Olympic Budget

The summer of 2012 is going to be a massive few months for Sport with Euro 2012 coming up, but in the UK the main focus is the Olympics, which is been held in London.

The focus right now isn’t on the sport though, its on how much the sporting event is going to cost the country and whether or not it will be worth it in this economic crisis we are still in!

With the Olympics recognized as one of the most prestigious sporting events on the planet, the pressure is really going to be on, especially with it estimating a cost of £10bn, £8bn up from 7 years ago.

This £10bn might not seem a lot compared to past Olympics games. Athens 2004 overall cost £15bn and China spent a staggering £40bn for the Beijing 2008 games! Quite a difference considering the Los Angels games in 1984 only cost £546m!

The security will cost an estimated £1.2bn, an approximate increase of £271m. This is almost double of the estimate from just a year ago!

With it been such a global event, money is going to be spent on the look and infrastructure of the city. This includes work on power lines, utilities, bridges and roads, building hotels, transport, enabling works and landscaping! Although it could cost over £2bn, all of this would be very good for the City and the local communities, with 5,000 new homes to be available after the games.

As well as work around the City, money will be spent on venues for the sporting events. As well as the main venue, the Olympic Stadium, there will be other Olympic park venues around the city, with none Olympic park construction such as hotels also being built. This is estimated to exceed £1.5bn; with the main stadium it’s self-costing over £400m!

The Olympics will generate in the region of 2-3 million jobs, not just work in the City during the games, but also across the country in construction work leading up to the games. Along with this, hosting the Olympics will also increase tourism not only during the games but after as well with Lloyds bank predicting the UK will generate £10-£11bn on a whole in revenue.

Though the Beijing games cost a whopping £40bn, China had enough capital to absorb the costs and they have seen a growth of 3% in the economy after building things such as brand new subways and roads for the games. After China and Athens (£15bn), Britain will become the third most expensive games at £10bn and will be really hoping for the same result!

London will be hoping for a profit from the games and it is looking like it will be very good for the economy, however the true cost of the games and how much money and jobs will be generated from the games we won’t know for a minimum of 2 years! If all the estimations are correct, it is looking good for the entire country!

Lets hope the Britain can get some success in the games and for it to be enjoyed by billions across the world as we will have to wait until 2016 to see the next games, hosted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!