The Olympics

[therealjr]

It's been suggested on another thread that a lot of money has been 'wasted' on the London 2012 Olympics.
What's everyones view?

[k4blades]

I almost posted the same question the other day about the High-Speed 2 rail line. Answer in both cases from me is that I don't know, time will tell.
Those in favour of the Olympics, (being publicly funded), say that it leads to long term benefits such as jobs, etc, long after the event....but I've seen several reports lately that say that has never been the case in the past, often the sites just end up as "big white elephants" so I suppose time will tell......(and even then, the financial benefits will be London based).
 

[Pete]

My view? Utter and complete waste of money - everything about them - who gives a toss whether someone from one country can run faster than someone from another.

And given the hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs/homes etc, I think it is an obscene waste of money!

Bring it on!

[therealjr]

How has the money been 'wasted'?
You talk about people losing their jobs?
How many construction workers, steel manufacturers, concrete works, landscapers, flooring companies, haulage firms etc etc  has it kept in business? How many people will work this summer providing goods and services around the Olympics? How many people will continue to work in the future running and maintaining the facilties?
How much income will be generated by visitors this year and in subsequent years from events held in world class stadia and venues?
I will concede a lot of money has been spent.
But wasted?

[Fly]

I'd hate to think how much some individuals will be making out of this thing.

[therealjr]

Individuals will always take advantage of something like this. Some will be Entrepreneurs others will be rip off merchants. When a 'trader' can appear on TV and say he can take advantage of a recession to make money anything is possible.

[Slacker]

I would have preferred the World Cup which would have created jobs and made money due to the amount of foreign visitors coming to the matches. The whole country would have shared it not just London (with a few minor exceptions)

[therealjr]

The World cup might have made tourism money for the rest of the country but it's unlikely that more than one new stadium would have been built so the construction knock on effects wouldn't have been there nor would the ability to hold future events.
Don't forget that as a result of having the new Olympic stadium the 2017 World Athletics championships will be held in London bringing in further money to the UK economy.

[Alsatian]

Think I may just tune in for the Womens' Beach Volleyball event!! 

[Pete]

I'm with Dogboy

http://bit.ly/LvQnDa

[Fly]

PM'ed you both 

[Pete]

 

[simondjuk]

Apparently they are about £500m under budget.  What they dont tell you is they underestimated the cost to start with so thats 4x the original.  So they arent really under budget.