The CheckerBoard

Costas is one of my favorites - mainly because he is a Cards fan!

Officiating has been horrific. I wish they would let them play.

Spain is putting on a passing clinic. It looks like a better version of princeton basketball.

USA wins gold in Men's basketball, 107-100.

Here's a current medal count, if you're interested in such things:

1 United States 46 29 29 104
2 China 38 27 22 87
3 Russia 24 25 33 82
4 Great Britain 29 17 19 65
5 Germany 11 19 14 44

Good thread!

Just started watching, did they do the John Lennon Hologram yet? Love the Beatles, really hope I didn't miss it.

I just flipped it back and the Spice girls are performing? Is this 1995?

Queen on now, you might wanta flip back

I wanta hear some more Queen now...

Ironically, it was the Olympics that triggered the initial downturn. Between spending millions on the games, then not realizing that revenues from tourism would drop off after the Games, they put themselves in a big hole..

Just for purposes of comparison:

Atlanta: Used some existing facilities for the '96 games, then repurposed other facilities for use going forward (Turner Field was the Olympic Stadium). In fact, a lot of the infrastructure that will support everything going on in Atlanta Labor Day weekend is due to the Olympics coming to town.

Sydney: Primarily built new facilities, but continued to use them after the 2000 games.

Athens: Most of the facilities were left to rot away, when they could have used that land for housing, commercial development, etc. What's worse for Greece now is that nobody even wants to build there because of the economic uncertainties.

Beijing: Some of the facilities were repurposed for use by the city (the swimming facility is now a public pool), but others were left to rot. But the Chinese economy is so inflated right now that they can "afford" to just spend money with n hope of return.

London: Most of the facilities were built to be dismantled after the games. The area where the Olympic Stadium sits will be turned into a residential development, and the basketball arena will be dismantled and (most likely) shipped to Rio for use in the 2016 games. That entire area of the city was abandoned warehouses and factories before the Olympics, now it will become housing and a mixed-use community for Londoners.

love it