6.7 billion quid to build the Olympic facilities omg!

[fazer71]

Just read that facilities cost 6.7 billion pounds that's incredible!

My guess is there're a good few more millionaires now than there were before the Olympics or the millionaires involved are now multi millionaires ...

That's an insane ammount of money for a few roads and a stadium a copper box and a few temporary sites.

I'm in the wrong game!

Was the original budget 2.8 billion? And the total cost is now 9.7 billion? Incredible.

Just incredible.

When it comes to these projects all common sense and mathematical capacity appears to disappear just like the money.

Didn't arsenal build their 60,000 capacity football stadium for ?200 million? Edit it cost just under ?400,000.. I don't get that ?6.7 billion olympic figure ....

[Annette Curtain]

Don't tell me....

You built your own Olympic venue (from UPVC) a while back, for a fraction of the cost

And in half the time

[Loz]

It's nice to see that despite the wave of good feeling sweeping the nation, there's still some curmudgeonly old gits trawling the net. It restores one's faith in human nature.

[????]

You're not finding your 40s easy are you Fazer? Lot's of anger.

[bsand]

The parable

Bastiat's original parable of the broken window from Ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas (1850):

Have you ever witnessed the anger of the good shopkeeper, James Goodfellow, when his careless son happened to break a pane of glass? If you have been present at such a scene, you will most assuredly bear witness to the fact that every one of the spectators, were there even thirty of them, by common consent apparently, offered the unfortunate owner this invariable consolation?"It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. Everybody must live, and what would become of the glaziers if panes of glass were never broken?"

Now, this form of condolence contains an entire theory, which it will be well to show up in this simple case, seeing that it is precisely the same as that which, unhappily, regulates the greater part of our economical institutions.

Suppose it cost six francs to repair the damage, and you say that the accident brings six francs to the glazier's trade?that it encourages that trade to the amount of six francs?I grant it; I have not a word to say against it; you reason justly. The glazier comes, performs his task, receives his six francs, rubs his hands, and, in his heart, blesses the careless child. All this is that which is seen.

But if, on the other hand, you come to the conclusion, as is too often the case, that it is a good thing to break windows, that it causes money to circulate, and that the encouragement of industry in general will be the result of it, you will oblige me to call out, "Stop there! Your theory is confined to that which is seen; it takes no account of that which is not seen."

It is not seen that as our shopkeeper has spent six francs upon one thing, he cannot spend them upon another. It is not seen that if he had not had a window to replace, he would, perhaps, have replaced his old shoes, or added another book to his library. In short, he would have employed his six francs in some way, which this accident has prevented.[1][2]

[StraferJack]

Fazer..: on top of things since 2011

[maxxi]

wait until he finds out the whole thing only last a couple of weeks...

[fazer71]

yea right take the piss all you like ... You've been hoodwinked you're blinkered you're naive you can't add up .

What happens if these things don't get highlighted ?

They spent enought money to build 16 (sixteen) emirate 60,000 seater stadiums !!!!!

Maybe I've missed something?

But to me the numbers just don't add up.

If it looks wrong the it probably is wrong..

When one considers that we the tax payer are footing the bill the questions should be asked, as with any major works we appear to end up paying far more than anyone with any sense would pay.

Am I really being unreasonable to ask the question?

We're not talking about the cost of running the games or buying the land or cleaning the land..

6.7 billion (?6,700,000,000) six thousand seven hundred million pounds was the cost of building the buildings.

16 emirate stadiums. Thats Seating for 1 million people.

IE An insanely huge amount of money..

If that didn't make a lot of people very very rich I'd be very surprised.

Maybe it was the governments attempt to get the economy moving again?

The problem, if that was the aim is it would have concentrated the majority of money into the hands of a few already very rich building companies and those who owned them.

Am I the only person who thinks it's unacceptable for a company or individual to become rich from over charging the nation for an event like the Olympics?

No question many companies and individuals saw the Olympics as a money making gravy train.

Look at the numbers am I wrong.... I don't think so...

again that's

?6,700,000,000 maybe that number is so large it's too big for a lot of people to get just how big a number it is?

I tried to get an idea by comparing it to something else and I ended up with 16 emirate stadiums!

Which made NO sense.

[Salsaboy]

How much?

[Jeremy]

O. M. G.

[*Bob*]

The Olympic park is 2.5 sq km. To put this into a practical context, this is 50,000 smaller than Wales - or you could fit 357 football pitches inside it.

I'm not sure how many double decker buses it would be.

[Ted Max]

All that space and no car parks. It was a nightmare for the ordinary motorist trying to drive to these Games.

[Undisputedtruth]

fazer71 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> That's an insane ammount of money for a few roads

> and a stadium a copper box and a few temporary

> sites.

>

> I'm in the wrong game!

The figure also includes spending by several government departments investing as a result of the Olympic opportunities, transport infrastructure upgrades and counter-terrorism security.

I suspect people here are confusing the way Public Accounts Committee calculates the cost of the games to the cost of just building stadium and venues.

[LondonLogCo]

Fazer

Do you know Pipsky2008?

You could be twins

He had a thing about drains and construction costs

You two could cackle away for hours over any given "back of a fag packet" construction project

There's a manhole cover dedicated to Pipsky on LSL opposite Co-op, though since its inauguration he's gone very quite

Just wondering like !

[RosieH]

If you're going to huff and puff about a many-billioned boondoggle, I would think the point of where those extra billions could have been better put to use (a little less austerity, for instance) might be more apposite than opining about 16 stadiums.

However, a curmudgeon I may be; a party-pooper I am not. So I shan't.

[Undisputedtruth]

My understanding is that the stadium was built on time and to budget according to ODA. However, I'd like to see a complete breakdown of the total spending to ascertain whether there was an overspend on infrastructure.

[Burbage]

Undisputedtruth Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> The figure also includes spending by several

> government departments investing as a result of

> the Olympic opportunities, transport

> infrastructure upgrades and counter-terrorism

> security.

"investing as a result of opportunities" is one way of putting it, but you're right.

It's remarkable how quickly people have forgotten the seven years of expensive weekend closures, rail-replacement buses and signalling failures that were needed to prepare for the games. Or that, if the games hadn't happened, we'd all have been exploded in our beds by terrorists, and there'd be no prospect of a 'trickle-down' from the train-drivers bonuses to reinvigorate the economy.

Even if those investments could be argued, the whingers can't deny that we've got a lot more for our ?6.7bn than we got for the ?2bn we lost on Metronet or the ?12bn we threw away on the NHS IT project. It's difficult to see how anyone can justifiably complain about the cost of a stadium and a pool and a bicycle track when they cost, all together, less than half the price of nothing.

[Ted Max]

How much did the MEGA MOSQUE cost?

[TheArtfulDogger]

Annette Curtain Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Don't tell me....

>

> You built your own Olympic venue (from UPVC) a

> while back, for a fraction of the cost

>

> And in half the time

now you didn't expect Everest to be doing that today

[Chippy Minton]

fazer71 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> That's an insane ammount of money for a few roads

> and a stadium a copper box and a few temporary

> sites.

>

Err...a bit more than that I think - shops, restaurants, an education campus and nearly 3,000 flats in the Olympic Village, a good chunk of which will now become affordable housing.

[Ted Max]

General Gordon...dead. I've asked the maid to cover the aspidistras in the parlour out of respect.

[Brendan]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/jun/13/olympics-2012-government-data

[*Bob*]

Did anyone check to see if service was included? (pats pockets for wallet)

[Undisputedtruth]

Factor in ?2bn in sponsorship receipts, long term infrastructure investments, boost to British export markets, tourism and economic growth then the ?9bn total spend on the Olympics becomes good value.

eta:tourism

[Undisputedtruth]

fazer71 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Didn't arsenal build their 60,000 capacity

> football stadium for ?200 million? Edit it cost

> just under ?400,000.. I don't get that ?6.7

> billion olympic figure ....

Cost of Arsenal stadium, with a capacity of 60,000, was projected to cost ?200m but final cost was more than doubled at ?470m.

Olympic stadium - capacity 80,000 was projected to cost ?496m but final cost was ?428m, delivered on time and well below budget.

eta: m to replace bn