Opinion : It’s great to see Team GB doing so well at the Olympics in Rio 2016
I don’t know about you but my good self has been captivated by the sporting action taking place at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
For days now I have been virtually living at my neighbours house watching their television and cheering on the success of Team GB. In fact the Olympics are so captivating that yours truly forgot to publish my blog earlier this week, no doubt many people were disappointed but all I can do is apologise.
It’s such a refreshing change to be able to watch track and field athletics, archery, sailing, taekwondo, BMX riding, track cycling from a velodrome, badminton, table tennis and the other multitude of diverse sports that comprise the Olympic games.
Sadly, in my opinion, our normal terrestrial television seems to concentrate far too much football, rugby, cricket and other mainstream sports leading to a predictable and most boring regular schedule of sporting action.
Wouldn’t it be better if the other sports were on TV rather than just churning out the same old?
I fear the commercialisation of sporting events, through the introduction of broadcasters having to pay for the right to broadcast events, has lead to the the narrowing of sports that appear on TV.
In a rush to get subscribers for pay for view TV the broadcasters have concentrated on the big events and turned their backs on the other sports which are just as enthralling if not better.
Give me a 100m race or a shot put competition any day, far more interesting than a football match featuring a few teams all playing in the same league.
If the satellite and subscription channels have gobbled up all the major sporting events why can’t the state broadcasters start showing other sports? Let people pay to see the football if they wish and let us watch the javelin and hammer throw on the licence based service.
Maybe if there were more diverse sports being shown on TV then perhaps people would be spurred on to get out of their arm chairs and have a go themselves thus helping to get the population fitter?
Going back to the Olympics in Rio, it was quite shocking to see all the empty seats in the Olympic Stadium, far different from London 2012. In fact my good self went on the Rio 2016 ticket site yesterday and was horrified to find that seats in all parts of the stadium were readily available with the most expensive costing the equivalent of £250.
I think it’s fair to say that the public in this country are very keen on watching sport, as was shown four years ago in London. Maybe London should bid to host the Olympics again after all we have shown how interested we are in the event.
One thing is for sure, Team GB are still showing the world how good they are indeed at the time of writing they are placed second in the medal table.
What do you think?
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