Erieversible

Today our lives revolved around the 7th Annual Great Lakes Open Taekwondo Championship.  It was held at Penn State Behrend and the 10-year old was competing in 3 events as well as involved in the “Tiger” demonstration team.  It was always going to be a full day, and so it proved.

The demonstration team practiced late yesterday and were there early this morning for last minute practice.  I’m told they were very good (I was on taxi duty with the 5-year old) but I can’t help feeling that far too much effort went into the demonstration routine and not enough into preparing the students for the competition itself.

In the end our son finished 2nd in the standard forms competition, for which he won a trophy.  He finished 2nd in the Grand Champion Poomsae competition, but that’s a winner takes all style event so he came away with nothing except the tiredness to show for it.  Finally, he won a bronze medal in the sparring.  All in all a satisfactory end to his first experience of competitive events in the US.  While the basics seemed to be similar to other competitions he has experienced, the sparring areas were much smaller than used in the UK - I’ll have to check which (if either) is the regulation size.

The early evening was spent updating the taekwondo section of his website, so now he can send emails to his friends at his Isle of Man club and refer them to the details!

This won’t mean much to the US readers, but…

St. Helens 16 - 24 Leeds Rhinos

Yes, while the US readers / viewers are getting into the American Football season the Rugby League season is ending with the 2008 Grand Final.  Leeds, going into the match as underdogs after a 38-10 defeat by the Saints two weeks ago, put up a tremendous display to retain their title from 2007.

Luckily the BBC website had a continuously updated text feed, and I had my iPhone, so I stayed in touch with the very tense match throughout the afternoon here.

There is nothing more important to mention for today.  Yes, we went to the craft fair at Zem Zem Shrine Club.  Yes, the kids had dance class, taekwondo and swimming (not all at the same time).  But none of that matters.  Leeds are grand Champions again and will have the chance to retain their World Champions title at the start of 2009.  Well done Rhinos!

No, I haven’t been out in the sun too long.  I was driving around today and bemoaning the acreage tied up in unused lots, both in residential and business areas.  Large commercial buildings, surrounded by acres of car park, going to waste.  That thought collided with a background thought that had been going on about the 2012 Olympics in London entitled “where are they going to put everything”.  And suddenly it all came together!

London 2012 is likely to be the first example of a low budget Olympics.  By 2020 (the first year that, realistically, Erie will be able to bid for - I have thought this through, you know!) the cost of the Olympics will be reduced to affordable levels.  This cost reduction can be made even greater by some careful planning (read on…I’ve started on that planning).

The 2020 Erie Olympics (20EO - there’s the basis for a logo already - use the one on the right and that’s $800,000 saved before we start) can be essentially virtual.  There’s no need to build massive facilities, as spectators will not attend.

Judging by the empty seats at every Beijing event the Chinese were attempting this move but didn’t quite make it.  Erie has another 12 years to get it right.  No spectators means far less infrastructure requirements.  Hotels and suchlike will still make money as athletes and coaches will still need to attend so we’ll probably need an extra couple of hotels by 2020 - quite doable.

With no spectators the facilities can simply be sized at the minimum for competition.  Clearly some allowance will have to be made for athletes and coaches but this should be planned to meet the needs of Erie from 2020 onwards.  A quick calculation suggests the empty and derelict lots around the city are ample acreage for the facilities that will need to be built.  With sponsorship being where lots of the money is each venue should be ’sold’ accordingly - no ‘Bird’s Nest’ malarkey here, just the ‘BK Arena’ and suchlike.

The Chinese (again, ahead of the game on this point) used pre-recorded sequences for some of the opening ceremony.  With no spectators this can be extended to the full opening and closing ceremonies being pre-filmed.  That means 12 years to produce a couple of films of fireworks and dancers.

Anyone worried about the first real deadline of such a bid, the need to put on a display at the closing ceremony in 2016, need only look at the London display in Beijing.  A bus, a few umbrellas and some funky music.  Surely Erie can top that with 8 years to prepare?  Enough said.

Once you start thinking about the natural facilities already in place (the lake, anyone?) the opportunities for keeping costs down are endless.  There’s even another few years to figure out how to go fully virtual, without any athletes.  I suggest a delegation visits Beijing as a matter of urgency as I’m sure they would have liked to managed without all those pesky foreigners for their Olympics and they must have done a lot of the initial brainstorming in this area - let’s learn from the experts!

(It’s been one of those days, but you have to admit, the more you think about it…..