Post your Olympic doom-mongers, here.

[Superphil]

They increased the budget from the bag of a fag packet £2.4 pre bid to the £9.3bn in 2007. Hasn't changed from there, despite lots saying that it would end up costing £15bn. Big old increase mind, but can't think the extra cost can just be overspend. The £2.4bn budget must have missed out lots of things.

Did you go to the football in the end?

If it was just the one increase, it was a huge increase, and makes me question the validity of the original bid if they were so woefully out on the costs.

Sadly, no, I didn't go to the football, didn't fancy the drive to and from Coventry alone, on a work night :nomates: Managed to sell the tickets to a Honduran family living in Milton Keynes, so worked out fine for them.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Oliver Holt looking like a twat there, and not for the first time.

An honourable mention also needs to go to Andy Parsons of 'Mock The Week', who included a bit in his routine a few years ago in which he encouraged the audience to repeat after him "The Olympics - It's Gonna Be A Bit Shit".

 

[Southwick_Seagull]

Oliver Holt looking like a twat there, and not for the first time.

An honourable mention also needs to go to Andy Parsons of 'Mock The Week', who included a bit in his routine a few years ago in which he encouraged the audience to repeat after him "The Olympics - It's Gonna Be A Bit Shit".

That was Al Murray, which in fairness to him, is playing a character during that routine.

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

With the amount of money they threw at it, it was always going to be a success. I know they say it came in 'on budget' but wasn't that only after they increased the budget a few times?

Damn right they threw money at it, all of £ 9.32 Billion, when the original budget was only £ 4 Billion.

It makes TB's investment into the Amex look completely tin-pot by comparison.

I've got an idea, we confiscate every winning athletes Gold and Silver medal on departure from Heathrow and use it to rebuild the country's Gold and Silver reserves ! Bah, humbug.

 

[mikeyjh]

I had to wait TWELVE minutes for a train back to Clapham Junction after going to Wembley, absolute disgrace. Just to add insult to injury I then had a 30 SECOND wait for a train back to Brighton and had to stand ALL THE WAY to East Croydon.

Took me 1 hr 45 to get home from Stratford after an Athletics finals night, now that is a BLOODY DISGRACE

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

If it was just the one increase, it was a huge increase, and makes me question the validity of the original bid if they were so woefully out on the costs.

Sadly, no, I didn't go to the football, didn't fancy the drive to and from Coventry alone, on a work night :nomates: Managed to sell the tickets to a Honduran family living in Milton Keynes, so worked out fine for them.

To be fair the original costings were done in the last millenium, early work started as far back as 1997. You have to allow for inflation effectively doubling costs every ten years or so, in that scenario for the budget to be doubled over an almost 15 year timescale is not really any surprise to someone who has to estimate project costs.... A lot of the figures would have been firmed up around the time of the Commonwealth games in 2002.

If you can tell me what the price of Concrete and Steel is going to be in 2027 I'd like to hear from you, as you clearly have a special talent none of the rest of us posess ( and I'd like to know next weeks winning lottery numbers whilst we're talking ).

It's almost certain that no-one would have factored the cost of decontamination of an urban wasteland into the project costs, simply because you just don't know what you have to deal with until you start digging. Had it been a greenfield site then much lower expenditure would be necessary, but no doubt the residents of Falmer and the Society of Sussex Downsman would expect their legal fees for a public enquiry to be funded by the taxpayer........

 

[User removed 4]

Did you also have to suffer with annoyingly efficient transport to and from the Olympic Park?

I had to queue for about 10 minutes for the excel/02 cable car in the middle of the day with lots of cheerful people enjoying themselves , even a curmudgeonly tosser like me was caught up in the enthusiasm and good cheer.

 

[fly high]

To be fair the original costings were done in the last millenium, early work started as far back as 1997. You have to allow for inflation effectively doubling costs every ten years or so, in that scenario for the budget to be doubled over an almost 15 year timescale is not really any surprise to someone who has to estimate project costs.... A lot of the figures would have been firmed up around the time of the Commonwealth games in 2002.

think they also seriously under estimated the security bill, seem to recall they took a lot of stick for that but with 7/7 happening the day after we won the bid they probably hadn't budgeted for some of our fellow citizens being lunatic murderers.

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

think they also seriously under estimated the security bill, seem to recall they took a lot of stick for that but with 7/7 happening the day after we won the bid they probably hadn't budgeted for some of our fellow citizens being lunatic murderers.

The attack in Munich in 1972 shows just how attractive a target the Olympics is to a terrorist (or 'freedom fighter') wanting publicity for their cause. However, back in 1972, Black September had a 'logical' motive, whereas Al Qaeda just seem to be a bunch of dangerous nutters determined to shed blood, without making any attempt to extract a concession by force.

You can counter a Black September style operation using intelligence, and define a cost for deploying the relevant Intelligence, Security and Armed Services, whereas 7/7 shows that you cannot budget for 'The Enemy Within'.

It's a sorry state of affairs that 40 years on after Munich, the issue of Palestine and Israel is still unresolved, and opinions are as hardened and entrenched as ever.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Damn right they threw money at it, all of £ 9.32 Billion, when the original budget was only £ 4 Billion.

It makes TB's investment into the Amex look completely tin-pot by comparison.

I've got an idea, we confiscate every winning athletes Gold and Silver medal on departure from Heathrow and use it to rebuild the country's Gold and Silver reserves ! Bah, humbug.

It has already been reported that tourists have spent £460 billion in London in the past fortnight.

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

It has already been reported that tourists have spent £460 billion in London in the past fortnight.

The figure reported by Visa is £ 450 Million, NOT billion - there's a huge difference ( a factor of x 1000 ).

£ 450 Million = £ 450,000,000

£ 450 Billion = £ 450,000,000,000

To put it in context £ 9.32 Billion would have paid for 100 Amex Stadiums. That's a swanky new ground for EVERY team in the football league. Or if you prefer, it's £ 150 for every man, women and child in the country ( not just the London populous ). Or nearly ( but not quite ) FIVE new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy ( including the aircraft ! )

Now I'm not denying that the Olympics is a hugely prestigous event to host, but for that kind of spend it really has to deliver one hell of a legacy........ ( and if it's West Ham fans moaning about how rubbish their view is from sitting behind a running track, well they've only got to remember what it was like from the away end at Withdean and blame their directors for wanting to move there ).

The spend reported by VISA is only around 5% of what this country spent putting the Olympics on.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

The figure reported by Visa is £ 450 Million, NOT billion - there's a huge difference ( a factor of x 1000 ).

£ 450 Million = £ 450,000,000

£ 450 Billion = £ 450,000,000,000

to put it in context £ 9.32 Billion would have paid for 100 Amex Stadiums. That's a swanky new ground for EVERY team in the football league. Or if you prefer, it's £ 150 for every man, women and child in the country ( not just the London populous ).

the spend reported by VISA is only around 5% of what this country spent putting the Olympics on.

My apologies, what's a few million (ok a thousand) between friends?

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

..LONDON (AP) — The Olympics brought less tourist money to recession-hit Britain than businesses had hoped for, a trade group said Monday, with a majority of tourist companies reporting losses from last year.

A survey of more than 250 tour operators, hoteliers and visitor attractions found that tourist traffic fell all over Britain, not just London, said UKinbound, a leading trade association representing British tour operators and other businesses dependent on tourists.

"A lot of people thought London would be very busy and very expensive at this time," said Mary Rance, the group's chief executive. "We weren't completely surprised but we were a bit disappointed that (the Olympics) seem to have had an impact around the U.K., not just London."

The group's survey said that of its members, 88 percent reported some losses during the games compared to the same period last year. The businesses reported that visitor numbers were down by 10 to 30 percent compared to last year, Rance said.

Officials are still tallying up the total number of tourists who came to — or avoided — London this summer. The capital normally sees about 1.5 million tourists on average in August, and it's not yet clear if that is up or down this year.

The official visitor figures won't be available until September.

Tourism officials say that international Olympics visitors to London, including athletes, officials and tourists, totaled about 300,000. Domestic spectators from Britain made up the majority of people visiting games venues.

Restaurants and shops have complained that these games visitors did not spend as much money on food and shopping as typical summer tourists.

"The people who came to the games really didn't do very much sightseeing, didn't do very much shopping, didn't do very much eating out," said Miles Quest, a spokesman for the British Hospitality Association.

London's hotels have hit about 80 percent occupancy, which is not higher than typical August rates, Quest added.

Rita Beckwith, chief executive of City Cruises, an operator of sightseeing tours on the Thames, said the Olympics period had been "deeply disappointing."

There were some positive signs. Visa, the only credit card accepted at the Olympics venues, reported that international visitors to Britain spent more than 450 million pounds ($705 million) on their cards during the first week of the games, up by 8 percent on the same time last year.

Around 12.7 million pounds were spent on Visa cards in London restaurants last week, an increase of almost 20 percent on a year ago.

London and Partners, the company that oversees the tourism industry in the capital, said it had expected the lower visitor numbers this summer. But it stressed that it was more important to focus on the long-term effect the Olympics can have in bringing in potential tourists.

"We are now working with (tour operators) to promote the legacy of the games and to turn the millions of viewers into visitors, who can come to the capital and experience the new attractions and exciting places they have seen on their screens," it said in a statement.

The fact is the Olympics attracts sports fans who want to be at the venues watching sports, not the average tourist, who hears about the potential travel and security issues, and decides to avoid the venues as much as possible. However, it also attracts a huge global TV audience who may already be considering London as their next tourist destination.....

I expect there will be benefits, but they are yet to be realised, and so cannot be quantified.

 

[ROSM]

The original (original) budget was 2.7bn but this didnt include VAT or security. This was estimated in 2000. By 2004 it had risen to 4.8bn at the formal bid stage. This was then raised to 9bn (including 2.3bn contingency and 2bn from the lottery) in 2007. The government claims the total expenditure is oncourse to be at least 500m below this

However - what these figures dont cover is that Sydney in 2000 cost 7bn, Athens in 2004 will admit to 9bn but it is believed it actually cost 14bn, Beijing was publicly stated at 15bn but was probably much more.

What the contingency fund allowed the games to do was to increase the security costs by 300m, increase signage, barriers, footbridges etc by c100m, escalate the speed of construction with no panics and allowed the public purse to fund the athletes village and international braodcase centre (total cost of 1.5bn both of which have now had deals agreed which total just under 800m for future use) without the public panic and furore that normally surround games expenditure.

Once the firm cash comes in for new owners of the purpose built facilities the 8.5bn spent will see c1.5bn further back to the fund. take away the lottery money and that means the total final bill will be c5bn of which a large chunk will be VAT paid out. This doesnt include income from tier 1 and 2 sponsors and ticket sales.

And that compares to c300bn spent every year on the NHS and welfare state.

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

Even £ 5 billion is still a huge sum for what is a 4 week long event - think back to what the 'legacy' is from the 1908 and 1948 games, and there really isn't much now left to show for either event ( now I know it's the nature of London to demolish and rebuild as a matter of course, and we've had two World Wars in the meantime ), however, White City Stadium - gone, the old Wembly stadium - gone. The Wembley arena is still there, and using existing venues like Lords, Wimbledon, Earls Courst, the Dome and Eton Dorney, was a stroke of genius, but we must ensure that the Olympic park is now used to it's maximum potential, because in the course of time, it will outlive all of us, and still be there for future generations long after we're all pushing up the dasies and Ussein Bolt's records are just faded yellowing newspaper cuttings in a scrapbook.

 

[goldstone]

I was one of the doom-mongers. I never supported London's bid and never wanted the games here. I watched the opening and closing ceremonies, but nothing else.

Having said that all credit to the organisors for getting it right.

HOWEVER, with a budget of £10bn they had no excuse whatsoever for not getting it right.

And just think how many very worthwhile projects we could have spent £10bn on.

In my opinion the games should have a permanent home in Greece.

 

[goldstone]

A lot of different cost figures on here:

"The Games came in at a revised budget of £10 billion, although the Centre for Economics and Business Research also said that people who stayed at home or took holidays during the Olympics cost the economy £1bn — taking the total cost of the Games to £11bn"

 

[ROSM]

A lot of different cost figures on here:

"The Games came in at a revised budget of £10 billion, although the Centre for Economics and Business Research also said that people who stayed at home or took holidays during the Olympics cost the economy £1bn — taking the total cost of the Games to £11bn"

The figures I'm quoting come from the Government official figures quoted at the Treasury Select Committee

 

[Pavilionaire]

That was Al Murray, which in fairness to him, is playing a character during that routine.

You're right although Parsons came out with the same line:

"We had the dome for the millenium ... and it was a bit shit. We remodelled Wembley stadium ... and it was a bit shit. Now we've got the Olympics, I think it's pretty fair to say ... 'It's going to be a bit shit.'"