Only in England??

[David Levene]

The present expectable denials and dementis are as flimsy as they can get; and as shooters we should all thank the journalists for their early warning, not scold them.

Oh I'm sorry, I forgot that journalists only write the truth.

When newspapers don't defend a story that has been described by the London Mayor's Commissioner for Sport as "completely wrong" and by the Olympic Organising Committee as "misleading" then I tend to treat it with some suspicion.

[Hemmers]

Hoey's article is very good; her weak dementi however sounds not credible. It a typical case of: "I am glad we fixed it immediately, and (!) it has never happened, and nobody thus wants to be responsible."

Alexander

You're saying you believe everything you read in the papers? That's as dangerous as believing everything they say in Parliament.
There was one report, and one report only - from the Evening Standard (who have a record of defending their stories and claims if they are actually defensible).


I was always sceptical (see my post on page 1). Had there been an actual announcement or release from LOCOG, I would have expected to see it reported in at least one more place. A single source cannot be considered to be entirely reliable. But there was nothing. Not on BBC News, BBC Sport, nor even a little tucked away story from the Times, Telegraph or any other paper. Noone anywhere knew anything about this supposed embargo on shooting tickets.
EVERY SINGLE REPORT on the supposed ban was a repost of the original Evening Standard article.

Further to that, there were no actual quotes from anyone who actually had anything to do with it. Just shooters and anti-gun lobbyists responding to the story, whom presumably had been called by the Evening Standard journalist and told "Are you aware that they've exempted shooting events from the Ticketshare programme?". Nowhere is a politician, or Boris, or a LOCOG spokesperson actually quoted.


Now unusually amongst politicians, I trust Kate Hoey. She does what is right for her constituents, and what is right for common sense. She has no compunction about rebelling against the party line (which she actually did rather frequently when her party were in power). She is up to her neck in the shooting sports and country activities.

If she says this was bad reporting, I am inclined to beieve her. The story always had limited credibility to start with.

[GaryD]

Would we have even got the Olympics if the truth had been told in the original submission?

The range will be built at a cost of £50M and then pulled down after the event.

That was certainly known. Woolwich was named in the original bid document after the IOC said that Bisley was not acceptable (too far from the village).

If Bisley is not acceptable (too far) how come the Womens football is being held in Cardiff over 100 miles away

[David Levene]

Would we have even got the Olympics if the truth had been told in the original submission?

The range will be built at a cost of £50M and then pulled down after the event.

That was certainly known. Woolwich was named in the original bid document after the IOC said that Bisley was not acceptable (too far from the village).

If Bisley is not acceptable (too far) how come the Womens football is being held in Cardiff over 100 miles away

Ask the IOC.

Nobody said that no sports could be away from the village, but some (like shooting) were originally specified in the bid document as being close to the village.

As someone who goes to Bisley a lot I am delighted that the Olympics aren't going to be there. Running the facilities post-Games would have bankrupted any organisation who took it on.

[Alexander]

It may serve to remind that the BSSB (Bavarian Sport Shooting Association) actually coughed up the money to BUY the Munich-Hochbrück 1972 Olympic shooting facility finally, which was only a few years ago.

Doesn't look like suicide to me, and they are astute calculators. But I have no sufficient comparative overview to see why it is so different elsewhere.

Alexander

[David Levene]

It may serve to remind that the BSSB (Bavarian Sport Shooting Association) actually coughed up the money to BUY the Munich-Hochbrück 1972 Olympic shooting facility finally, which was only a few years ago.

Doesn't look like suicide to me, and they are astute calculators. But I have no sufficient comparative overview to see why it is so different elsewhere.

They have certainly made a success of the facility but I think there are a couple of major differences between us.

1) Shooting is a much bigger sport in Germany than it is here in the UK. You only have to look at the quantity and quality of facilities outside of the major cities to see that.

2) Munich is the home of the ISSF. As such the Munich facility is (virtually) guaranteed to get a World Cup every year. A retained fee of of 165 euro per event per shooter and 50 euros per team official can be a nice financial boost (even after allowing for costs).

At Bisley we already have the facilities left from the Commonwealth Games in 2002. The 10m & 50m facilities are so under-used for shooting that they have been forced to take in other activities such as roller hockey, roller disco, judo, model car racing, gymnastics, dancing, indoor bowls, weddings, exhibitions, conferences, etc etc etc. Even with the income generated from those, the building has all but bankrupted the association running it.

[remmy223]

At Bisley we already have the facilities left from the Commonwealth Games in 2002. The 10m & 50m facilities are so under-used for shooting that they have been forced to take in other activities such as roller hockey, roller disco, judo, model car racing, gymnastics, dancing, indoor bowls, weddings, exhibitions, conferences, etc etc etc. Even with the income generated from those, the building has all but bankrupted the association running it.

Unfortunate it is.. But then the governing bodies in the UK only have themselves to blame. if it wasn't for their piss poor ability to organise and promote and support from the ground up instead of slapping them selves on the back thinking they are doing a good job and congratulating themselves on making money disappear, we might have a solid structure of promotion training coaching etc. In fact if it wasn’t for a few good men and women at the lower levels shooting in the UK would be all but gone! Perhaps its time to take a look at how other countries like the US or closer to home, say, Germany and other Benelux countries manage to make the sport thrive whilst the UK pool of shooters is constantly shrinking through lack of knowledge and promotion of the sport.

[Alexander]

Precise analysis.

Remmy is 150 % right. I wish he were not, but it is as it is. :-(

Alexander