London Olympics - Are They Really Worth It?

The countdown continues. Seven days until the opening ceremonies take place for the 2012 London Olympics.

Having lived through the fiasco of the 1976 Montreal Olympics, it was fascinating to spend a week in London recently whilst attending Wimbledon, both touring the facilities and reading about all the issues and problems in the local and international press.  I began to wonder if my original disappointment at Toronto's loss of the 2008 Olympics (which by all rights it should have won over the political choice of Beijing) was justified. 

Let’s see, from an estimated deficit 7 years ago of $2.8 billion pounds, to a current shortfall of over $11 billion and counting, to the latest fiasco relating to security for the games, as reported in Monday's International Herald Tribune ( http://bit.ly/O7uBFY ), the London games are having their share of serious issues.

The original private security guard contract for over 100 sites contemplated only 2,000 guards. The contract later ballooned to 10,400 guards and a $440M pound contract with G4S as a result of American concerns of terrorism.

The latest scandal revolves around the poor quality of the guards.  It seems many of them can't speak English and missed weapons being smuggled in on secret tests.  Many trainees were found sleeping in class.  It seems the army is going to now supply an additional 3,500 troops and G4S will absorb the cost.  It now expects to lose over $80M pounds as a result.  Talk about a fiasco!

And it appears the Olympic Stadium is in danger of becoming a white elephant like Montreal's Big O - unless the track and field tracks are removed, it cannot properly function as a football stadium.  It is destined to become another $16M a year burden to be maintained by the City.  The sale/lease has been retendered 2 or 3 times and its ultimate user (which logically must be a football team), if any, is still up in the air.  ( http://bit.ly/NY4jWs )

And lets not talk about traffic, road and business closures.  With 30 miles of designated lanes for buses, taxis and Olympic vehicles, many businesses are shutting down for over 2 weeks.  I cannot imagine the traffic chaos in a city that is bumper to bumper at the best of times, and the economic cost to the economy (hopefully somewhat offset by the influx of tourist dollars and construction).  Interestingly, Air Canada has a deep discounted seat sale to London for July 15-August 30, 2012 trips because no one is going other than those with tickets (which were impossible to buy and outrageously priced).

And now Spain wants to push its Madrid bid for the 2020 Olympics as a means to stimulate growth and create 30,000 jobs in a country where unemployment for the over 25 crowd is 52%. At the same time, Spain says it will do it economically using and merely expanding existing facilities.  Really?  Italy dropped out because of the current economic crisis, but Spain knows better.

Olympic Stadium 

More on the Olympic Village which looks like an army barracks, in my next blog.

So, with the Pan Am Games looming in 3 years here in Toronto, I hope we have things under control here.  Stay tuned. 

Olympic Aquatic Facility