Good Bye Beijing and Hello London

By any measure the 29th Olympiad has been a hugely successful event, brilliantly organised and executed with the precision of a Swiss…no hang on…a Chinese made watch.  If China wanted to impress; it worked.  The question then for London it seems is how does it follow Beijing?  That was if you recall a common question to pundits and commentators.  The Beijing Olympics was a unique event with a purpose far beyond what a games is normally expected to achieve so as a model for ‘how-to-do-the-Olympics’ it’s not a good example, the Chinese were always going to outspend and out organise everyone else and as we don’t the resources or the reason to match them we need to take a different approach.  Athens or Sydney are probably better examples as the kind of games people should expect from London but I believe with the right approach London 2012 could in it’s own way be as unique as Beijing was.  London is now one of the most culturally diverse places in the world and could probably justify the title of ‘Capital of the World’.  There you go Lord Coe is your theme for 2012…

It can make you ill…

If it moves the photo sensitive can have fits, for the rest of us we just feel slightly queasy.  When I first saw the new logo for the London 2012 Olympics I though someone was having a laugh and then when I read it cost £400,000 someone obviously was.   Ouch!

So how much does an Olympic Games cost?

I need to say up front that London winning the Olympics games in 2012 is a fantastic opportunity to turn London into a truely 21st Century city, besides it was fun to see the looks on the faces of the French when they lost.  Two years on from the announcement the predictable British self flagulation has started as becomes obvious that the initial budget was a little under cooked, although I’m surprised everyone is surprised that staging an Olympic games plus area regeneration costs a bit more than 2.3 billion pounds and you’d have thought by now that we would all understand no large civil engineering project ever sticks to it’s original budget, Channel Tunnel or Wembley anyone?  However with something as important as the Olympics officialdom needs to be more honest and upfront about costs and how it’ll be paid for especially if the intention is to raid the Lottery ‘good causes’ funding.  Which frankly is an appalling prospect.