Olympic Torch Farce : Sun Jun 24, 2012 7:55 pm  

Well, good old Headingley for landing one of the most prestigious things in the sporting calendar ... And then making a total cock-up of it.

1) Given the Torch wasn't due until around 5.47pm, why not have put the kick off back half and hour and saved the fans kicking around for an hour

2) Whilst everyone knew the torch was coming, not least the fact we were told it every 5 minutes during the game, Headingley is a big complex and to actually tell us where and where to go might have been some assistance.

3) Likewise, since we're not short of telling people to stop swearing etc. via the PA, there was a staggering lack of hype of the event actually whilst it happened. 0% announcements and basically half the cricket ground not having a clue if the flame had actually arrived or not.

4) Whilst OK, very few people actually knew what was going on, once landed a visit from the Olympic Flame, it would have been nice to have a bit of organisational effort put in like a lap of the cricket ground or even being carried from the cricket ground to the rugby ground via the tunnel rather than just a quick run down a row of kids, so that the rest of us couldn't see

5) What's the point of having the biggest video screen in the known world or something, if you can't be bothered to switch off the Athletics feed and actually show the rest of us what is going on in the cricket field, because the rest of us can't see because someone's stuck a load of kids out there as a 'guard of honour'

6) If there was a lap of the ground being done, wouldn't it have been good to see some Yorkshire cricket legends (Boycott, Close, Illingworth etc.) there and some Leeds RL legends too. It would have also been great to see the current players (perhaps of both sides) run around behind the torch too ?

Given the Twitter feeds and other comments, there are a load of people very unhappy with the way this 'once in a lifetime' event was handled and made in to a huge anti-climax.

Well done to all concerned

Re: Olympic Torch Farce : Sun Jun 24, 2012 8:00 pm  

We were going to stay and watch but didn't fancy waiting around for 1 1/2hrs. Glad we didn't bother from some of the comments on facebook

Re: Olympic Torch Farce : Sun Jun 24, 2012 8:18 pm  

I'd heard from a friend who's in the police that at events like that they have to leave a certain amount of time between the prior event ending and the torch arriving so as to allow those who aren't staying behind to leave.
As for your other points, I didn't stay to see it but it sounds a tad shambolic

Re: Olympic Torch Farce : Sun Jun 24, 2012 8:24 pm  

I was in two minds. I would have liked to see it but not enough to hang around for an hour or so. Comments from people I know on facebook and twitter who did stay echo your overall dissapointment Admiral

Re: Olympic Torch Farce : Sun Jun 24, 2012 8:31 pm  

G1 wrote:

I was in two minds. I would have liked to see it but not enough to hang around for an hour or so. Comments from people I know on facebook and twitter who did stay echo your overall dissapointment Admiral

That was my dilemma wanted to stay but not enough to wait that long. I was also driving so couldn't even kill the time with a few beers

Re: Olympic Torch Farce : Sun Jun 24, 2012 8:59 pm  

I spoke to Gary Hetherington at the ground after the farce.
He was most unhappy with the event but took great pains to lay the blame fully at the door of YCC whose event it was.
No PA, no coverage on the big screen.
Utter rubbish

Re: Olympic Torch Farce : Sun Jun 24, 2012 9:41 pm  

Not in a good mood ain't our Uncle Gary. His face was thunder on Saturday when he turned up to find the nice shiny new 3G pitch at Kirkstall flooded at one end

Re: Olympic Torch Farce : Sun Jun 24, 2012 9:46 pm  

Its a gold stick with a flame on the end of it in case you missed it and wanted to know, you haven't missed much.

Its a marvellous example of how good media bullshitting can create an event out of a non-event, its got bugger-all to do with the Olympics at all, the idea of parading a symbolic flame around the country for several weeks is a wonderful PR concoction that is supposed to gell the population into forgetting that nearly ten billion quid has been spent on two and a half weeks of sporting events, some of which you actually wouldn't go to the end of your street to watch or would switch the TV off if they were shown individually - how many have actually sat through an archery competition on TV, no, not many, and do you know which league your local badminton club play in ?

Great PR to get so many people out onto the streets - non event though, and they'd better not delay my journey to work in the morning either.

Re: Olympic Torch Farce : Sun Jun 24, 2012 10:03 pm  

Old Feller wrote:

I spoke to Gary Hetherington at the ground after the farce.
He was most unhappy with the event but took great pains to lay the blame fully at the door of YCC whose event it was.
No PA, no coverage on the big screen.
Utter rubbish

Yup, classic YCCC by all accounts
The complete non-use of the screen was particularly bizarre - showing UK athletics trials I guess had some relevance but...

Re: Olympic Torch Farce : Sun Jun 24, 2012 10:14 pm  

McField - you miserable old bugger!

To add my two penneth:

This was a great idea by the powers that be to get the torch to Headingley & then they made a shambles of it.

1) What was the point of allowing people on the rugby ground? The ground staff apparently weren't happy about it. I presumed it must be to watch the torch from there however 15 minutes later everyone was directed to the cricket ground?

2) Completely agree about the lack of PA in the cricket ground and the none use of the screen.

3) Biggest joke of all was the option not to do a lap of the cricket ground when a few 1000 people had stayed to see. It would have been cheered and applauded all the way round - instead it left to a chorus of boos.

Ah well, I'll see what farce Leeds City Council can come up with to compare with this when I take 12 year 6s down at 6am tomorrow!