O2 arena most successful in the world

[Sherwick]

I've just read that the O2 arena is the most popular venue in the world, selling more tickets than Madison Square Gardens.

Oh, how I remember how the the entire media slagged the Dome off relentlessly for not making money within minutes of it opening.

Now it does make loads of wonga, they're all silent!

:))

[*Bob*]

Hurrah for the Dome!

Of course it was built for 750 million quid (paid for by the taxpayer) and then sold on for half a 'p' to anyone who would have it - before this magical success story could begin.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Was the construction paid for by the tax payer? I thought it was paid for by lottery funds and misc other.

[*Bob*]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

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> Was the construction paid for by the tax payer? I

> thought it was paid for by lottery funds and misc

> other.

Taxpayer / Lottery = same thing

[SeanMacGabhann]

No its not and you know it

[Sherwick]

I'm sure that it's now generated more in tax revenue than it orginally cost (and will keep doing so).

The kind of people that slagged it off in the first place had no vision whatsoever.

[Mick Mac]

I have been once and my seat was at the very back at the very top - what are the chances of that. I thought Prince was small before I went and when I sat down I realised how small he really was.

[woofmarkthedog]

I'm allergic to Walnut whips.................

[Marmora Man]

The Dome was built with LOttery money. It made no money during the embarrassing Millenium fiasco and was sold on, for a pittance, to O2. While therefore, in theory, there was no cost to the taxpayer the Lottery was always meant to be for "good causes" not political white elephants - there has thus been an opportunity cost to taxpayers of ?750m worth of real good causes that weren't funded.

I would agree that now however, the centre is a fine concert and exhibition spot - tho' Dylan's concert last Saturday was rather dire!

[indiepanda]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

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> No its not and you know it

I wonder if we looked at the mix of people buying lottery tickets whether we would find the contributions to the Lottery fund come from a poorer subsection of society than personal taxation in general?

[Sherwick]

Marmora Man Wrote:

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> The Dome was built with LOttery money. It made no

> money during the embarrassing Millenium fiasco and

> was sold on, for a pittance, to O2. While

> therefore, in theory, there was no cost to the

> taxpayer the Lottery was always meant to be for

> "good causes" not political white elephants -

> there has thus been an opportunity cost to

> taxpayers of ?750m worth of real good causes that

> weren't funded.

>

> I would agree that now however, the centre is a

> fine concert and exhibition spot - tho' Dylan's

> concert last Saturday was rather dire!

As I said above, it's already made more than the ?750 million it cost back in tax revenue and will continue making tax revenue for us. I propose that it never was a 'fiasco', it just wasn't given enough time. It was obvious (to me) that it would eventually work (i.e. generate money).

Why do people expect things to work IMMEDIATELY?!?

[SeanMacGabhann]

and if we did find that out so what? All anyone who buys a lottery ticket is interested in is winning dosh - they have no higher moral goal than that in the transaction so I'm not inclined to listen to them complain about where the money goes

The Dome exhibition was awful but I have always liked the building and think it an asset.

[Huguenot]

Agreed the Millenium exhibition was appalling, one of the Tories worst ideas ;-)

I'm pleased to see that Labour managed to take it off the taxpayer's hands and create a business environment within which it could succeed.... ::o

[*Bob*]

Sherwick Wrote:

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> As I said above, it's already made more than the

> ?750 million it cost back in tax revenue and will

> continue making tax revenue for us.

Who's this 'us' you speak of? Unless it makes revenue for 'us' in the same way that, say, BT does? (ie it doesn't)

[skidmarks]

Don?t forget the cost of the Jubilee line extension station which was paid for by the tax payer. The cost of the line was 1 billion over budget at 3.5 billion which works on average at 318 million pounds per station.

[*Bob*]

Here's an offer: if someone would be kind enough to construct a ?750m marvel of engineering situated in one of the world's top cities, served by it's own brand new transport system and hand it over to me - for free - I'll do my level best to turn in some kind of profit.

[citizenED]

I actually liked my trip to the Millenium Exhibition. Took my mum and dad. Saw the brilliant "squatting figure" by Ron Meuck and David Mach's wonderful mural on British life and of course, the Dome itself (and who, in all honesty, was not impressed by it?). And then saw the, not-exactly-to-my-taste, musical dance performance thingy which was rather akin to shows in the West End. And all for ?20.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Public Transport Link in Paid for by taxpayer SHOCKER!!!!!!!

A lot of happy citizens in that part of the world thanks to the tube extension there

[skidmarks]

I went, it was ok. We spent more time looking at the Thames Water rainwater collection system from the roof and the reverse osmosis system for cleaning the (brown!) ground water for use in the toilets and washrooms. It was quite ahead of its time really.

[skidmarks]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

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> Public Transport Link in Paid for by taxpayer

> SHOCKER!!!!!!!

>

> A lot of happy citizens in that part of the world

> thanks to the tube extension there

Yeah, but that station only really serves the dome and it?s a bit bigger than what would be required if the dome wasn?t there.

[Jah Lush]

I'm looking at it now. I see it nearly every day. My office overlooks it. Saw The Rolling Stones there once and that's my experience of the place.

[SeanMacGabhann]

so presumably what people want when leaving a venue with 15000 other people is a smaller tube station?

[skidmarks]

I am saying that the tax payer funded a station for a private venture. If the dome wasn?t there it would have made more sense to have a station down near Woolwich Road. Can you remember when the dome shut that station was a ghost town for years.

[indiepanda]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

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> >

> and if we did find that out so what? All anyone

> who buys a lottery ticket is interested in is

> winning dosh - they have no higher moral goal than

> that in the transaction so I'm not inclined to

> listen to them complain about where the money

> goes

That wasn't where I was going with it - general view is lottery tickets are more often bought by people with less spare cash, and when they started playing the lottery donations to charity went down - partly because the good cause element made them feel like they were still giving money to charity. Feels to me given charities were being deprived of donations the least the government could do is spend the money they collect wisely. Admittedly some charities aren't especially good at keeping admin costs low, but I doubt many make as much mess as was made of the Dome planning.

>

> The Dome exhibition was awful but I have always liked the building and think it an asset.

So do I, been to gigs there and think the new owners have done a good job with it - but that doesn't excuse shoddy project planning and poor budget control of the original build or lack of forward planning about what the space would be used for afterwards.

Oh well, hopefully lessons have been learned. From what I have heard as much if not more effort on the Olympic site build is going into thinking about how the area will be used after the event.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Sorry Indy - but that sounds to me exactly where you were going.

"partly because the good cause element made them feel like they were still giving money to charity"

If people want charity to benefit, let them give the money directly.