London Olympics – Price too high?

So far the Olympics have had a hot n cold response amongst Londoners. It was always a teenage dream of mine and when London won the bid I can’t deny I was ecstatic.  Although now I have mixed feelings about them – as a keen sportsman I love the hype and can’t wait however in the back of my mind I’m thinking all this for just over 2 weeks!

As with almost any large-scale project, costs are difficult to predict and the first budgets are inevitably unrealistic and too low. At the time London won the bid the budget for the games was announced at £2.37billion, now the budget stands at £12billion and could rise to £24billion according to an investigation by SkySports. If you or I set a budget that was that far out we would be in all sorts of financial trouble and the project would be stopped halfway. The Olympic project doesn’t have that luxury and I fear the money will continue to circle the drain.

Unfortunately I can only see this budget heading up towards the top end of the estimate as more issues arise and the Olympics approach. Small concerns are arising as quickly as a hummingbird heartbeat; even as I write this Heart London announce that a number of London Underground stations are not accessible enough for disabled people.

I now know that its not like the movies and the amount of work and money involved is incredible. On a personal level this has been a good example of how hard budgets are to set and that a lot of money should be allocated for unexpected problems. I have learnt from it and I will always keep on eye on how much I am spending throughout a project.

I’m looking forward to being starstrukk by California gurls regardless of the cost and the firework to signify the start of the Games can’t come soon enough!

James, the newest Expense Magician