Can Abao Naysayers Officially Stop Whinning Now?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/23434844
Should this, coupled with the news that we are 12bn up indirectly, put this one to bed?

[jake-the-peg]

Well the History of that is a bit more complex NJ

The Montreal one in 76 was Gigantically expensive and left the city with a bill that made the eyes water and took a generation to repay.

After that nobody wanted it which is why the Russians picked it up in 1980

The Americans then stepped in, flogged every square inch as sponsorship and showed that you could make a profit

Seol was even more profitable Barcelona scraped a profit then the tables started to turn

Sydney lost money and Beijing was an eye watering $42 billion

http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~rosenl/sports%20Folder/Economic%20Impact%20of%20Olympics%20PWC.pdf

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/07/18/f-olympic-host-city-economy.html

[jno]

Barcelona was a classic "legacy" case - helped turn the city into a huge tourist destination

http://www.insights.org.uk/articleitem.aspx?title=Barcelona:+Before+and+After+the+%E2%80%9992+Olympic+Games

[emmie]

whilst we didn't need that, we already get mega amounts of visitors.
some seem eternally lost, i must start charging for advice as to where certain landmarks are..

[jno]

why? My advice is always free, as it is on AB. And people I've asked for help when I'm abroad have always been the same.

[emmie]

didn't realise you lived here in the capital.

[emmie]

there was a measure, which seems to have passed you by, of tongue firmly planted in cheek.

[LazyGun]

@3T Are you buying that report the Govt has prepared showing an indirect "profit" resulting from the Games? I remain unconvinced. Several of the projects highlighted in the report as being a direct consequence of the Games were going ahead regardless - Battersea Power Station redevelopment being one such example.

Mind, I thoroughly enjoyed the Games, thought they were great, happy that we had them and overall do not begrudge the taxpayers money spent on them - but it is legitimate for people to question the bill, and to highlight some of the inadequecies - that ticketing arrangement was a fiasco, and having to get the army to step in to cover the Govts and G4S's blushes was pretty appalling.....