London 2012 Olympics Tickets Hotels and Tours: London Organisers to Triathletes: "Go Jump in a Lake!"

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Look! The crown jewels.

As the interminable battle rages over the London 2012 stadium ("Legacy!!!!" screams Lord Coe), Spyns is dilligently preparing for its London 2012 package tours. Before unveiling a number of surprises, this just in from London!

The swimming leg of the Olympic triathlon at the 2012 London Games will take place in Hyde Park's Serpentine lake after local government officials gave permission for the construction of spectator seating and a pontoon. The triathlon will begin with a 1.5-kilometer (0.9-mile) lap starting from the pontoon on the north side of the Serpentine.

The seating area will hold 3,000 spectators, with the temporary structures set to be installed two months before the August opening of the games. The Serpentine will also host the 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) marathon swimming event. Spectators without tickets will be able to watch both events from vantage points in the park.Westminster Council planning and city development chairman Alastair Moss says "Hyde Park will be a first-class backdrop."

I personally have no desire to complete a triathlon. In fact, the word triathlon makes me want to open a beer. I can't imagine the pain and endurance it must take to finish one although I applaud those who do. Actually I don't mean that at all. You're all mad and look like Holocaust survivors!

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: London Stadium Ahead of Schedule

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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

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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.

London 2012 Olympics: 80% of Brits Hate Logo

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Fuschia? Someone call Sir Elton.

Unveiled in 2007, the 400,000£ logo for the 2012 games in London caused quite a stir. Some called it "visionary" others found it "ghastly." An Ipsos poll found that two-thirds of British adults disapproved. Journalists even dusted off the worst new-media insult: "It causes epileptic seizures." Some say it resembles Lisa Simpson giving Bart oral pleasure. Reviews are mixed to be sure.

Sadly, the logo is here to stay. The colours are striking but it fails to convey a coherent message in my opinion. The designers said it reached out to engage Britain's youth. The result feels a bit "Ikea Gansta" conveying a level of incongruity not seen since June Cleaver spoke jive in "Airplane." Not surprisingly, the design team was from Wolff Olins which has no offices in Harlem according to the firm's letterhead. Far from tapping Snoop Dogg's street cred, I imagine a group of bald Swedish men sitting around saying things like, "Yo' Svend. What up?"

By contrast, the best Olympic logos convey the host city/country, year, and energy. Although dated, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic logo instantly conveys a truly American message. I also found the Albertville '92 winter Olympic logo actually (gasp) conveyed such vanguard ideas as "winter" and "Olympics."

If the purpose of a brand is to convey an instant message, this design is rather off the mark. To me this logo says, "Yo Svend, they Limey mofos paid 400 large for dis."

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.