High Olympics Price Tag Draws Controversy
June 26, 2012
The upcoming
Olympics in London
are an expensive operation. The British government’s budget for Olympic construction and operations is officially listed as $15 billion, although some estimates put it much higher. The organizing committee has a separate budget of about $3 billion which will be covered by revenue from ticket sales, sponsorships and other private sources.
Grand preparations
The stadiums and arenas of the Olympic Park are impressive, and the Olympics will no doubt be a grand show. But concerns about the cost linger.
Former British Olympic gold medalist and member of the London organizing committee Jonathan Edwards says people who worry about the cost of the Games are not thinking about the bigger picture.
“When people think of it as a cost, I think they perhaps don’t understand where the money has been gone and how it’s been spent. Those contracts, 98 percent them, have been won by British businesses," explained Edwards. "So, billions of pounds have been spent in the UK at a time which has been very challenging economically.”
Long-term benefits, but grief for some
Edwards says the Olympics construction and related development in East London will also have long term economic benefits for the city and all of Britain. Not surprisingly, there is considerable debate about that.
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