Given the obscene amount of money that funded the Olympic games in Beijing, how realistic will it be?

Question

to fund London 2012 on a budget of £9 billion. Has Boris Johnston underestimated the true cost of hosting the games, and will he be able to keep his spending within his original budget. I think not. opinions please?

Answer 1

I thought they'd already gone over budget.  The whole thing will be a disaster, especially for the residents of London.

Answer 2

I'm not sure that Boris has any control over the Olympic budget as a whole, it is a national expenditure but hosted in London. The sailing is in Weymouth. What influence does Boris have there? None. I'm sure that he is involved in the organisation though.

Answer 3

We are just a small country that does not matter. Our leaders and some of our citizenry think we are some big power that can strut around the world stage with everyone looking up to us. We love self-deception and indulge ourselves all the time. All our institutions are pompous anachronisms, especially the BBC which is like a leech sucking licence payers dry. We will stage a shabby Olympics in 2012 but we will spin out some PR rubbish to console ourselves and fool the world that we are doing well. They won't be fooled.

Answer 4

Despite Boris's assertion, and that of the government, I doubt very much if the Olympics will come in on budget.

Answer 5

It will go over budget, no question.

Just world economy will do that.

But London is NOT going to try to upstage Beijing, it would be impossible.

The British should make it British, not some tech fest.

Beijing was impressive, no doubt, but lets get back to the point of the Olympics.

Answer 6

The United Kingdom could never compete with that kind of display. They will need to economise in certain areas - but then again, would Britain EVER have a display like Beijing, even if they had all the money in the world? It's simply not the stiff upper lip British way. It will be exciting I'm sure, but a lot more conservative, as is British values.

Answer 7

Of course they will be over budget, well over budget, and the opening ceremony will probably be rubbish.  No offence but Brits don't have much imagination when it comes to pageants and spectacles like the opening ceremony seems to demand.

On the bright side, that should mean that the opening ceremony SHOULD be fairly simple and inexpensive - but don't count on it.  

Answer 8

9 billion will probably not be enough..but i don't think we could compete with the spectacle that was Beijing anyway...the london will will be totally different but just as good in our nice british way...really looking forward to them now..

Answer 9

Yeah, they probably won't resort to pre-recorded images.

Answer 10

That £9b is only the the money coming from public coffers. The Games are also raising funds privately through sponsorship, donations and the national lottery.

£9b ought to be more than enough, considering what needs to be built, and what does not. Tying contractors in to pre-arranged prices is the way.

Tessa Jowel made it perfectly clear. There is no option to increase the budget because not a penny more will be made available.

Answer 11

As soon as we get the new presenters on Blue Peter, then we can really get cracking on a top-notch cut-price all-British Olympic display all produced using toilet rolls and stickyback plastic.

Answer 12

Athens did it Sydney did it and both were smaller cities in smaller countries. If London can't, they would just show they can't cut it anymore.

BTW - I haven't believed in the stiff upper lip since I saw an entire nation blubbering in a collective hysteria over a car crash.

Answer 13

u underestimate the true value of a pound.