government" part we are paying twice over for something we were given no choice in hosting, no vote over anything :(
Click to expand...

Population of UK=62 million
Population of Greater London= 8 million (13% of UK)

If you are paying approaching half of the central government funding (presumably made up from income tax, VAT and corporation tax) then you lot get paid waaaay too much, spend too much and need to get yourself better accountants.

How much are you contributing to rejuvenating the east end of Glasgow for 2014? (actually you are through the Barnet formula:eek:)

To try and remotely get on topic, my road to the Olympics will be the M8, M73, M74, A74(M), M6, M6(toll), M1, M25, M11.

** Edit, just to clarify, 'you lot' doesn't mean anything disparaging or stereotypical, just honest working taxpayers currently residing in the south east whether they originate from there or not. ;)
 
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robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
Fuzzy14 said:
To try and remotely get on topic, my road to the Olympics will be the M8, M73, M74, A74(M), M6, M6(toll), M1, M25, M11.
Click to expand...

Even more back on topic: everyone's "road" to the Olympics had better be a train. There is no parking provided for the Olympics apart from a very small number of disabled spaces!
 
leomac08

leomac08

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 12, 2009
2,096
0
Los Angeles, CA
Jaffa Cake said:
We're hearing little else.

They unveiled a fancy sculpture clock yesterday to count down the days, hours and seconds to the Running, Throwing and Jumping – and rather predictably it was broken within the day.

We're ace. :D
Click to expand...

Nice!:D

robbieduncan said:
I live about a mile away from the middle of the stadium. The less I say about my opinion on the "improvements" (or complete and utter lack of them) made to the infrastructure for the games the better. I have never been in favour of us hosting them but I will probably still apply for some tickets anyway. Seems silly not to when it's literally on my doorstep.

I will be accepting applications for my spare room for the period of the games. The successful application will be attractive, female, aged 21-25 with low standards and a whiff of desperation!
Click to expand...

Well I was trying to get some opening ceremony tickets for €20 but in the USA they weren't selling them!:eek: Only $3,300 front row, $2700, $870, 330, way too expensive!

I'm guessing UK residents have more privileges, and reserve them for them only:(

rdowns said:
I admire your restraint for waiting until it was less than 500 days away.
Click to expand...

Well they unveiled a clock, so I guessed we could start the countdown...:eek::p
 
robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
leomac08 said:
Well I was trying to get some opening ceremony tickets for €20 but in the USA they weren't selling them!:eek: Only $3,300 front row, $2700, $870, 330, way too expensive!
Click to expand...

There are no cheap opening ceremony tickets in the UK either. The cheap tickets are generally for the non-medal stages of actual sports.
 
R94N

R94N

macrumors 68020
May 30, 2010
2,095
1
UK
I think my Mum wants to go, so we will probably all end up going. For 4 people, that can be quite expensive - like £500 just for a few hours. I suppose people who are really into it won't mind paying that, but really for 'ordinary' people it's a bit 'weird', shall we say.

iStudentUK said:
Resist the urge to shoot people who stand on the left on underground escalators. :mad:
Click to expand...

I end up doing that when I visit :( Everyone else does it, I thought it was to leave space for those who like to walk it? And what's wrong with the right? :confused:
 
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robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
R94N said:
I end up doing that when I visit :( Everyone else does it, I thought it was to leave space for those who like to walk it? And what's wrong with the right? :confused:
Click to expand...

Stand on the right. Walk on the left. Or be prepared to be pushed! There are signs on every single one saying "stand on the right".

stand-on-the-right.jpg
 
youknome

youknome

macrumors 6502a
Nov 22, 2010
547
19
Just to bump this thread, anyone else applied to purchase tickets?
Think I'm tempted to buy some now.
 
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