"Roland Perry" wrote in message

In message , at 13:21:10 on
Thu, 1 Dec 2011, Recliner remarked:
Aren't many of the events staged late in the evenings, to suit US
TV schedules?

Basketball is one of the later sports, so you may be correct.

And then the crowds of spectators may have a slow, longish
walk to get to the station.

If the event ends at midnight I don't rate people's chances getting
a 1am train home, even from KX or St Pancras.

Presumably out-of-towners attending late events will be staying
overnight in London (or plan to get early morning trains out).
Getting back to the centre will allow them to get to central London
hotels or possibly use the Tube (which will also have a later
closing time during the Olympics).

I doubt that hotels will be either available or affordable. We are
only talking about people living 1-2hrs from London, but even their
enhanced Olympic-week service ends a bit too early, IMHO.

Hotels may be more available than you think -- most of London's normal
tourist activity will cease during the Olympics, and there certainly
won't be much unrelated business travelling to London. For example,
there's talk of West End theatres going dark for a few weeks next
summer. So hotels expecting a bonanza of additional demand at jacked-up
prices may be in for a shock.

In message , at 14:30:53 on
Thu, 1 Dec 2011, Recliner remarked:
I doubt that hotels will be either available or affordable. We are
only talking about people living 1-2hrs from London, but even their
enhanced Olympic-week service ends a bit too early, IMHO.

Hotels may be more available than you think -- most of London's normal
tourist activity will cease during the Olympics, and there certainly
won't be much unrelated business travelling to London. For example,
there's talk of West End theatres going dark for a few weeks next
summer. So hotels expecting a bonanza of additional demand at jacked-up
prices may be in for a shock.

I still think that extending your stay by a day and costing at least
£100 is a bit of steep penalty for choosing to go to an event ending at
midnight where the expected trains to get you home are in fact not
running late enough to be useful.
--
Roland Perry