London 2012 Olympics Tickets Tours and Hotels: Whew! UK Basketball Team Given Green Light to Compete in Olympics

http://www.london-tours-2012.com/
http://www.london2012-tours.com/
http://www.london-olympiad.com/

Great Britain will compete in
London 2012 basketball

In one of the most important "whew!" brow-wiping, almost a catastrophe moments in Olympic history, Great Britain have been granted automatic qualification to play basketball at the 2012 Olympics. The announcement was made at world governing body FIBA's central board meeting in Lyon, bringing a successful conclusion to a long campaign from British Basketball. Board members voted 17-3 in favour of allowing Britain to play, but attached a condition that the sport's governing structure in Britain be resolved by June 30, 2012. This is a bit like the government's bailout of Norther Rock - we'll say yes now but you'll really have to clean up...er at a later date.


"I congratulate you," FIBA secretary-general Patrick Baumann said in announcing the decision. "You will be playing at the Olympic Games and we will be very happy to have you there." FIBA had asked to see evidence that Britain could put a competitive team on the court and that the Games would leave a legacy for basketball in the country. While it was quickly accepted that Britain had met all performance criteria, Baumann revealed there was a long discussion by board members on the question of the governing structure, which currently sees British Basketball operating as an umbrella organisation over the three home nations, England, Scotland and Wales, who retain their votes on FIBA's board.


FIBA want to put an end to that situation going forward, and as part of the agreement to allow Britain to play next year, they will require home nations to either merge completely or disband the British team following the Games. As London 2012 tickets go on sale next week, olympic basketball tickets will very likely be a big seller at the London summer games. Spyns will be offering London 2012 basketball tickets and many others as part of its London Summer Games packages.   

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets Tours Hotels: Iran Protests London 2012 Logo

http://www.london-tours-2012.com/  
http://www.london2012-tours.com/
http://www.london-olympiad.com/

London 2012 Logo: Zionist plot
or naughty Lisa Simpson?

While most see Lisa Simpson performing a lewd act, the Iranian government sees a Zionist (read: Jewish) conspiracy in London 2012's controversial logo. The head of Iran's national Olympic committee has complained to the International Olympic Committee that the jagged logo for the London 2012 Olympic games is racist because it spells the word "Zion." As Spyns clients prepare for the London 2012 summer games, most are thinking about London hotel rooms (few and far between if you read my former post), while those fun-loving Iranians come up with this.

"Unfortunately, we all are witnessing that the upcoming Olympics ... faces a serious challenge, definitely spawned out of some people's racist spirit," Mohammad Aliabadi stated in a letter to IOC president Jacques Rogge that was obtained by the newswires. "The use of the word Zion by the designer of Olympics logo ....in the emblem of the Olympics Games 2012 is a very revolting act," he added, warning that if Rogge did not act the logo would "affect the participation of several countries, especially like Iran which insists on following principles and values." That's a bit of a stretch given the Iranian government's recent crackdown on opposition protests. Come to think of it, the London police used charging horses to break up students protesting higher tuition just last year (see this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axWyu1t4rkE). People in glass houses....

Why this complaint is emerging now, when the logo was revealed in 2007, wasn't forthcoming. In a buildup to the great counterfeit games of 2012, London Olympic organizers raided a shop in Oxford high street that was carrying some 6,500 counterfeit items branded with the controversial logo. We should expect more of this as the games get closer. I personally find it sad that countries are trying to exploit the games for political gain.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets Tours Hotels: Cycling Race a Test for London 2012 Organisers

http://www.london-tours-2012.com/
http://www.london2012-tours.com/
http://www.london-olympiad.com/

British cyclist Mark Cavendish
is a favourite to win gold next summer

Ever since London 2012 organisers unveiled the fetching velodrome, England is abuzz with cycling news. Spyns not only offers London 2012 tours, but we're also a leader in Tour de France tours (http://www.tdf-tours.com/) so blogging about two wheels feels rather natural. A test event will be held over the Olympic road race course on August 14, London 2012 organisers have confirmed. The Surrey Cycle Classic, a UCI-approved race, will put the route, which takes in nine laps of a Box Hill circuit before finishing in front of Buckingham Palace on The Mall, through its paces before the Games arrive in London in July 2012. The course was announced earlier this month.

The full details of the Surrey Cycle Classic are yet to be announced but the event, which will sandwich the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana, is only expected to tackle three laps of Surrey's iconic Box Hill - a 166m climb. London 2012 organisers have announced details of the full test event programme, with the newly opened velodrome set to host next year's Track World Cup on February 17-19 in place of Manchester, which held the 2011 event last weekend. And the mountain bike course will host the Hadleigh Farm International on July 31, 2011.


London 2012 chairman, Lord Sebastian Coe, said: "Our approach to operational delivery is similar to that of an athlete. You do not want to face any conditions at competition time that you have not prepared for. When the world’s greatest Olympic and Paralympic athletes come to London in the summer of 2012, every aspect of our delivery needs to be the best it can be. "The invaluable experience we gain through our testing programme means we can 'road-test' all our operational plans and make sure we have all the knowledge we need to deliver a truly memorable Games in 2012."


We applaud their efforts to highlight cycling as a premiere sport. While basketball, swimming, and athletics (track & field) are among biggest draws, thanks to one Lance Armstrong and host of medal-worth British riders, organisers are right to promote everything two-wheeled. While the velodrome was finished on schedule, methinks ticketing may be a tad more complicated. But Spyns London 2012 clients will just have to wait until March 15.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets Tours Hotels: The Chinese Are Coming!

http://www.london-tours-2012.com/  
http://www.london2012-tours.com/
http://www.london-olympiad.com/

"Leeds here I come!"

As Spyns clients gear up for our London 2012 tour packages, English cities are hoping to cash in on pre-games training camps. A good example is the city of Leeds. China's athletes will be based in the northern English in the final build-up to the London 2012 Olympics, organisers announced Wednesday. China will use the Headingley Campus at Leeds Metropolitan University to train and acclimatise. China is set to be one of the key nations at the 2012 Games having topped the 2008 Beijing Games table with 51 gold, 21 silver and 28 bronze medals. Spyns believes this is just part of a pre-invasion force. Just kidding! The next war will be a trade war between the US and the Chinese, without a shot fired we hope.


The Chinese Athletic Association said it was "confident Leeds will provide an ideal training base for our athletes as we prepare for the London 2012 Olympic Games." Around 50 athletes and officials will head to Yorkshire's biggest city. It is the first deal to be signed between any of the Chinese squads and a British city. "Pre-Games training camps provide essential preparation for every athlete, and Chinese competitors will enjoy world class facilities in Leeds," said London Games chairman Sebastian Coe. "Having grown up in the county, I'm delighted that Yorkshire people, and especially the Chinese community, will be sharing in the excitement of the Games in their own back yard." To make the athletes feel at home, Leeds will ban certain search engine terms and arrest heads of various Leeds-based human rights organisations. Again...kidding!


British cities hope that hosting pre-Games camps will bring in millions of pounds (dollars, euros) worth of revenue as well as giving locals a chance to see some of the 2012 stars up close and even train alongside them. Since 1988, Leeds has been twinned with Hangzhou in China's eastern Zhejiang province. Their partnership is aimed at developing business, educational and civic links.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets Tours and Hotels: London Summer Games Tickets Are Going to Hurt Your Wallet

http://www.london-tours-2012.com/  
http://www.london2012-tours.com/
http://www.london-olympiad.com/

"The price is $250 dollars
for one diver...$400 for two."

As Spyns' clients prepare for our London 2012 Olympics tours, price will certainly be an issue. Whenever I visit London, I always call a friend and make the following joke about England's most expensive city, "I just sneezed and it cost me 20£ (approximately $30)." And now we have the London 2012 Summer Games ticket prices to prove it.


Sports fans hoping to make the journey across Atlantic for next year’s Olympic Games were able to get an idea of just how much the trip could cost them after organisers announced the competition schedule and ticket prices for the London showpiece. Some 2.2 million subscribers to an official Olympic email service were given a sneak preview of the times, dates and pricing categories this morning with tickets due to go on sale on March 15th.


Naturally enough, the blue riband events in athletics will command top dollar with VIP seats at the Olympic Stadium for the men’s 100 metres final going for as much as €890 ($1100). The closing two days at the track, Friday August 10th and Saturday August 11th, will also be priced at the same structure. However, the highest prices were reserved for those wishing to attend both the opening and closing ceremonies. Those looking for the best seats in the house when the Olympic cauldron is lit will be asked to part with €2,390 ($3346) while VIP seats for the closing ceremony will cost €1,790 ($2500). Spyns former clients may ask, will only billionnaires be attending the games.


For those hoping to follow Mark Phelps exploits in the Aquatics Centre, tickets will range in price from €23 ($32) for some of the heats to €540 ($760) for the Category AA seats in finals. Given the boxing team’s success in Beijing, the ExCel boxing arena will be another obvious port of call forfans with tickets for the all-important finals available from €113 to €470.


Sebastian Coe launched the detailed schedule for the London 2012 Olympics and admitted that the arrival of the “greatest show on earth” now feels just around the corner. “This is a really big moment, a huge moment. In this project, every day you get closer, every day it becomes more of a living creature,” Coe said. “In my own experience as a competitor this is the point that it suddenly becomes very real.” With the organising committee holding half of the beds in London and sky-high ticket prices, I wonder when someone is going to call London 2012 "the most expensive show on Earth."


Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets Hotels and Tours: Beware of the Fake Ticket Websites

http://www.london-tours-2012.com/
http://www.london2012-tours.com/
http://www.london-olympiad.com/

London 2012 Tickets: demand will far
outstrip supply.

Spyns will be offering tickets as part of its London 2012 tours however, unlike most of the planet which is offering them now, we will take reservations for hotels and non-Olympic activities (like walking tours of London for example) with tickets added to our tours after purchased via a licensed re-seller. Some have gotten a bit more creative according to London police.

Taking advantage of overwhelming demand for London 2012 tickets, illegal websites purporting to be "licensed ticket re-sellers" are cropping up on the internet. A battle is brewing in cyberspace. During my recent swing through London a few weeks ago, London 2012 organisers seemed to be in "what the f*ck are we doing mode" as the drop dead March 15 ticket sale date looms large on the calendar. In several meetings, I heard that tour operators like us could purchase tickets, then we couldn't, then we had to provide individual client's names, then we didn't, then we had to register for the ballot, then we didn't.

A few things are certain:

• Millions of tickets will go on sale in the spring
• The ticketing system is clearly a work in progress
• Like every previous Olympic Games, tickets will be bought and sold
• 50% of the tickets will go to Olympic insiders or VIPs (20% will surely be fartcatchers for IOC president Jacques Rogge) 
• Like every previous Olympic Games, organisers will pretend that there won't be a black market
• Scalpers will eventually acquire and re-sell tickets

In an interesting twist, fake websites purporting to sell London 2012 tickets are being targeted by a specialist police unit. Operation Podium has been set up to combat fraud and organised crime around the Olympic Games. The team is running 16 current operations and made 37 arrests in the past six months. Detective Chief Inspector Nick Downing said his top priority was to combat ticket fraud, especially bogus websites.

He said: "Someone may travel from a distant part of the UK, coming to London thinking that they have tickets for the 100m final for which they have paid thousands of pounds, only to find they have no accommodation, no ticket and no experience of a lifetime. "I don't want London to be associated with that."


Police will be on the lookout for fraudulent and touting websites when the 6.6 million tickets available to the public for the Olympic and Paralympic Games go on sale on 15 March this year. Mr Downing said officers had learned lessons by monitoring the chaos around the release of Take That tickets last October. Prior to the band's tickets going on sale, five or six unlicensed websites were operating, he said, but this jumped to "hundreds" the day the tickets were released. The situation was exacerbated by authorised sellers' sites crashing, leaving desperate fans more vulnerable to handing over their card details to touts and fraudsters.

London 2012 organisers hope to avoid a similar buying frenzy by making the application process open for six weeks, after which the tickets will be allocated by ballot. Police are working with the organising committee to develop a legitimate way for people to resell and swap tickets without resorting to touts. Unlike other sporting events and concerts, unlicensed reselling of Olympic tickets is illegal under Section 31 of the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006, meaning officers can arrest touts. However, Mr Downing said the 36-strong Operation Podium team was already compiling a list of known ticket touts across the UK and would use a range of legal tools including ASBOs and seizing assets to "create a hostile environment" in which they would not wish to operate.


Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, the National Olympic Security Co-ordinator, said there were no guarantees that London 2012 would be a tout-free zone but "we will put the fear on them using every possible legislation that we can". This reminds me of comedian Robin Williams take on the London Police who at the time didn't carry sidearms. "Stop!" said Williams imitating a police constable, "Or I'll say 'Stop' again!"

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Summer Games Tickets Tours Hotels: Schedule for London 2012 Ticket Sales

http://www.london-tours-2012.com/
http://www.london2012-tours.com
http://www.london-olympiad.com/

A priceless commodity

Tickets have long been the achilles heel of most summer Olympic Games. The Olympic playbook is always the same: save half of the tickets for Olympic Organising Committee members, corporate sponsors, and VIPs. The lowly single ticket holder often has to go without. Ticket problems plagued Atlanta, Sydney, and the Beijing games. Will the London 2012 summer games fare any better? Spyns London Summer Games clients wonder.

From tickets going on sale in March to the final lick of paint being administered to the Olympic Park, 2011 represents a key year in engaging the British public in a home Olympiad. What follows are some key days in the London 2012 ticketing calendar.

JANUARY
London 2012 organising committee will publish dates of Olympics and Paralympics tickets going on sale. Water polo, beach volleyball and handball are expected to find out their fate for 2012 inclusion from the British Olympic Association. Volleyball was granted an automatic spot last month, so it remains to be seen whether the BOA will take ahard line approach to the remaining sports. The full schedule of test events are also due to be announced in the first quarter of 2011 too.


FEBRUARY
The Olympic PR machine will crank up a few gears when full details of all the 650 separate sessions for the 26 Olympic sports are published. It will give the British public time to take in and plan when the stars are likely to be competing.


MARCH
Likely to be around March 15 – 500 days to go until the start of the Games – some 6.6 million tickets for all the Olympics sports will go on sale. A giant clock counting down the hours until the start will also be installed in Trafalgar Square. Around 2m people have already registered for tickets in preparation for the launch. Ticket prices will vary according to the demand for the sport and will range from £20 ($30) to £2012 ($3000) – the most expensive ticket at the opening ceremony. Ticket sales will not be a bun fight. It will be in ballot form, the idea being that families can plan their Olympic experience with preferences for sessions. The IOC co-ordination commission will also visit London to inspect preparations. They were last in town in December.

APRIL
London will be abuzz in the first week of the month when hundreds of chief execs and sponsors attend Sportaccord 2011, the annual convention which gels sport and business. Themed ‘Why Sport Matters’, the Park Plaza Hotel in Westminster will feature over 100 federations from 60 nations, including Sepp Blatter and Martin Sorrell. The International Olympic Committee’s executive board will also meet in the capital for the first time since the city was awarded the 2012 Games.

MAY/JUNE
Details on the London 2012 torch relay are expected to be announced. The relay will involve 8,000 runners, more than half of whom will be aged 24 or under, and will go to within an hour’s travel of 95 per cent of the population of the British isles.

JULY
Mark your cards for July 27 when celebrations will take place for exactly one year to go to the Olympics.


AUGUST
A month for fine-tuning. Test events for beach volleyball in Horse Guard’s Parade, sailing in Weymouth, open water on the Serpentine and rowing on Dorney Lake will all take place. Badminton’s World Championships at Wembley Arena will also act as a Locog test event. Meanwhile, events marking one year to go to the opening of the Paralympics will take place on Aug 29.


SEPTEMBER
Tickets for the Paralympics are expected to go on sale.

OCTOBER
The IOC co-ordination commission will make their second visit of the year to London to inspect preparations.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
The main venues including the Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre and Velodrome and the Olympic Park are due to be completed by this time and handed over to Locog to be fitted out for the Games. The main press centre is also likely to be finished.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets and Tours: Calls for Ticketing Transparency

http://www.london2012-tours.com/

http://www.london-tours-2012.com/

London 2012 organisers have been urged to be up front about how many tickets will be available for the Olympics and how much they will cost. The London Assembly's economic development, culture, sport and tourism committee said the public needed to have faith in the ticketing system. Games organisers said details would be revealed after the Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver had finished. There will be 9.2 million seats available during the event. The committee has written to London 2012 chiefs requesting details on how they plan to fill seats at the Games.

Committee Chair Dee Doocey said: "The key issue is simple: How many people will be ahead of the average Londoner in the queue for Olympic tickets? "Locog - London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games - needs to be open and transparent about how many tickets are going to be available for the public and how many are going to be reserved for the Olympic family.
We will be making an announcement about our ticketing strategy after the Vancouver Paralympic Games has finished

"These tickets for International Olympic Committee staff, officials, partners and sponsors will significantly reduce the number of seats available for the public." The committee said it would like to know how many tickets will be available at less than £10, £20 and £30 and how they will be shared out among the events. Other questions included how any possible stand-by scheme for unused tickets might work and who, if anyone, would count as a priority group for preferential or low-cost tickets.

London 2012 should publish its ticketing strategy in draft form as soon as possible to allow the public to comment on it before it is finalised, the committee advised. Tickets for the Games will not go on sale until 2011, according to Locog. A London 2012 spokesman said: "We will be making an announcement about our ticketing strategy after the Vancouver Paralympic Games has finished." The 2010 Paralympics is scheduled to finish on 21 March.

For more information about Spyns and our tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics: London Stadium Ahead of Schedule

http://www.london2012-tours.com/
http://www.london-tours-2012.com/



It's all doom and gloom in England these days. With the pound sinking and British economy in ruins, London is spending massive amounts of taxpayer money on Olympian development projects. Case in point: the Olympic stadium is going to cost double the initial estimate. There is a long history of cost overruns associated with hosting the summer Olympics and London's summer games are no exception. By my calculations, the games normally cost taxpayers 2 to 6 times initial estimates and sadly London's Olympic stadium is proving me right.

Initial estimates put the Olympic stadium's pricetag at £270 million (approximately US$405 million) however the costs have, ahem, gone up somewhat. According to the Guardian, the stadium will now cost a staggering £537m (US$752m). The 80,000-seat stadium is located at Marshgate Lane in Stratford in the Lower Lea Valley. Organisers broke ground in mid 2007 although the official construction start date was scheduled for May 22, 2008. However piling works for the stadium's foundation unofficially began four weeks ahead of schedule.

Chief architect Rod Sheard, of HoK Sport, said the stadium would make a big impact, but not in the same way that previous Olympic stadia had. "This is not a stadium that's going to be screaming from the rooftops that it's bigger and more spectacular," he said. "This is just a cleverer building. This is a cleverer solution." The design is apparently modular but comes at a pricetag.

Unlike the profligate Chinese, London 2012 summer games organisers were at pains to reduce, re-use and recycle their various stadia. The design concept is for an 80,000-seat stadium for the summer games. Post-games, the stadium will convert to a smaller 25,000-seat structure that can be re-used for (paying) smaller venues. That was the concept. The reality is proving a bit more problematic. While London 2012's promotional video (see above) suggests a transformer-like switch from 80k seats to 25k, the conversion will eventually cost £100m which in Olympic parlance means £200m-£600m.

Regardless, I think the design is quite striking. Unlike the logo fiasco which does truly look like Lisa Simpson performing a lewd act, the stadium is beautiful. Unlike every other Olympic stadium, the Brits are keeping to a strict construction schedule and may even complete the stadium on time (an Olympic first). Hopefully the removable stadium seats won't collapse while Spyns' clients are watching the opening and closing ceremonies.

For more information about Spyns and our tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

Spyns London 2012 Olympic Tours: Ballooning Costs an Olympic Tradition

http://www.london2012-tours.com/
http://www.spyns.com/

Why do countries so love grandeur? Nations vying for the games always fugdge the cost during the application process when the final bill is always double or triple the estimate. London has recently fallen victim to Olympian math. Here is a brief analysis of the estimates vs. actual costs for past summer games:

Beijing 2008 Summer Games
Estimate: $4.4 billion / Actual Cost: $58.5 billion* = Cost overrun $54 billion
These figures are difficult to confirm as the Communist Party of China isn't known for its transparancy.

Athens 2004 Summer Games:
Estimate: 4.5 billion euros / Actual Cost: 9 billion euros = Cost overrun 4.5 billion euros

Sydney 2000 Summer Games:
Estimate: AUS$3 billion / Actual Cost: AUS$6.6 billion = Cost overrun AUS$3.6 billion

Montreal 1976 Summer Games:
Esimate: CDN$310 million / Actual Cost: CDN$1.5 billion = Cost overrun CDN$1.2 billion

On average, it costs 6x the initial estimate to actually host the Olympics and London's 2012 Olympiad seems destined to follow this trend.

In keeping with Olympic tradition, Britain's Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, who also has special responsibility for the games, revised cost estimates (ahem) upward. The Olympic organising committee originally budgeted 2.4£ billion. The Labour government now projects a total pricetag of 9.3£ billion (approximately US$14 billion). Based on historical averages, the final pricetag should be somewhere between 9-14£ billion or approximately 200£ for every single British citizen. That's quite a lot of cheddar. Here is a chronology of the uptick:

2003: Consultants Arup put total cost of building and staging the Games at £1.796bn
2003: Tessa Jowell launches bid in May telling MPs it will cost £2.375bn - including a 50% contingency
2005: Bid succeeds in July with "prudent" estimate of preparing for games of £2.4bn
2006: Tessa Jowell says Olympic Park costs up to £3.3bn
2007: Olympic Park budget now at £5.3bn - including regeneration and infrastructure
2007: Total budget, including contingency, security and tax, reaches £9.35bn

Why do countries host the games? From a financial standpoint, they can bankrupt a nation like Greece for example. Is seems nations are more than willing to open the public purse for that Olympic moment. Right Athens?

For more information about Spyns and our tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ http://www.london-tours-2012.com or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

O Boris Where Art Thou?

http://www.london2012-tours.com
http://www.london-tours-2012.com

What better way to start a blog about the London 2012 Olympics than with Boris Johnson (London's mayor). An unabashed Anglophile, I was thrilled when London bested arch-enemy Paris to win the 2012 summer Olympics. Then the world imploded but we'll get to that in another blog.

I've always enjoyed Johnson's politically incorrect television appearances. Things got better when he was elected mayor of London, perhaps because no one was more surprised at the win than Boris. Johnson is the quintessential dishevelled Etonian and is quite happy to play the buffoon in front of cameras. Therein lies his genius. Imagine my anticipation when he flew down to Beijing for the traditional "passing of the Olympic flag" at the 2008 Olympiad's closing ceremony. He did not disappoint.

Boris was smartly turned out for the closing ceremony. An unabashed colonialist who once suggested England could solve its overpopulation by repossessing northern France, he looked a little overwhelmed while waving the Olympic flag. But who wouldn't? To everyone's surprise, he was elected mayor of London and other than a few stints as a journalist in Brussels, had little experience in international affairs. Cut to the closing ceremony. A billion people were watching him so Johnson put down his gin & tonic and enthusiastically waved the Olympic flag. Mouth firmly shut, he did an excellent job but a storm was coming.

Following the ceremony, Johnson spoke at an impromptu press gathering and rambled on for a few minutes before declaring "ping pong is coming home". Prime Minister Gordon Brown fidgeted in the background. It was a masterful performance although the reference to ping poing, a rather obvious slight against China, was unfortunate. Hopefully Johnson will still be mayor in 2012.

Changing gears, my tour company (Spyns) will soon be launching its London 2010 tours website. We are setting a rather ambitious goal of 500+ clients for the next summer Olympiad. I've reserved http://www.london2012-tours.com/ as a website and fully expect some City trademark lawyer to threaten a lawsuit for using the terms "London 2012." Damn the torpedoes! Before the Olympics, I will also interview and have a photo taken with Sir Boris.

For more information about Spyns and our tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ http://www.london-tours-2012.com or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.