London 2012 organisers taken aback by enormity of Olympics in Beijing

[chef]

"LONDON 2012 leaders have been stunned by the sheer scale of the Beijing Olympics but have promised the Games in four years' time will be the real model for future hosts to follow.

The size of the venues and the cost of the Games in the Chinese capital has dwarfed anything that has gone before and Paul Deighton, chief executive of the London organising committee LOCOG, admitted to having some "trepidation" in his report to the International Olympic Committee."

link

i.e he's thinking "errr.. oh dear, why didn't I take the job organising the chelsea flower show"

[Bob Dalek]

I don't get it. China has a fireworks show and we tulip our pants?

[moorfield]

London 2012 getting its excuses in early then.

[contractor79]

London 2012 getting its excuses in early then.

yes
or they will now want to go seriously over budget

[VectraMan]

yes
or they will now want to go seriously over budget

No worries. The British tax payer has pleanty to spare.

[Fishface]

I thought the show was HUGE but creatively quite ordinary - the dancers/painters were the highlight for me.

and the fireworks...same old tulipe, same fireworks, same routines multiplied that you see the world over - first time year 2000 was awesome - now tedious smog creating waste.

[Paddy]

Sorted !

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...ing_pa_416.jpg

[milanbenes]

i like this bit,

'Deighton also confirmed that London organisers are having to massively scale back the plans for the athletes' village due to the property market slump and the credit crunch.

The original plan had been for the village to have been built at almost zero cost, with the constructors selling the apartments as residential properties after the Games. Now plans have had to be scaled back by up to 30 per cent as organisers attempt to reach an agreement with builders Bovis Lend Lease.
'


Milan.

[NickFitz]

i like this bit,

'Deighton also confirmed that London organisers are having to massively scale back the plans for the athletes' village due to the property market slump and the credit crunch.

The original plan had been for the village to have been built at almost zero cost, with the constructors selling the apartments as residential properties after the Games. Now plans have had to be scaled back by up to 30 per cent as organisers attempt to reach an agreement with builders Bovis Lend Lease.
'

Milan.

So a fundamental component of the costing of the project was predicated on the premise that property prices only rise, and never fall

Come on then - which of you was it that didn't realise that "can sell it for a fortune in a few years if absolutely no external circumstances whatsoever alter" is not equivalent to "costs nothing"

[TimberWolf]

Simple solution: Instead of putting on an expensive fireworks display that only lasts once, put up a huge screen (made of cheap paper) and project a fireworks display on that. We could make big impressive sounds with lots of speakers too. Cost: about £1.50, impressiveness: infinite. Sorted.