Freebies for corporate partners is nothing new in Big Sports. Corporate partners not using their freebies is nothing new either. But the sight of empty seats - and lots of them - has struck a collective raw nerve at the London Games.
23:16 The Secret Diary of a #London2012 Opening Ceremony volunteer - http://t.co/efomfn4o #
22:59 Much excitement in India about winning a bronze medal. I feel both happy and sad about this. #london2012 #
22:12 sounds like I must catch the lunchtime replay of #qanda tomorrow #
22:11 vale Chris Marker 1921-2012, brilliant French film-maker http://t.co/UbQZPAGI #
21:45 What's the point of having a sports #qanda when all the sports fans will be tuned elsewhere? This show should be the Monday after the Games. #
20:35 "Cadel Evans: Powered by Swisse." Uh huh. #
20:08 "Don't hold back, Australia." Brought to you by a foreign vehicle. #
19:48 Must say the Aus men's fours look very impressive. #london2012 #rowing #
19:44 Yes and hasn't Nick D'Arcy been worth the wait? #london2012 #
19:24 Oh. Those obnoxious ads with the walking letters are for the Commonwealth Bank? #ch9 #
19:09 Finally someone in the media admits that finishing 4th is a great result. Karl Stefanovic of all people. #london2012 #
16:29 Boris Johnson wrote this. Any comment is totally beyond me: - http://t.co/fR7raiyN #london2012 #
15:26 My new blog post on #London2012 Day Two focuses on one race. Guess which one? http://t.co/heBXuxNl #
14:31 Danger Danger! I am writing a blog post about the 4x100 relay. #
12:27 Ch10 axes The Circle and shortens its Breakfast show, thereby getting its priorities arse-about. RT @mumbrella: http://t.co/uYUjS3Dr #
11:58 @InnerWestNews always a pleasure :) #
11:23 How our inner-westies (including one J Magnussen) went overnight. #london2012 RT @InnerWestNews: http://t.co/e8eSuFJx #
10:08 Just heard my new favourite ringtone. Sounded like crickets chirping on the train. #
09:14 McDonald's. Proud supporters of those throwing up... er, staying up. #
08:33 My latest #London2012 blog as I pay tribute to NBC and the Austrian women's swimming relay team http://t.co/vW1eI4DX #
08:30 Hello. They qualified for the final. They finished. Fourth. THEY DID NOT FAIL. #london2012 #swimming #mensrelay #
07:37 Wondering how long Mal Brough's preselection will last. #auspol #
06:32 Channel 9 left the medal ceremony before the French national anthem!!! #london2012 #merde #
06:31 Le jour de gloire est arrive! #londres2012 #natation #
06:28 I know the Soviet Union is dead and buried, but those Russian shirts are just rubbing it in. #london2012 #swimming #
06:18 And now let's have another round of National Bad Losership, hey? #london2012 #
Just like any true Weapons of Mass Destruction, Australia's proved to be non-existent.
The NBC is copping an absolute bollocking for sticking to a (for them) tried and trusted formula in covering the Olympic Games - or as Americans insist on calling them, the Summer Olympics. Taking the day's highlights, packaging them up and wrapping them in a journalistic narrative worked in the 20th century. Problem is, we are now a dozen years into the 21st.
20:52 The Socialympics Begin with 9.66m Tweets on Opening Night! | UKSN - The Social Media & Sport Resource http://t.co/tMBBMz3p #london2012 #
19:30 The NBC has returned Australia to its customary location - http://t.co/wpYDjm63 #
19:22 that's three Jeep ads plus that awful "cmon Aussie cmon" trailer #
19:21 ch9 has just shown three version of an especially jingoist Jeep ad in the same break! #
18:09 Austrians all let us rejoice. @nbcolympics #
17:20 In short, Rabbitohs are contenders. Tigers should start thinking about good holiday spots in September. #nrlsouwst #
16:46 Good lord. We won a scrum against the feed! #nrlsouwst #
16:33 Attendance 29863 at the ANZ. #nrlsouwst #
16:23 Ugh. Or for those of you watching on delay, ugh. #nrlsouwst #
15:35 Far be it from me to complain about refereeing. However.... #nrlsouwst #
15:09 Game under way at the ANZ. If you're watching ch9, feel free to delay reading my tweets by an hour. #nrlsouwst #
14:35 Aargh! Is there no escape from Jaimee Rodgers anywhere? #
14:30 At the SOP. Caught the end of the Toyota Cup. Souths came from behind to win 36-30 but a serious injury to their 5/8th Dylan Walker. #nrl #
14:11 On Global Tiger Day the @weststigers playing the @ssfcrabbitohs #nrl (@ ANZ Stadium w/ 13 others) http://t.co/2qOG8t76 #
13:21 The Sydney Olympic cauldron has been re-lit for the duration of the London Games @ Cathy Freeman Park http://t.co/ymC8p5ji #
09:12 Good comeback by Team GB to get within 16 of the Opals. #london2012 #basketball #
08:46 Straight sets win to USA over Australia. Or if you're watching NBC, I wonder how the beach volleyball will go tonight. #london2012 #
08:45 You'd think ch9 would supply their anchorpersons with ip*ds so that they don't need to read score updates off bits of paper. #
08:34 though I personally have no problems if tigers have two special days. #
08:32 Today, July 29, is Global Tiger Day. Not to be confused apparently with International Tiger Day on September 27. #
08:05 Beach volleyball 11pm at night nowhere near an ocean. This is what the Olympics is all about! #london2012 #
07:31 Emily Seebohm. Yolane Kukla. Libby Trickett. What do they get for being part of the 4x100 freestyle team that put Australia into the final? #
07:24 I do love the live match pages on the official #London2012 website. Here's the Opals v GB game: http://t.co/HzoFOktv #
07:16 Good morning. We've won something, I see. #london2012 #
00:50 My Youtube playlist of ten pieces played at the #london2012 opening - http://t.co/SDCK7gNo #
23:51 All that was missing from the #london2012 opening was British police arresting demonstrators. My blog rectifies that - http://t.co/4GXpKLnh #
23:00 Shock as #ch9 shows the gold medal performance of a NON-AUSTRALIAN, named by Karl Stefanovic as "her". #london2012 #
22:45 Having re-read my blog post of the 2008 opening ceremony I could repeat the first 3 paragraphs http://t.co/rC3Ofg0m #
22:17 Catching up slowly. My Day Minus One #london2012 blog post featuring Cate Blanchett as Galadriel - http://t.co/C9EZN00n #
22:15 Sigh. Channel 9 has crossed to the #liveanimalexports. #london2012 #
21:31 I do hope "Howzat!" starts with the bit where KFBP missed out on the TV rights to the tennis. #
21:19 And what exactly, Rabs, are the "Nether Lands"? #london2012 #swimming #ch9 #
21:10 Profile of #london2012's first gold medallist, Chinese shooter Yi Siling http://t.co/n3zkIROT #
20:50 My nomination for #Infographic Of The Year. RT @bipolarbearnz: For those who find Hey Jude too complicated > http://t.co/ab6LNpW5 #
20:42 Progress score: China 1st, Poland 2nd, Rest of the World equal 3rd. #london2012 #
20:32 Must say though that I would never have thought of Yakety Sax/The Benny Hill Theme as an example of zydeco. #
20:30 It's not The Benny Hill Theme and it's not even British. "Yakety Sax" was first a hit for Boots Randolph in 1963 http://t.co/xzxp8069 #
14:49 I will never get over the concept of a musical tribute to the NHS. #
14:07 Now watching the first half hour of the #openingceremony that I missed this morning #
10:30 Oops. Left ch9 on, now a youngish Donald Trump doing a walk-on in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air #
09:55 Any Olympic #OpeningCeremony is irrelevant to sport and indulgence on a grand scale but having said that @DannyBoyleFilm did a brilliant job #
09:44 I can turn the volume down now. The one down note to a brilliant #openingceremony, which was really the warmup for a Macartney concert #
09:42 Macartney is off-key. And besides, he's from Liverpool. #london2012 #
09:40 and finishes with one of my least favourite Beatles songs :( #
09:38 and Pink Floyd. #
09:37 Best Olympic torch lighting ever. Correct decision. #openingceremony #
09:28 who takes the Olympic oath on behalf of the pharmacists? #
09:26 must say I feel the suspense right now over the lighting of the flame #
09:24 Pah. I remember Ron Barassi "walking" on the Yarra with the Commonwealth Games torch in 2006. #
09:23 But always great to see Muhammad Ali, regardless. #
09:22 It makes me a little sad to see these great people being used as bit players for what is now a miserable commercial enterprise. #olympics #
09:20 How did these guys win the raffle to carry the Olympic flag? #
09:18 Her Majesty keeps it short and concise. It's after her bed time too! #openingceremony #
Here is a Youtube playlist of ten of my favourite pieces that were performed at the London Olympic Games opening ceremony.
All I can say is that I am as much in awe of Danny Boyle's craftsmanship as ever. This was the best stadium-based opening/closing ceremony ever, and it should be the last because no one is ever going to have a hope of topping it. Seriously.
If being Australian cricket captain is as important a job as Prime Minister, then carrying the Australian flag at the Olympic opening ceremony must be on the same level as winning a Gold Logie. Well, maybe not quite.
23:20 Have the Olympics become so big that hosting them may become out of reach for democracies? http://t.co/z4G0jzxQ #
20:17 This is so ridiculous. #london2012 RT @mediaguardian: Olympic ban stops Radio 4 shows being streamed internationally http://t.co/Uc9KKD2Y #
19:18 What former NSW premiers are up to: MT @ACA_Players: World's player unions condemn statements of #WADA chairman Fahey: http://t.co/sgS5MQq7 #
18:44 #ff @homeofcricket and @aggerscricket for all your #london2012 archery needs. You know it makes sense #
17:20 Tempted to get up at 3.30am to listen to Barenbohm conduct Beethoven's 9th at @bbcproms then go back to sleep for the #london2012 opening #
16:11 Back to you, Barry. #NDIS #auspol #nswpol #
16:01 And now my #london2012 Day Minus Two blog featuring Kim Jong Un's wedding present and stand up comedy from Boris http://t.co/ICznJSZn #
15:23 Maybe Bailieu is going it alone with a state version of the #NDIS... called hopefully the VDIS #
15:11 The Liberals not running a candidate for Lord Mayor of Newcastle, which will probably help Jeff McCloy's prospects http://t.co/NFjQ6Lho #
15:07 by the way, the hashtag I will be using for the Australian equestrian team is #liveanimalexports #
14:58 I promise to do a daily blog post on the Olympics but unfortunately I am two days behind my self imposed target already #
14:56 Warning: My latest blog post about #london2012 includes a video of George Carlin - http://t.co/gqIXN2h9 #
14:17 @AnyoneButAbbott 4.30 news or 6pm news? #
09:46 Australian exported goods at work: Iran nuclear plants hit by virus playing AC/DC - http://t.co/hEW2vcL9 #
06:59 It's thirty years since Vic Morrow and two children died during shooting of a film scene. - http://t.co/b1iUxZ5t #
06:45 Lauren Jackson does look like Cate Blanchett a bit #
06:12 What, another basketball player carrying the Australian flag? #london2012 #