sibiriak

There are 25 players on a hockey team. Two to a room. Uneven number. Therefore one room must contain an odd number of beds. Be thankful it's not 5. Also, if I were the Russian coach, US team rooms would be freshly painted 2-3 days before Russia USA game , to take a page from Scotty Bowman's book.

"Fifty-one billion dollars spent... thus far? On what?" No argument here. Way too much was spent on the Games, when there are (IMO) much higher priorities. But the rooms, the amenities, and the sports venues are sufficiently good (at least from what we know) People carping on those are nitpicking. And I don't see how that TV sketch applies at all. What's the punch line?

I don't see any difference. Small room, two beds, two nightstands, nothing else. If you didn't know which was which, you wouldn't guess which was Sochi.

Vancouver Oly village athletes room http://blu.stb.s-msn.com/i/7E/3F5818FA3829B9A39A7216B1A769.jpg London Oly village athletes room http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/120702-olympicvillage-bed.photoblog600.jpg Beijing Oly village athletes room http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/05/us-olympics-village-idUSPEK27865720080805 I couldn't find contemporary photos of the Lake Placid Oly village rooms, but here's a contemporary description: " The Village has 937 "sleeping rooms"—later to be known as cells—which will be occupied by either two or four Olympians. The rooms have bunk beds, wardrobe and equipment lockers and a writing table and chair for each occupant. There is also a towel bar, a sink and a mirror. The majority of the rooms have one window, a tall, narrow aperture that isn't barred, but has a steel rod running down the middle of the glass to discourage escape—or, in the case of Olympic terrorists, entry. The windows are 8'10" high and 15" wide, and there is some question as to whether or not they can be opened. There also are a number of rooms that have no windows at all. The doors are made of heavy steel with small peep-windows that will be used by prison guards in the Village's next life. The rooms are arranged in two tiers around a large, brightly decorated and carpeted "leisure area." There are sofas and banquettes, and by next winter each of these 20 or so areas will be equipped with vending machines, television sets, games and other entertainment devices. Although the rooms are tiny to the point of incipient claustrophobia—about 10' by 10'—there is an aura of pleasing spaciousness in the lounges. Toilets and community showers are down the hall." Source: http://si.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1094796/index.htm If the rooms were to be "stripped of a lot of their amenities", I can't imagine what they were.

Do look up photos from Lake Placid Olympic village. Or from London and Vancouver for that matter. You will find that the rooms didn't look much different from the picture from Sochi.

You guys do remember that in Lake Placid 1980 Olympics, the Olympic village was in a prison, right?

Yes, some have decided that. And they based their decision on pretty much the same info as the rest of us get from the media. Simply because there isn't any better info to have. Some, however, decided to have their families and friends there. Crosby for one.

And the bulk of the current NHL players grew up with the Olympics having all the top players competing. So my point stands, I doubt there's any significant difference between the current European vs North American NHLers with regards to Olympics. You and I, my friend, grew up long ago in a different world

When you show me pix of unfinished stadiums, unfinished Olympic village, unfinished hotels (that were supposed to house Olympic guests), and unfinished roads between the above, I'll take that seriously. What I saw in the pix you linked, were some random construction sites. They may have nothing whatever to do with the Olympics, as the structures looked neither like sports arenas nor hotels. One of the pix, with the "no gas" caption, was simply a notice that an apartment building will have it's gas turned off from 10 am to 5 pm one day only for pipeline repairs. This is not new construction, and has no relation to the Olympics. Whoever took the pix made it look something that it wasn't in at least this one instance. Therefore I question their trustworthiness with regard to other pix.

Oh no, they are building stuff in Sochi, and it looks like a construction site. Pahlease! I can take photos like that 100 ft from my house and I live in the center of Ohio capital that has no Olympic construction going on. Seriously, all I saw was a construction site for some high rise apartment buildings, what does that have to do with the Olympics?

All NHL players vote for Olympic participation pretty consistently. That suggests to me that its not just a European thing. Also, for a pro athlete, it is usually money>country>>> club Although there were some exceptions when NHL players played for their national teams when they didn't have NHL contracts, and so risking a lot financially, if they got hurt playing in Oly or WC games.

I can't picture a "legitimate and probable" terrorist threat. It is always AFTER the fact, that we say "it was probable". Before the fact, it is always "possible". If enough were known about the plot for it to be "legitimate and probable" wouldn't the security forces use that information to stop the plot?

If that came to pass, they might as well cancel all the games and just play Finland-Sweden for the gold. But Russian NHLers will go. I would bet money that of all Russian NLers who are healthy, 2 out of 3 will go even if the NHL tries to stop them. And if the other countries don't have their top players and Russia does, the gold is Russia's to lose.

Once the players are there, even if a terrorist attack happens, the NHL will have no say in the matter. It would be up to IOC to decide if the Games were to continue, and up to individual countries' Olympic committees to decide if they want to continue taking part. The NHL could only ask nicely at that point. Given the history of the IOC (Munich 1972, Atlanta 1996) the Games would probably go on and the players will most likely want to play on.

Like there's a country where there is no threat of terrorism? Chill out dude. Anyway, if some NHL players want to stay home, let them. As an old Russian song says, "Only real men play hockey, cowards don't play hockey". Sans other NHLers, it's going to be a cakewalk for OV, datsyuk and Co.

You are quite right on the 1st point. My analysis would apply only if the buildings are not sold out every night. Although for an economist, the fact that the building is sold out indicates that the prices may be too low, since there obviously is excess demand for tix.. At higher price, the team might make even more money. On the 2nd point, answer me this: If you are a casual sports fan in Phoenix or Florida, and the hockey tix are free or something close like $5, would you go? If your answer is yes, then the price IS the determinant of attendance and the only question is what is the level and structure of the ticket prices that will give the team the most revenue.

As an economist, I am required to tell you that the laws of supply and demand work everywhere and always As they do here. Unless each and every ticket for all 41 home games is already sold out, there IS a way that lower prices may increase the ticket sales, which is what the hockey teams product really is. Tickets is what they sell. So lower costs increase the willingness of the team to sell tickets (at any given price, since they now make more profit per ticket = ticket price minus now lower average cost), which is known to economists as an increase in supply. And if the team is willing to sell more tickets at any given price, while the public would buy more tix only if the price is lower, then the team will happily lower the price somewhat in order to sell more tickets. Perhaps they will run a promotion for the nosebleed seats or do a volume discount (family night pack) or some such. P.S. And thank you for the idea, I will probably use this example for my next class on supply and demand

Economics 101 suggests that if costs go down, supply increases, and prices fall, unless demand is totally inelastic (that is if the public doesn't care how much the tix cost and would buy the same number at any price) all other things being equal..

So if a team spend less money this season because they didn't have to call up as many injury replacements and pay them NHL scale, while also paying to the injured player, their costs would not decrease and therefore their profits would not increase? I don't follow your logic here.

While Hartley didn't do anything against the rules, he did not do any favors for the image of hockey. Please tell me, why were they fighting right at the starting faceoff? Nothing has happened in the game yet, to react to. Therefore this was deliberate move on Flames part to start the game with a line brawl. This wasn't an MMA meet or a WWF show. This was supposed to be a hockey game. I have nothing against fighting when it is a reaction to something that the opponents did wrong. Or even when it is done to change the momentum of the game. But staged fights like this one disgust me.

NHL needs to fine the Flames coach. That was bush league move to start the game. He might have had his reasons, but this makes the game look bad,

Link to some quantifiable data? And what soccer league do you mean? I'm sure that Italian Spanish English German etc will have different levels of diving. As would NHL/KHL/Swiss/Swedish/Czech etc. I'm sure there are vids of hockey diving as well, the question is how widespread such behavior is, and how to measure the acuteness of pain i different sports. And there are no hockey playing primadonnas? Adjusted for higher fame/popularity/income in major sports, I'd say that hockey has relatively as many examples.

I love Datsyuk, but I'm concerned that the pressure, and the need to talk to the media a lot, go against his character and may become a distraction. We (Russia) really need our top center 110% there. On the other hand, its hard to be mad at Dats even if the team weren't doing well.

How do you know that, absent any evidence, or even any possibility for them to return? As for "notorious", I'd like to see some metrics on how often players dive/embelish in either sport. Again, remember that soccer/basket/baseball players don't wear much in the way of padding.

There's no back substitution in soccer and baseball? You can't go to the locker room get stitched up and return to he game.