More accusations of 2012 legacy failure
I've learned that a report by the London Assembly will attack the and London 2012 for building venues which will be great for the Games but not much use afterwards.
The planning of the main stadium and of the £308 million will come under fire.
One senior Assembly member, Conservative Andrew Boff, has even suggested the option of knocking the Media Centre down if it can't be used for anything. I've heard similar suggestions made before about the .
The report is expected to say that there is danger of more taxpayers' money being needed to secure the legacy of the buildings.
The criticism of the main stadium is interesting since its future looks more secure at the moment than ever before.
I understand that it is increasingly likely that a deal will be struck with who are hoping to rent the stadium after 2014 together with an entertainment group which would use it for concerts in the summer.
The stadium would also be available for major athletics events outside of the football season.
But the future of the Media Centre is controversial. It was hoped that a major media company would move into the centre after the Games but no deal has been done yet.
The report, expected to be published on Friday, will say that the centre will have few permanent facilities when the Games are over.
I'm 91Èȱ¬ London's Olympics Correspondent, which means I report on every aspect of the preparations for 2012. I'm going to be telling you what people are saying about London's preparations - both in the Olympic corridors of power and on the streets of the capital - and I want to hear your views.
Comment number 1.
At 13th Sep 2010, Dr Antonias Fuccilio wrote:I am not a fan of the huge cost of the olympics ,and after reading the article and the huge cost of a media centre ,i think alot of companies and olympic commite people should be able to answer questions from us the public who are paying for all this
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Comment number 2.
At 13th Sep 2010, Leidens_SS wrote:I have to say this blog is quite strange, it is based on hearsay, suggestion, old news and in general it's lacking depth and is rather negative. It is not balanced by suggesting how some of the venues will be re-used or linking to the fact that some ideas have been scrapped in favour of existing facilities, ie Wembley arena.
The IBC is a requirement of the Olympics and trying to house the world press corps in one building is going to be expensive. But having such a modern building with a fantastic IT infrastructure could be used by a govt entity, instead of using some of the expensive and ancient central location that are currently in use.
The total costs of the Olympics will never be known, but neither will the benefits, either directly (through tourism etc) or indirectly, so it will always be difficult to assess the 'success'. But I wish the hacks would stop trying to 'shape' and 'hope' for a failure (typical British negativity) and try and push a positive attitude.
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