The Times reports:
Taxpayers face a multimillion-pound maintenance bill at the Olympic Park after organisers admitted that they had failed to find a commercial operator to take over the main venue after 2012. … The Times has learnt that the Olympic stadium will cost at least £800,000 a year to keep open. Projected revenues from athletics events and a proposed sports academy will leave a big funding shortfall at the venue, where building costs have already spiralled from £282 million to £547 million. There are fears that the final bill could be much higher.
As Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrats’ Olympics spokesman, notes:
Ministers have presented a vague wish list of legacy proposals rather than concrete plans. The lack of detail raises the fear we’ll still be left with another Millennium Dome.”
Those 2005 celebrations seem oh so far away now…
2 Comments
Celebrations? I was gutted that we won the Olympic bid. Since when has this country been capable of putting on a decent show without cocking it up and wasting millions in the process?
Remember Wembley?
http://www.lettersfromatory.com
Of course if we had collected the massive uplift in unearned land values that resulted from the announcement of the successful 2012 bid we wouldn’t have an Olympic bill of any kind to pay.