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Good blog. I visited Barcelona just after it was awarded the games - proudly wearing my 'Bring the Games to Birmingham' t-shirt (we lost) - and again 7 years ago and the legacy of the Games was there to see.

Your blog is right in differeniating between the legacy for a city - regeneration, new infrastructure, pride etc - and the sporting legacy - bird droppings on the diving boards, bored footie fans, mis-used velodrome etc.

With a very few exceptions, sport in Europe is no longer big enough for every major city to maintain major sporting facilities. I wonder whether the UK can support two international standard velodromes in the long run, for instance.

Sport is now global and Europe is losing its importance. We can no longer claim sport as "Ours."

Remember the Dutch, Austrian, Portugese, French and Swedish F1 Grand Prix? To reach the global audience sponsors want and global fans rightly demand, they have been replaced by China, Malaysia, Singapore, India and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Sports is "theirs"" too, now.

Therefore, the major sporting events which Olympic facilities need, is now spread so far and wide that a recent host city could wait a decade or more before 'its turn' comes around to hosting anything noteworthy.

I think London has found the solution. Of the venues on the main site the Olympic stadium will either become the home to a football club (a la the City of Manchester Stadium) or, scaled back as the home of the London Grand Prix athletics; the swimming venue will be scaled back, and replace Crystal Palace as London's premier international competition centre; the hockey and basketball venues will be dismantled; and the handball veenue handed over to the local community as a new sports centre. Only the velodrome will escape the axe or major modification.

Outside of the main site, many venues are temporary, or can be reused for the general public, such as the mountain bike course in Essex. Add to that, the country has not had to build a huge number of training facilities, and the infrastructure investment was needed anyway.

So I think we stand a very good chance of an overseas journalist writing in time for the 2020 or even 2016 Olympics that London has set the legacy template.

And we did this by prioritising the Legacy at the very earliest planning stages.

I was lucky enough to go the opening and closing cermonies in Barcelona along athletics, swimming, volleyball and a bit of modern pentathlon. It was an unbelieveable experience and the atmosphere was amazing. London doesn't know just what a party it has coming. One criticism of Barcelona was the transport. Trains, as I guess you'd expect, were packed - with people (including myself) collapsing in the heat. It'll be interesting to see how London copes on that front.

I fondly remember images of the Barcelona high dive. I became really interested in the Olympics after 1992 and wished I had managed to get tickets in my home city this year. I have, however, experienced the white water centre in Lee Valley - a whole lot of fun which I'm sure will be a popular destination long after 2012.

@ianbluenose
The UK will have 3 international standard velodromes by 2014! Ultimately though, London has a lot more capacity to accommodate major sporting venues than most European cities. And its pretty disgraceful that the UK doesn't have a half-decent athletics venue yet. Worth noting that the City of Manchester Stadium had a large hole dug out in legacy to create a football field and Hampden Park is having a large amount of temporary soil infill to create an athletics track in 2014.

London doea not need to look to Barcelona, London is a great city it its own right, has been for years. As for the high dive location in Barcelona, run down and basic when i went there couple of years ago. The Olympic stadium itself very basic and poor facilities. And now Espanyol no longer play there it will become more run down. Like something from 1952 not 1992. Some rose tinted specs here, not even sure what this blog was trying to say or prove.

I moved to Calgary five years ago and there still seems to be a strong legacy here from the 1988 winter games. The facilities themselves are really depressing though. McMahaon stadium is decrepid and barely passes muster as a modern venue in 2012. The Olympic park itself is still heavily used (even during the summer) but the museum and facilities seem run down and I am always saddened that great athletes performed there and it now just seems so 'neglected'.

I think the Olympics had a greater legacy concerning putting the city on the map and giving it a global identity which has really proved priceless. Concentrating on buildings and facilities is a red herring. Not many cities can boast a bob sleigh run, giant ski jump and skiiing facilites within reach of downtown but it's the greater legacy that rings true in Calgary, it put us on the map.

Interestingly I went to Montreal a few years ago and visited the Olympic stadium there. It was the same story really, very neglected and just looked like it had seen better days. If kids go to these places today to be inspired I would rather they steered clear. Not sure if Montreal had the same wider legacy as Calgary but in terms of facilities it was disappointing.

Conversly, I went to Helsinki in April last year whilst carrying out a research project in Tallinn. I dragged my architecture and engineering colleagues all the way through the city so I could see the Olympic Stadium.

Now Helsinki hosted the Olympics in 1952 so despite being nearly 60 years old and having both a brand new football stadium and tennis centre next to it; the stadium neither looked run down or unused. There was even a Sports Museum housed in an annex outside.

Unfortunately the Olympic Tower was being renovated, due to Helsinki being the City of Architecture 2012, but it is generally still open to the public and provides, so I am told, spectacular views across the city.

So I believe that this should also be an inspriation to London to have "legacy" and not a white elephant. We also have a good track record with Wembley stadium lasting 70+ years before it needed to be replaced.

I visited the old Olympic site on Montjeu a couple of years ago. Unfortunately the stadium feels a bit past its best but the whole area still has the element of grandure and spectacle.

Things age and twenty years is a long time for sporting arenas which do not have monthly events taking place. Most olympic stadiums are white elephants but there seems to be less white elephants in Barcelona thna many other hosts. I imagine the Bird's Nest and Watercube in Beijing lose money by the bucketload.

The problem I have wiht the London Olympics is that we were promised a sporting legacy which is unlikely to materialise and a physical legacy which feels empty.
The games were promised to transform East London but beyond the collection of overpriced appartments situated in the centre of Stratford, the new Westfield shopping centre and the site itself, East London has recieved little form these games other than an increase in council tax.

The jobs provided for the games seem to be few and far between as locals have been overlooked for paid jobs whilst being patronisingly offered the opportunity to volunteer for positions which should've been paid.

Furthermore due to the insane ticket system and its requirement that you must have a visa card and must have the resources neccesary to risk bidding for thousands of pounds worth of tickets, there will be few locals at these games.

The legacy of these games will be that the rich of the world were invited to the games. It was just that the people of Newham were not invited to the party,

excellent blog, nice to hear everyone's views from barcelona with the benefit of hindsight, especially the football fans.

post 1 also makes a good point about sport not being ours anymore, agree mostly but we still dont see the likes of abu dhabi and malaysia competing as much as they perhaps could in term of actual teams as opposed to just venues but their time will come

I also thought that the Barcelona stadium area was an eyesore when I visited a few years ago, much as I expected.
Usual story: Government picked up the tab. Construction/catering industry raked it in, but created largely temporary employment. Olympic Committee [not the city] raked in TV profits. Tourism profits were less than predicted, and the surrounding regions experienced a fall in tourist numbers.


But the reason I went to Barcelona was to see the art and architecture of Gaudi. The city had the finest building in my world well before 1992 and, of course, it is still not even completed! [And it's not the Barcelona Gherkin, which is similar to the London Gherkin, though I quite like both of them]

I agree that Barcelona is probably the best example of post Olympics legacy, but London should be careful not to model itself too much on that.

1. London as a tourist destination is already elite: you won't be doubling visitor numbers any time soon. What should be happening is an improvement in airport and associated domestic transport infrastructure, not just for tourists but also for business travellers. That's the key need there.
2. The general transformation of Olympic Park has an add-on benefit of rendering the overall locale far more desirable for investment. I'd be looking at 20 year business investment as the metric there.
3. The key to sporting legacy is not in stadium usage but in participation, both at elite and community level. Again, that should be a 20 year metric, not a 3 year one. The recession won't help, but start sustainably and build, rather than go for short-term headlines.
4. The final legacy should be the can-do attitude associated with a huge multibillion pound project well managed. For all the naysayers, the ODA has done a highly effective job and UK plc has shown it can work efficiently to time and budget. It should be a reason to kick on, not a last hurrah.

Everyone is still arguing about legacy, which says that egos are involved.

The problem with legacy is that it isn't like the Olympics, there's no finals day and no gold medal to be won. It's an ongoing, dynamic process with no finish line.

Maybe LOCOG et al should think about that and make appropriate adjustments??

Using Barcelona as the role model was flawed, as the difference between London and Barcelona are as stark as they get.
Barcelona was an uncut diamond waiting to be polished, the olympics acheived this by breaking teh shackles of Madrid (and Franco) and allowing the proud Catalans freedom to express themselves. This is the reason that underpins Barcelona's success. Sadly that lack of 'national' identity will hurt London and no amount of lipstick will beautify the pig ....
It always makes me angry when the Olympics is justified by saying it will leave a legacy .. it never will for London and we will end up being more like Montreal than Barcelona, by paying for a white elephant for years to come.

A trifle naive to mention the increase in Spanish medalling or are UKA employing Dr E Fuentes?