London Summer Olympics 2012!

[A.tab]

The architectural firm Populous is renowned for designing many amazing sports facilities and convention centers all over the world and they were definitely the right company to design the main arena of the 2012 Olympics in London. They have revealed the design of the stadium on 7 November 2007 and soon after the construction of the stadium began. At 80,000 seats, the Olympic Stadium in London is the 3rd largest Stadium in all Britain, right below the Twickenham Stadium and the new Wembley Stadium.

I am posting a few pics of the stadium and people can post stories and build up news towards the said Olypics..

[Lirva_Engival]

a white elephant?

it cost half a billion pounds to build and they haven't a clue what to do with it after the games

[X-Spectre]

a white elephant?

it cost half a billion pounds to build and they haven't a clue what to do with it after the games

Maybe they can use it for SOCCER...

[Lirva_Engival]

Maybe they can use it for SOCCER...

that was the plan but it fell through last year for legal reasons (don't ask)
rather than selling it to a soccer club it may be rented out instead but so far nothing has been decided....

the tax payer will have to foot the bill for maintenance while it's sorted out

[gaphugs]

I think the OP started the thread to highlight the positives of the games. That being said, the situation regarding the stadium it's not as negative as being made out. The reality is that at least three football clubs are looking to make it their home while a proposal for a ground share between a rugby club and football club is also on the table. One of the sticking points is the fact the athletics peeps want to retain the running track.

And I doubt greatly that there will be great expense to the tax payer to maintain it.

I'm just saying, because the event is a huge boost for London and was given a major plug during the PMs visit to the US. Sometimes the glass can be half full too

[Lirva_Engival]

And I doubt greatly that there will be great expense to the tax payer to maintain it.

it will cost the tax payer £95 million (almost $140 million) to convert it to a soccer stadium...that's before maintenance costs
we're not talking peanuts here....

imo it will get bogged down by further legal wrangles, stand empty for years and cost the tax payer 100's of millions of pounds in the long term

it would be cheaper (and more eco-friendly) to demolish it immediately after the Games and plant trees in it's place
i volunteer to press the big red button...bang!!!

[gaphugs]

Again, this is just not fully factual information. If a sale is not agreed, the stadium will be leased the same as what happened in Manchester. There is no reason why the conversion costs will not be covered by that agreement - not to mention revenue from concerts and other events.

95 million is the equivalent of two decent players in sporting terms.

I'm not being argumentative - but what you are saying just simply isn't true.

[pigger]

95 million is the equivalent of two decent players in sporting terms.

well you can get a Torres and Carroll for 85 million, but calling them decent is a stretch

[gaphugs]

Lol

[Lirva_Engival]

95 million is the equivalent of two decent players in sporting terms.

or the annual salaries of around 3,000 nurses/cops/teachers in real world terms

stadium?....i think tax payers money would be better spent elsewhere, don't you?

[gaphugs]

Your logic makes no sense . How many of the jobs you talk of are offset by those employed running the stadium? You are also clever enough to know that money not spent on the stadium would never see its way to the front line services you talk of. Additionally you have an amazing stadium you should be proud of which will assist in attracting European / world sporting events which would also generate massive income.

Why would you destroy a resource that hundreds of million of pounds has been spent on to avoid an additional spend of 100 million which no one disputes will be recouped?

[Lirva_Engival]

Your logic makes no sense . How many of the jobs you talk of are offset by those employed running the stadium? You are also clever enough to know that money not spent on the stadium would never see its way to the front line services you talk of. Additionally you have an amazing stadium you should be proud of which will assist in attracting European / world sporting events which would also generate massive income.

Why would you destroy a resource that hundreds of million of pounds has been spent on to avoid an additional spend of 100 million which no one disputes will be recouped?

"The Olympic Stadium is a white elephant and they now have to spend money to stop it being a white elephant"
- London Assembly member Andrew Boff

btw the cost of converting the Stadium to a soccer facility must be met by the tax payer (plus maintenance costs)
because any soccer club using the Stadium will be tenants only (not lease holders - that idea failed because of legal problems).....in other words, it will be a drain on the public purse ad infinitum

btw please don't give any more nonsense about recouping costs via concerts etc
how many gigs are there at Wembley and Eastlands this year?

precisely...

[J3scribe]

Friendly debate. I approve.

[gaphugs]

Facts are sacred . You spread bs. I've had my say. But London is hosting the Olympics and for that you need an Olympic stadium. To constantly refer to the stadium that was built to host the event as a ' white elephant' is ridiculous.

[X-Spectre]

Easy way to figure things out... anybody know what tickets will cost to Olympic events held in the stadium? Now multiply that by about 60,000 (to allow for operating costs and breakage) and multiply that by the number of days there will be events actually in the stadium = what's recouped by the Olympics alone... some conservative figures (in my mind) would probably be ~150 Gbp per person X 60,000 people X 10 days = ~90 million GBP just for the Olympics and that doesn't even start to cover concessions, so I think I have to agree with Gaps on this one, if the British taxpayers can recoup ~20% of the total cost of building the thing in just 10 days, I think it will pay for itself in the long haul... large public works/infrastructure projects usually do. That doesn't even take into account the HUGE number of tourist dollars it will bring in in the form of Hotel rentals, food sales and merchandise sold in the entire London area which you wouldn't have without the Olympics and the stadium. At worst Olympics tend to be revenue neutral.