Olympian Bills

The building of the Great White Elephant on Hackney Marshes is proceeding apace with minimal attention to the global credit crunch. Indeed, never has the atmosphere of unreality seemed quite so dense around this mad project. From the start, I have been opposed to the idea of Britain even bothering to bid for the Olympics, let alone becoming successful and thus being committed to one gigantic waste of money. The whole project is surrounded by the most comprehensive programme of spin that we have ever been subjected to. The current expected cost is said to be £9.5 billion. This number excludes all kinds of things like security, transport improvements, etc - and God knows what else. Even so, the spinners will struggle to avoid us coming to realise that the actual cost will be nearer £20 billion. And then there is all the nonsense about Olympic Heritage. After the fortnight of Olympic endeavour, all being well, we will spend a few millions looking after unused stadiums for a year or two and then, like everybody else, we will start the work of demolition. The whole project is one of insanity. And, in order to get to this position, we - and other cities - go through a process of wining and dining, pimping and prostitution at a cost of £35m each in order to be given permission to chuck £10 billion or £20 billion at 2 weeks of minority sports.

Meanwhile, Canada is becoming worried about the cost of the Winter Olympics in 2010. Does Vancouver want them anymore? Canada has only just finished paying for the Olympics in Montreal in 1976 and now they look like being saddled with another long and crippling bill. It is very educational to look at the saga of the Olympic Stadium [Stade Olympique] in Montreal [picture on the left]. The original estimate for building this was $134 million. By the time it was opened for the Olympic Games in 1976, it had cost $265 million and was only half finished. In May of 1976, the Quebec government introduced a new tobacco tax to help pay for the stadium. It took another ten years before the roof was finally installed but there have been numerous problems with operating the roof; it is an all weather stadium with a roof that doesn't work too well in wind and rain. It has broken many times and collapsed completely on one occasion. The complex structure of the tower has caused many problems, has been partially destroyed by fire and rebuilt and taken years to finish; chunks have broken off at times and fallen onto the field during a football game. Officially Montreal finished paying for the stadium in November 2006 by which time the total cost for building, re-building, maintenance and repairs was $1.6 billion or 12 x the original estimate. It is not used much and is universally considered a white elephant. Let the London Olympic Delivery Authority be warned.

When will somebody get to draw up some realistic costs for staging these ridiculous games at the bidding stage and thus prevent any other country from embarking on the projects? Either hold the Olympics in Australia for ever - where they have plenty of room, good weather and an existing set of facilities - or abandon them for good.