Olympics - £900 M OVER ALREADY

Ledge

Shock horror.

But to Red Ken's credit , for once, he has said no more dough from Council tax payers.

We truly are a rip off country.

Even the bubbles did it at a fraction of the costs our is being quoted at. Admittedly they used donkeys etc ( I am joking) and albanians according to my greek father in law anyway.

Tavern

Sounds like another wembley,these people who set the budgets for these schemes are a joke

Ormiston_Addick

Oh dear, down here in Oz the New South Wales government boasted long and loud that the Sydney Olympics in 2000 would make a profit for the state and leave them with all of this incredible infrastructure that the people could make use of once the games were over.
Well, once the games were over and all the back-slapping about the "Greatest games ever" had died down the NSW government revealed (on a Friday afternoon, of course) that the games had losts around AUD$2.3 million (UKStg1 billion) and that, ahem, the government would "make good" on the shortfall. From everyone's taxes. You have been warned!!!

Barn Door Varney

Maybe it's just me, but I resent having to pay anything towards the Olympics. I couldn't give a toss about the Olympics and really wouldn't have been bothered if they had been awarded to Paris.

Curb_It

ormiston? ausie dollar 2.3 million equals sterling 1 billion?

Ormiston_Addick

Sorry, Curb it, Aussie$2.3 BILLION, I meant to say!!!!

Not only that, but all the pools, tracks, cycling velodromes that the NSW taxpayers were supposed to "benefit from" after the Olympics for free have all imposed significant admission charges. So, in effect, people have to pay for them twice. The Olympics are the biggest rort between governments and the construction industry that you will ever find.

Badger

Things can only get better.

Charlie Block

[cite]Posted By: Barn Door Lisbie[/cite]Maybe it's just me, but I resent having to pay anything towards the Olympics. I couldn't give a toss about the Olympics and really wouldn't have been bothered if they had been awarded to Paris.

I couldn't give a toss about it either. I think Montreal only just finished paying off the debt for their Olympics at the backend of last year, some thirty years after they threw their party for the world. The so called sports minister Richard Caborn spouts the usual nonsense about how good the event will be for Britain and boasts the great sporting facilities the country will have. The thing is quite a few of Mr Caborn's constituents remember the 1991 World Student Games and were paying for it for years after the event. At the time of the last General Election I was living in his consituency and I voted for one of his opponents.

InspectorSands

Shame "going to the dogs" isn't an Olympic sport, eh?

Tell you what, we'll archive these moans, and in 5 1/2 years time when the Olympics pass off alright, you'll all probably still be moaning because they haven't emptied the bins in Sidcup.

There's too much at stake for anyone to allow the Olympics to be a failure. And there's still a long way to go yet.

Rothko

As the Mayor said a couple of days ago, the increase in land value in Stratford will cover a lot of the costs, and Olympics tend to make massive profits.

Anyway, people might learn to enjoy things in this country once in a while, it'll be great