Olympics: A Rant

   So, the 2012 Olympics start in London tomorrow (Friday, July 27). And I couldn't care less. Why? Well, there are several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that I don't give 2 short shits about the majority of the sports. About the only ones I do care about are Football (called "soccer" in North America) and Archery. The rest, I don't give a flying fig about. I wonder if it's got anything to do with the fact that I was horrible at running, jumping, discus, shot put etc when I was in school. Damn! I keep forgetting there's no "sarcasm" key for computers.
   Anyway, while I do realize a lot of people will be watching over the next 2 weeks, I won't. And aside from the track and field and other purely athletic events, who should care? Beach volleyball as an Olympic sport? Puh-leese. Rhythmic gymnastics? Maybe if I had insomnia. Basketball? No.
   And while I'm at it, lets look at sports like basketball, baseball and football (soccer). Why are professional athletes competing? I thought the Olympic ideal was for the best amateur athletes in the world to gather every 4 years. Not people who make a living at it. I guess, by extension, you could include most track and swimming events on that list. And why do we need to have football (soccer) as an Olympic event anyway? The World Cup for both men and women is held regularly, and the Euro championship was played just last month.
   And before you can remind me, I am fully aware of the "cheating" that went on in a lot of winter games by former Soviet states. The hockey team was classed as amateur, because they weren't paid to play hockey. They were paid by things like the Red Army instead. A nice loophole that got exploited.
   Anyway, billions of dollars is being spent in London to host the games. And sure, there will be an economic gain for that city. But you don't have to go back too far in the past for an example of how an Olympics should NOT be staged. It was 1976 in Montreal, where cost overruns were huge, and Canadian taxpayers just got finished paying the deficit off not that long ago. And there are plenty of people who would rather have that money, plus the extremely high cost of all the security needed, spent on crime reduction, infrastructure, housing, health care and so on.
   So here's my idea. Keep staging the Olympics every 4 years, by all means. But lets have permanent venues for both the summer and winter games. Since Greece was the start of the event, let them have the summer games. Switzerland could stage the winter ones. And to make sure costs are met, any country wanting to send athletes should be charged a fee of X million dollars which would go to upkeep and security. And any profit the games makes would then go toward the next event, meaning members fees would go down.
   Will that happen? Hell no. The stakes are simply too high not to move it around. Will I be watching any of it, including the opening and closing ceremonies? As I said earlier, no. In fact, I think I'd rather watch paint dry.
   Pass that brush please.
   'Nuff said.