Posted November 5, 200618 yr The man in charge of building the Olympic Games has revealed he quit because of his frustration at the lack of progress. Many of the plans for the key venues have still not been finalised yet already the £2.3bn costs of London 2012 are predicted to double. High on euphoria after London's successful bid for the Olympics in Singapore last year, the British team declared triumphantly that they would deliver "the greatest Games ever". That could still happen. But already, nearly six years before the opening ceremony at the still-to-be-built stadium, the preparation for London 2012 is mired in rows, resignations and growing concern over costs that threaten to spiral out of control. The simmering tensions erupted last week when Jack Lemley, the American engineer hired as chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to oversee the Games' main building projects, spoke out, two weeks after resigning because of "ill heath". Mr Lemley was, indeed sick: sick of political interference and soaring costs. His reputation for delivering on time and to budget was at stake. He got out while the going was bad, because he feared it would get worse. "I went there to build things, not to sit and talk about it," he said. But his attack, the first from a senior Olympics figure who has resigned his post, was a dent to the façade of slick competence that London has been trying to present to the world. And it is not the only headache faced by the complex web of groups organising the Games. The spiralling cost of the 17-day Games (plus 14 for the Paralympics) is causing deep concern. The original budget of £2.375 billion for construction — made up of £1.5 billion from the Lottery, £625 million from council tax and £250 million from the London Development Agency — is now likely to be more than double that figure. The huge increase is mostly to cover the cost of "regenerating" poorer areas of east London, including creating 60,000 jobs and building 40,000 homes. Why does this not come as a surprise, I wonder what the French are thinking.
November 5, 200618 yr They thought they could put on an Olympics for £2.375 billion?! Did anyone actually believe that? Athens cost THREE TIMES THAT.
November 6, 200618 yr bloody Olympics.... as if we can afford the folly of this. Plus, every city they hold the Olympics in is sanitised and ruined. Someone else have it, please... and take Seb Coe while you're at it.
November 6, 200618 yr Well, it's certainly ruining many small businesses in the Stratford area and the area surrounding the Olympics.... House prices in the East End are set to sky-rocket as well, many of your traditional working-class eastenders are gonna end up in Essex or Kent now to be replaced by yet more yuppie tw@ts, or worse yet, people like Chantelle Houghton...... :wacko:
November 6, 200618 yr Always storys like this before every Olympic games, before Sydney and Athens they said the same thing, im sure it will cost alot but the games WILL be brilliant for this country, certainly London, it will hopefully improve Transport at least and is great for Sport in this country. :cheer:
November 6, 200618 yr Well, okay, but this is England we're talking about here.... Just how far behind schedule and over budget is Wembley Stadium......? The plans for the Olympics are on a vastly greater scale than one poxy stadium... Potentially a vastly greater fukk-up which the people of London might still be paying for in the next millennium..... <_< From what I hear the people involved in the Wembley Stadium fiasco are big players in the Olympic contracts as well.... Doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.... Think it couldn't happen, talk to the people of Montreal about the 1976 games, which they are STILL paying for 30 years on.....
November 6, 200618 yr I dont know why the UK feel the need to host it :rolleyes: Its a nice thing, but it does cost alot of money :P
November 6, 200618 yr I like it when they're held in cities with a lower international profile - think of the wonders the Olympics did for places like Sydney, Seoul, Atlanta, Lillehammer, Sarajevo, etc. The Beijing Olympics will be the massive coming out party for the Chinese economy and society. It will establish Beijing as one of the world's great cities and China as a spectacular international power. London doesn't really need the Olympics, in my opinion. It is already perhaps the world's most recognized city. London's greatest success in the past 2 decades has been its transformation to a powerful financial center but the Olympics won't really show that. Anyway it was a poor year for nominees (London, Paris, New York, Madrid, Moscow). I'd have loved it if the Olympics went to Manchester or Birmingham or Glasgow or something.
November 6, 200618 yr i dissagree i think the olympics should be a good thing for us. for many years we have under achieved on the world stage as we more then any comparable nation severely under support sport. it will be good for the country to raise athletics profile and assist a healthier nation with the high profile and facilities that the games will bring. as for 'traditional east enders'.... they no longer exist! they have all moved out to make way for hoardes of immigrants! lol.. the east end is a hugely multicultural society bareing little resemblance to that $h!tty tv prog!
November 7, 200618 yr i dissagree i think the olympics should be a good thing for us. for many years we have under achieved on the world stage as we more then any comparable nation severely under support sport. Easy for you to say mate, nobody in Derby is expected to actually shell out for the fukkin' thing.... <_< You have no idea just how peed off Londoners are about this, I suggest you come down here and conduct a straw-poll of what people here really think of this bullsh!t..... They've already lied to us about the costs for this (2 billion??? Yeah, right...), and I have no doubt whatsoever that the true costs of this will be even higher in the end.... Look at Wembley Stadium, a monumental fukk up, and that's only one stadium with none of the other infrastructures that the Olympics are gonna need... There are examples of other public construction catastrophes - Wembley (which still aint built..), Millennium Dome, the Scottish Parliament building to name but a few.... And these things are pretty small beer compared to the complexities involved in the Olympic bid, it aint just about building a stadium, far from it.... And we had the nerve to criticise the Greeks.... I have no confidence in Lord Coe, seriously, what can he actually do when (and it is 'when'...) things start cocking up.....? Set up a committee? Set up an Inquiry...? Yeah, like that'll really help..... <_<
November 7, 200618 yr Easy for you to say mate, nobody in Derby is expected to actually shell out for the fukkin' thing.... <_< .........and nobody in derby will benefit from the facilities the games will bring london! stop whinging and see the positives for once!....lol.. mind you, your point about the dome, wembler etc do raise concerns.
November 7, 200618 yr .........and nobody in derby will benefit from the facilities the games will bring london! stop whinging and see the positives for once!....lol.. mind you, your point about the dome, wembler etc do raise concerns. Mate, these facilities are in Stratford, I live in Camden which is nowhere sodding NEAR the place... I'd may as well be living in Derby cos I'm about as likely to go out my way travel to Stratford to use these "wonderful" facilities as you are..... I think these games should be funded out of direct Income Tax, not by Council Taxpayers, it is a national sporting event....
November 7, 200618 yr Mate, these facilities are in Stratford, I live in Camden which is nowhere sodding NEAR the place... I'd may as well be living in Derby cos I'm about as likely to go out my way travel to Stratford to use these "wonderful" facilities as you are..... I think these games should be funded out of direct Income Tax, not by Council Taxpayers, it is a national sporting event.... yeah cos theres no intergrated transport system in london is there! lol i do agree though that it should be funded nationaly, not localy.
November 7, 200618 yr yeah cos theres no intergrated transport system in london is there! lol You ever tried travelling on the Silverlink overground from Camden to Stratford....? Nightmare........ :mellow:
November 7, 200618 yr arnt they building a new underground station/link or summut?... i like athletics, i like the olympics, i hope we put on a show that is as good if not better then sydney, athens.. i hope that the games stimulate interest in sport and that the uk starts to get its fair share of acheivements be it world records (which we had several until recently) or gold medals. i want this project to be a success and i hope it gives long term benefits to the community/the country... i fear i may be disappointed...
November 7, 200618 yr arnt they building a new underground station/link or summut?... They are, but why the fukk did it take a sodding Olympic bid to improve the transport in the East End..? This sh!t should've been done years ago.....
Create an account or sign in to comment