London Olympic Legacy

                                      London Olympic Legacy

Now that we are coming to the end of the 2012 Olympics I cant help but to try and look ahead to see the effect that the London Olympic Legacy will have on the future of this already great city. We have already been told that the main arena will be sold off and that the aquatics centre will continue in its current role but with reduced seating and the athletes village will be converted into flats.

Olympic Park 2005

All this sounds fantastic but this will all cost money to be implemented and lets face it the economy is in a really bad place so who is going to be footing the bill for these changes to the Olympic park? I am afraid to say that it will more than likely be the public as usual through the already bloated tax system. I was talking to a friend about the legacy of the games and he seemed to think that would see a similar story to places like the 2004 games in Athens were the facilities are left to bake in the mediterranean sun. I however have a different view I think that we will not recognize the park as we see it today purely based on the price of the once wasteland the were Olympic park now stands.

Before we won the bid to host the the 2012 games the land around the Stratford park was a wasteland and any attempt to clean it up would have been seriously detrimental to the cost of the development were as now the land is already decontaminated and all paid for by the tax payer at a whopping 7 Billion pounds, now the land is prime real estate ready for development and much of what is there today I believe will be demolished and replaced with flats designed for the young professional that London seems to covet so much.

                                         The Public Mood

Right now as you can see on the live coverage of the games the public mood is that of jubilation, we have had the Queens Diamond Jubilee now the Olympics and
we will very shortly be starting Paralympics in a couple of weeks time so as expected people are high and enjoying themselves but one cant help but think that this is calm before the storm. I often hear said that the British people know how to throw a party and I would like to agree but after every party comes the hangover and lets face it we have had one hell of a summer party. But in the
cold grey morning of winter will we still be so happy with the party that may have just ruined our beautiful home. Will the jubilation of today turn into the harsh headache of financial burden tomorrow, and will we be willing to pay for the for what the media are calling the party of a lifetime? We have spent an enormous amount
of money hosting the games and the Diamond Jubilee earlier this year and come 2013/14 we have to pay all that back with interest.

                                                          
                                  

                                             Was It Worth It?

It must be asked was worth all the effort and money spent on the games worth it. I think in many ways that the debt we accumulated over this summer will seem like nothing. Currently the bill looks to be around £17,000,000,000 mark and although this sounds like a lot, when you look at it in regards to the banking bailouts we have to be honest this is a drop in the ocean in comparison to our countries national debt and so all the good will that has been built up may just be what we need for the winter of discontent that we were going to get with or without the Olympics being hosted by London. I for one do not want to see the likes of the 1979 winter where rubbish went uncollected for weeks.

1979 Winter of discontent.

So what is the real legacy of the Olympics, for other cities is has been huge debts and a crumbling set of buildings that are a shadow of their former glory. For London I think it will be the fact that huge areas of London have now been opened up for redevelopments the transport infrastructure has been improved and expanded and now for the first time in decades east London has something good to look at even if it is only for a short while. Once all the hype has dissipated and the media have moved on, the contractors will move in and continue the building work of transforming the Olympic park into a place fit for people to live in. I don't however think we will see a massive upsurge in sporting venues or events largely due to the financial constraints which have caused most councils in England to close many public swimming pools even before the games began and I would be extremely surprised if we continued to see the current level of expenses currently being lathered onto the athletes in the form of support teams. I think this will be a great shame to the future of our sports industry but it would also be a classically British thing to do, as we have seen with the armed forces Whitehall is the master of cutting the legs from the very people who support it.

Only time will tell if the London Olympic legacy will be at the benefit of the rich corporations via multibillion pound development contracts sure to come or for the local Stratford area and its community in the form of superb sporting facilities renewed interest in not just professional but also family acomodations being brought up to the world class standard London renouned for. I for one do hope that we can make this work and use the momentum to get us back on track, all I do know is the overall cost will not be realized for quite sometime.