The first city to have been chosen three times to host the Olympic Games, London will be a place of intense interest the world over come the summer of 2012. London won out over New York City, Paris, Moscow, and Madrin in the 2005 bid during the course of the 117th IOC meeting in Singapore. The motto for the impending games is a profoundly positive and simple “Live as one”, and it is likely that a total of 205 countries and 18,500 athletes will attend and will be staying in purpose built Accommodation in London
London’s new Olympic Park will be constructed in Stratford, and a large variety of other venues have been planned, including already existing buildings and fresh ones erected to cater to the games in London. Nonetheless, the city is wary of leaving behind any expensive, otherwise useless venues once the Olympics have concluded, and organizers of the event have decided to create facilities that will either be useable by Londoners at the closing of the games or can be shipped off to other parts of the country for utilization elsewhere.
Right now, planners of the games in London expect that some eight million tickets will be made available for the 2012 Olympics and one and half million made available for the Paralympic Games. Ticket orders were made available from March 2010, but the actual sale date won’t be until the spring of 2011. At this time, in order to keep traffic manageable, anybody who purchased a ticket will have free and unlimited use of the London public transportation network. It is probable that 82% of Olympic tickets and 63% of the Paralympic tickets will be purchased overall.
Two entirely different logos have been created for these Olympic Games. One, produced by Kino Design, was put out specifically for the early bidding process, and the second, made by Wolff Olins and costing an astounding 400,000 pounds, is now the official emblem of the 2012 Olympics. The design features an abstract representation of the year “2012” with the Olympic Rings in the zero and has been rendered in four different colors: orange, magenta, blue, and green. Overall, public opinion of the logo has been disappointingly low, but merchandise sporting the brand has sold well since its first appearance in 2008.
During its bid, London elected to feature a total of 26 games with 38 disciplines, which has become the final number, and the Paralympics will have 20 sports and 21 disciplines all together. Though the city’s bid initially included a roster of 28 sports, the IOC voted to drop baseball and softball. They will stay Olympic sports, though they will not be played again until the IOC verdict changes.