Glad to hear that LOCOG have released unrequired rooms back to hotels - will hopefully result in room rates becoming that little bit more affordable for those attending the games (or indeed those just visiting London)...and in fairness to the organisers releasing them back to the hotels this far out provides plenty of time for those requiring them to book. Not long until the games now...
In fact it is now under 6 months to the London 2012 Olympic Games - is the excitement building? Doesn't appear to be in our local area but after watching the indoor Athletics meeting at the weekend it seems that within the sport excitement is growing almost on a daily basis. I really hope the country supports both events (Olympics and Paralympics) whole heartedly for a number of reasons but mainly to demonstrate to the world that as an events location the UK can't be beaten for support (perhaps the FIFA team may realise they made an error in not appointing England the World Cup hosts in 2018...ok perhaps not).
In the current climate we need every bit of positivity that we can. When I say we I mean the industry, the public and the country in general. Whilst we are not Greece, Spain or Italy we are still in the midst of an extremely tough economic and social period and a positive summer - in terms of atmosphere, excitement and anticipation - would go someway to lifting spirits ahead of the rest of the year.
London 2012 will, all be it temporarily, create jobs and that alone is a reason to be glad that the games are being hosted in the UK rather than elsewhere. Yes not all the jobs are paid, a vast number - 70,000 - are volunteer positions but for those who have been out of work just having an occupation to get up for (rather than the challenging daily job search) will be a boost. In fact to that end London 2012 has actually set up a programme to help those unemployed people near to the Olympic site - perhaps not ideal for those based elsewhere but it's something that would not have been happening had London2012 been Madrid2012 - for example!
I'm not oblivious to the supposed negatives of London2012 - for a start it has (will) cost our country a reported £9.3bn, which is a huge amount of money given the aforementioned economic climate within our country...and Europe as a whole. Additionally whilst this vast amount of money has been spent on venues, opening ceremonies, etc not enough has been spent on helping athletes train and prepare for the Games...this is plainly wrong given it is the athletes performance that will largely determine how positive the atmosphere is during the games.
Despite the above (and more) negatives London2012 is a very good thing for the UK. If you haven't got tickets - like me - or are not that fussed yet - like a lot of people - it's time to start focusing on the lesser spotted sports such as fencing, swimming, javelin, archery and rowing; it's time to start getting excited about British athletes winning in random sports that for 99.9% of the year no one worries about.
It's tough out there on a financial, economic and social level so use this tailor made, on your doorstep excuse to inject some positivity into your year.
