The London Observer (no formal relation to this blog, though we like them) reported Sunday that "London has in effect abandoned hope of winning the 2012 Olympic Games, because it is so far behind Paris," according to "key members of the bidding team."

The growing Paris consensus is obviously bad news for New York. So is the apparent British surrender. That's because one theory had the American bid winning after London and Paris split the initial vote.

The story only mentions New York in passing, but has more bad news for Mike and Dan: "Another IOC member said that Paris's actual investment in sports facilities such as the Stade de France had impressed them, especially when compared to London's 'virtual bid' of architects' plans, scale models and promises to build an array of new sports facilities in the East End."

The bad news is expected on July 6, just in time for three months of repetition by Freddy Ferrer.

NYC2016, anyone? Anyone?

UPDATE: Brian Hatch, a critic of the Olympic plan, has some evidence that NYC2016 isn't in the cards.