There is no doubt that the opening ceremony of an Olympic Games has become a massive Global event, but surely there has to be some common- sense applied before this becomes – if it is not already- totally grotesque.
We have to say we have never been big fans of opening ceremonies, until we watched the Sydney 2000 event. It was definitely a moment that made one proud to be Australian. China too had some magic moments, but do these ceremonies impact more on the host country than a well run games, and home grown athletes bringing home medals?
It seems crazy in these current economic times that British Prime Minister David Cameron should sanction the doubling of the 2012 Ceremonies budget giving organizers another GBP41million to play with.
Apparently Cultural secretary Jeremy Hunt and the British Prime Minister were given a sneak preview and felt that the investment was necessary to uphold or possibly boost Britain’s image. Surely such money could have been put to far better use?
One would have thought so Q-ball
The worst of it is all that money will be spent and we still won’t be able to compete with the Chinese spectacular in Beijing, in fact I suspect we won’t even match the amazing festival that was the Asian games in Guangzhou, or even China’s upstart entry, Shenzhen, for the Unversiade games…
In these economic times you do have to wonder how they can justify spending GBP80m on one ceremonial event. I am all for spending money on marketing and promotions but this does seem like a lot for such a shortlived activity…Surely spending that money in developing sport in the UK would be a more viable way of spending taxpayers money?