In Miami, Greg Cote wrote under the header, "U.S. Olympic Committee Loses Mind, Outfits American Athletes With Dorky Berets." Cote: "I tried to think of headwear that might be even more embarrassing for U.S. athletes to wear and the only thing I could come up with was either those pointy green Robin Hood caps with the feather or the red plant pots the band Devo wore" (MIAMIHERALD.com, 7/11). In DC, Maura Judkis wrote the product image of Team USA's Opening Ceremony uniforms "reveals something for everyone to nitpick, whether it's the gauche oversize pony logo or the schoolmarmish length of the skirts with those anachronistic bobby socks." The berets "seem to have a militaristic, rather than Gallic, inspiration" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 7/11).
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: In London, Jacquelin Magnay noted LOCOG "promised at least half of the hundreds of thousands of unwanted Olympic tickets returned from sponsors and foreign countries will be offered for sale to the UK public." Reports yesterday indicated that sponsors and overseas countries "were getting first option on any ticket returns, including those most highly sought after by the UK public, in a secret behind-the-scenes ticket sale." A LOCOG spokesperson said "'it was only right' that overseas countries which bought the tickets through their National Olympic Committees, sponsors and rights-holding broadcasters, had the chance to buy and sell tickets within their original allocation" of 12% of all Olympic tickets. The spokesperson said, "We will not leave them on the (sponsors') portal for ages if other countries (or sponsors) don't buy them. There is no chance they will loiter around for ages, we will get them into the hands of the British public" (London TELEGRAPH, 7/11).
MONEY MAKER: In London, Andrew Clark notes Goldman Sachs "expects the Games to provide a temporary spike of 0.3 to 0.4 percentage points in GDP during the third quarter of the year as visitors flock to London and shops, pubs and hotels reap rewards." Goldman European Economist & Exec Dir Kevin Daly predicted that the economic gain "from a positive image projected of London, from the sale of Olympic facilities and local regeneration, would beat the Government's forecast, which is that [US$13.12B] of investment will yield [US$20.07B] of benefit." Daly: "I would argue that the Government's estimates, on balance, are likely to be too low" (LONDON TIMES, 7/12).
