Tourism & Travel Search Directory for London 2012 Olympic Games
	London wins the 2012 Olympic Games

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The economic benefits, say the London Development Agency, are far-reaching, including a legacy of 9,000 new homes in the Olympics area with the construction projects alone creating some 70,000 jobs in the next 15 years. Experian, the forecasting group, said the games could boost UK construction by more than 8.6 billion pounds, including the already confirmed East London tube line.

A study by Arup that was commissioned by the mayor's office a few years ago estimated that the games would cost 1.8 billion pounds and leave a 494 million pound deficit. But it estimated non-financial benefits of between 350 and 680 million pounds. That compared with estimates of 3.2 billion pounds generated in additional tourism in Atlanta and 2.4 billion pounds in tourism to Sydney — cities which did not already figure high on destination lists. For London, where tourists already flock all year round, more visitors will come just to see the facilities as they did in Barcelona after 1992.

Hosting the games will also by definition create in London a whole sector of expertise on sports facilities and construction which will be worth a fortune in consulting business in the years after 2012. "There is always a big economic legacy after the games," said Holger Preuss, professor of sport economics at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz and author of "The Economics of Staging the Olympics". "One year after the Sydney games (in 2000) ... all of the organizing committee costs were coming back through expert knowledge."

The UK government has been very cautious in its cost projections for the revelopment of East London and the Stratford area, but behind the enthusiasm for the project was the prospect of the Olympics acting as catalyst for wider regeneration of these deprived areas in East London.

Many regeneration experts wondered whether the government's ambitions for the Thames Gateway, the 40-mile stretch of mainly ex industrial land earmarked for 200,000 new homes, were achievable. The Olympics now makes that much more likely, with one of the critical selling points of the London 2012 bid the legacy it offered for this massive regeneration of East London.

Manny Lewis, chief executive of the London Development Agency, the regeneration body heavily involved in putting the bid together, said the opportunity for investment in east London stretched far beyond the cost of staging the games. “On top of the overall funding, there will be core infrastructure for the Lower Lea Valley which will need to be tackled by the government,” he said.

Winning the games has not just erased doubt about the government's commitment to resources in east London but set hard deadlines for work to take place to ensure the games are ready on time.

East London will see a massive upgrade in facilities from hosting the Olympics. The area would benefit from a 500 acre Olympic Park reaching from the Hackney Marshes to the Thames, which is planned to include an Olympic stadium, aquatic centre, along with several other sporting complexes and a 17,800 person Olympic village. According to the most optimistic estimates, regeneration will create about 40,000 jobs, 30,000 homes and 1,000 businesses. There are also proposals for a 45% increase in capacity on the London Underground's Jubilee line, along with plans for the creation of a transport hub in Stratford only 7 minutes by train from Kings Cross station and designed to carry 320,000 people per hour. (Source: www.london2012.org)

London is promising vast accommodation for 2012. The Olympic Village will have 17,320 beds and provide each athlete with 16 sq m floor space. Each apartment will have a TV, internet access and a private courtyard. Ten rail lines will carry 240,000 people every hour to the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London. The 140mph "Olympic Javelin" shuttle trains will get 25,000 spectators an hour from St Pancras station in central London. The 2012 Olympics will be an entirely different affair. In 2000 more than 3.7bn people in 220 countries tuned in to watch the Sydney Olympics. London will cater to one of the biggest media events the world has ever seen. As well as the expected 20,000 journalists, the city will also have to cope with 17,000 athletes and officials, 56,000 volunteers and hundreds of thousands of spectators in 2012.

There is also the attractive promise of the London Olympic Institute that was to be set up if London got the Games. The institute, praised by the IOC as a "significant legacy", promises to nurture sporting talent and act as a nerve centre for sports science and research.
"Legacy" was the key to London's bid. Tony Blair said London would build something to last for a generation, not just the couple of weeks of the Games. For example, the huge athletes' village will be converted into 3,600 apartments, many for low-paid workers such as teachers and nurses who struggle to pay London's high property prices.

An Olympics Bill is to be put in motion as early as possible. This legislation will set up an Olympic Delivery Authority to ensure the stadium, village, transport links and other venues are completed on time.

Perhaps one of the most interesting legacies though will be a footballing one. Will the public clamour for a GB soccer team to compete on home ground at an Olympic Games prove too much for football bosses to ignore? "I might come out of retirement," said David Beckham, singing London's praises in Singapore this week. (He will be 37 in 2012!)

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release date 07 July 2005