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Listed below are comments made by Quick_Single between Wednesday, 1st April 2009 and Thursday, 10th December 2009.

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London Calling 5:29pm on 10 Dec 2009 Interesting thoughts. To my mind, you can't beat London, but I'm also a massive fan of Sheffield, Manchester and Birmingham - each of which has its own unique style and feel.
I think the most fundamental point is the horrendous barrel over which the IOC has every potential bidding city around the 'compactness' of bids.
It is a very sad truth that unfortunately the IOC (and international committees and federations) are predominantly concerned with very small, very focused bids, with a central village, media, and as many venues as is physically possible. (Look at how upset the International Badminton Federation is about moving to Wembley if you need an example).
Olympic bids are judged on being compact, so it is simply not realistic to think that bids with venues dotted around the place (no matter how sensible, allowing benefit to a wider region) will win.
The primary objective is to make things very easy for athletes and paying attending spectators. If the London team had dished all the venues out around the rest of the country during the bid, we'd all be having to worry about taking the Eurostar (rather than the tube) to watch the Games in 2012.
Woods image battered but not beyond repair 00:11am on 03 Dec 2009 I think that the reaction says more about the public and our misconceptions/assumptions about people in the public eye than it does about Woods. It seems to be one of the trappings of celebrity that 'famous people' are somehow elevated to lofty pedestals, and it's a long drop.

Woods is a truly magnificent golfer, but everything off the fairways is just a facade or projection - we simply don't know the guy. Iain, I think you raise some interesting points about how others on the circuit might realise that all the 'holier than thou' consumate human being image may have been carefully crafted PR spiel.
Agassi confession lengthens shadow of doubt 10:31pm on 28 Oct 2009 I think I'm with the general consensus that I don't really give much of a hoot - Agassi was a pretty wild lad - I'd have been more surprised if something like this hadn't happened!

In his defence, I don't think John O is being particularly 'sanctimonious' and probably doesn't deserve some of the criticism on here - I think some might have missed the main point (or it isn't expressed clearly enough). The issue is that it is yet another example that a governing body (be it global, national) simply cannot police itself - just look at all the US sports, which refuse to sign up to WADA codes.

You can't really blame the authorities in a way - they simply made themselves hear what they wanted to hear and carried on. Had it been 'performance-enhancing' I suggest they would have been forced into a more robust response.
Do you speak Race? 1:19pm on 23 Oct 2009 Good points Mark - I think you're spot on, and I too was struck by that moment, which I thought was 'splitting hairs' a wee bit.

I think it's a real problem - that we are so entangled with so called 'political correctness' and the need to conform or not offend, that we run the risk of saying nothing at all.

I feel that spending time skating around the issues (as frequently occured last night) trying to use the 'right' terms doesn't help us to actually engage with the issues.

There are real dangers when we start worrying more about lexicon than about the substance of the argument.
My route into the media 11:23am on 01 Oct 2009 Interesting points - I have to concur that the world of journalism is as frighteningly competitive as ever. I recently threw my hat back into the ring, after a couple of years as a sports consultant (having previously been a sports magazine editor for five years) and found a quite dispiriting total lack of interest/prospects.
This extends, I'm afraid to say, to even securing a week of work experience with the BBC - I dared to hope that seven years working in the industry might qualify me as having shown "a commitment to sports journalism" or whatever the trite requirement was.
I totally agree about the elusive (dare I say mythical?!) 'big break'. But perhaps I'm just getting older and cynical. As a thought to all new starters, I'd just add that the world of journalism is massively changing - as this blog proves, the ways that news and views are reported and debated are moving on - in 10 years time, things will be different again.
LTA struggles to shrug off dismal GB display 4:20pm on 25 Jun 2009 Agree with lazyjohn here. Before everyone gets excited about massive £10k paydays, for nearly all of the British players, this money (of which a third is about to go to the taxman after all) is in a completely different stratosphere.

The cash on the Challenger tour (where most of these players toil) I would imagine barely covers their travel and accommodation expenses.
Where there's sport, there's brass 10:59pm on 19 Jun 2009 Gordon,

A good blog and a good question. The answer is that unfortunately I can't really see it.

Having worked with Special Olympics GB (appropriately enough on funding applications to Sport England and scoping their sponsorship strategy) they're a great bunch, and are on a very important and valuable mission, but they're up against it. They have limited resources, but I think the problems are more fundamental.

One of the great difficulties (in my opinion) is that socially, we are not as comfortable dealing with people/athletes/children with learning difficulties, as we are with those with physical disabilities (although the situation is hardly perfect in the case of physically impaired athletes either). I'm afraid that this appetite extends to the field of sponsorship.

Another is that the disability sector of the sports industry is an absolute feeding frenzy, particularly now, in a tighter financial climate. There are so many different organisations fighting for (and worthy of) support - the British Paralympic Association; MENCAP Sport; English Federation of Disability Sport (and similar in the other home countries); Disability Sport Events (DSE) to name but a few as well as UK Deaf Sport, British Blind Sport etc.

You're right to discuss funding transparency and structures - if we were starting from a blank sheet of paper, surely we would draw a picture where the NGBs have responsibility for the development of their sport across the board, and are responsible for men/women/children of all abilities and capabilities?

With regard to 'leaning on the sports' to provide support through WSPs - this is fine, but the truth is that the success of the NGBs, in the eyes of the media and the general public, is measured in Olympic Golds, the Ashes, and World Cup Winners' Medals. Until this changes, I can't see the flow of funds altering course.
Beacon of hope or white elephant? 10:35pm on 17 Jun 2009 Hi guys,

Good post - a very important issue I think.

This is just one of a plethora of venues in SA which are highly likely to have serious issues after 2010. Even Green Point in Cape Town doesn't have an anchor tenant lined up.

It's yet another example of a country being duped I'm afraid by a federation (FIFA in this case, but the IOC are as bad) into building fistfuls of stadia which they have no chance of filling afterwards.

Some good examples mentioned above, but to be honest, we're not sure about profitability of Wembley yet (a lot of capital to be repaid!) and Stade de France has really struggled without an anchor tenant (needs lots of government subsidy).

Without knowing the ins and outs of the South African market, I would really struggle to believe that the venue could make money without S14 rugby on a regular basis. Had it been my project, I think I'd have certainly looked at an athletics track too, just to offer another few dates a year. How many major musical acts (pop/rock etc) which could fill a stadium and want to play Port Elizabeth?

Unfortunately, it looks as though it's in the middle of nowhere(?) If so - makes it very difficult to attract any ancillary facilities - hotel, conference centre, health club etc to generate extra income. I'd be really interested to see their business plan, that's for sure.

And Simon, the problem is re: replacing another franchise in the S14 - isn't this robbing Peter to pay Paul?
Aussies worth a listen 09:31am on 08 Apr 2009 Totally take your point Iain - I too wish that from time to time we could understand a little bit more about what it takes to be, and what goes on in the head of, possibly the greatest ever golfer.

As you can read from the above posts, many people don't seem to quite grasp the challenges of the media conference as a format, and I'm sure you'll agree that it is a highly limited means of interview designed purely to generate inane quotes to spread throughout the world's media.

However, when all's said and done, there is surely only so much that can be said. What detail/insight are you hoping to address - what are the kinds of questions he evades? For me, you've criticised Woods' performance (which is fair enough) but not really pointed out how you'd like him to do better.
Investment at the shallow end of the pool 09:28am on 01 Apr 2009 Gordon, nice blog. Spot on, and what many of us in the industry have been saying for a very long time.
I hope that we are gradually beginning to win friends in the health sector - we are just starting to see genuine partnerships with Primary Care Trusts which recognise the significance of improving people's activity levels. There is an example in Barking & Dagenhgam where the PCT is investing over £1m to use swimming as a vehicle to improve people's health.
Sadly, as diverjohn points out, there are some limitations. The industry is very split, as there are significant logistical issues, and I'm afraid that this is a classic example of a political initiative which is all polish, press conferences and presentation, which was dreamt up in isolation with little or no forward planning about how it would be implemented - hence his issues with pool programming (which are commonplace).
The point about facility stock is also massively significant - there's little value in creating a generation of swimmers if we're not replacing our swimming pools as fast as they close down.

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