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Taxpayer may foot bill for media centre, Games chiefs admit
Matthew Beard, Sports News Correspondent22.12.08
Olympics chiefs have admitted that the £300million media centre for the 2012 Games will probably have to be paid for by the taxpayer.
The Olympic Delivery Authority says there is little prospect of finding another private investor after it broke links with the original developer Igloo two months ago. Barclays bank was also part of the original deal.
The cash crisis means Olympic chiefs will almost certainly have to raid the £2billion contingency fund early in the new year.
Already ministers have approved £95million in emergency funds to keep the £900million Olympic village on track after that too struggled to raise private funding.
Chairman of the ODA, John Armitt, blamed the credit crunch for the lack of interest in funding the 1.5million sq ft media complex in Hackney Wick. He said: "There's much less interest at the moment from the private sector. It was always going to be public/private but it may now have to be 100 per cent public."
The cost of the media centre has been slashed from £380million to £300million in recent months.
However Mr Armitt said he had not given up the original plan of building a permanent structure, able to be split into smaller units to become a home to broadcast and media industries after the Games.
He said: "This is the one building within the Olympic complex which has the potential to provide jobs."
He confirmed that the media centre will not be scrapped after the Games, saying: "Temporary facilities always end up costing more than you think."
A final decision on funding and specifications for the centre will be made early next year.
The ODA has been considering alternatives to the Hackney Wick site and has held talks with developer Westfield about moving half the media complex to the Stratford City shopping centre.
2012 chiefs have come under pressure to justify the multi-billion-pound public project but Mr Armitt insisted it would prove its value in the years after the Games. He said: "What we're doing is creating a regeneration opportunity which only hosting the Games could have delivered."
Reader views (16)
It is absolutely criminal to spend so much on a media centre. In today's technological age three or four Reuters journalists could cover the events and e.mail their images/commentary around the world in seconds. Why aren't you Londoners out on the streets protesting about this mindless extravagance. SCRAP THE GAMES
- R.F., Yorks, UK
My wife and I will be visiting London in April and I like to try to read up on news in a city before I visit it, to get a feel for what is important to the locals. I stumbled upon this article. What riles me so much about this planned media center's expense (and all the other huge expenses that go into the Olympics) is that these are JUST GAMES! The incredible sums of money spent to put on these games is staggering. Chicago, somewhat near my home, is expected to bid on a future summer games and I truly hope they do NOT win the bid. We've got far more important things to spend our money on right now, as I'm sure London does as well.
- John Kinnane, United States
Gordie sells off the nations gold for peanuts, now we are going for ten or eleven gold baubles at a few billion each !
- Wills, Southampton
Why should the tax payer foot the bill.
If they want this media center then cut budgets from the rest of the olympic project to pay for this media center simple.
- Allan Pointon, Stafford,UK
Take it our of Scrounger Coe's wages. He won't notice it.
- L.Taubler, London / UK
White Elephant...White Elephant...White Elephant; a thousand times so is this appalling waste of money, time, and effort which is arranged to please a few elite parasites while the hard-working tax-payer has to foot the bill. We DON'T WANT THE GAMES HERE, but like Nu Lab itself, it has been rammed down our throats whether we want them or not. The whole circus is merely for television these days and could therefore have been held anywhere rather than London, which will suffer extra congestion, increased costs,and a sense of deserved anti-climax when the whole nonsense is finished-leaving London with a bill to pay for decades to come.
- Jon Kent, Hertford. UK
what a joke, why did this government every let ken livingstone, seb coe and his mob ballot for the olympic games, ask them to foot the bill.
- Maggie, London
Why does London have to pay for anthing that this country desires?! Soon there will be no more jobs in London either...
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London
It is absolutely scandalous to expect tax payers to fund the olympics. I feel sorry for Londoners who were lied to by Tessa Jowell regarding the final cost of hosting these games. As far as a media centre goes - in this day of electronic mailing systems - all that is required is ONE REPORTER at each venue and he or she can e.mail the results around the world. If any more are required then Jowell/Coe etc must be made foot the bill.
- R.F.York, Yorks, UK
Tax payers cannot afford the luxury of these games. Plans and work in regard to these games should cease immediately - with the proviso that we'll have the games in the UK when the UK tax payers can afford them. Who could argue with that??
- Raymond, Poole
If the tax payers have to bail out the olympic fiasco,will they share in the profits,why can seb coe not put his hand in his deep pockets or send for geldof and bonio to rescue the games..
- John, benidorm,spain
£300million for a what? What is a media centre? I see they describe it as a 'regeneration opportunity' but I am still in the dark. Are we getting anything for our tax money here, or are we just paying for it because we have no choice? £300million. It better be a really good media centre/regeneration opportunity. I might want to take my grandchildren to show them what I bought.
- Jilly, London
We should press immediately for an Olympic car crash event. We'd win that hands down. And why exactly do the media have to have a £300 million centre? The ODA know there's a credit crunch on and a small marquee and some portaloos should do nicely. Sponsored by Northern Rock, Bradford and Bingley, AIG, Lehmann Bros...I could go on. Presumably none of the Olympic stadia will be branded: "Paid for by the tax-paying mugs of London".
- Bart, London, UK
Yippee! We get to pay for our Legacy.
There'll be asking us how we want to spend our own money next maybe?
Can we perhaps increase the bonus paymnets for the IOC fat cats too?
- Steve, Dalston, Hackney
..Back in 2005, I made it obvious that this 2012 junket was going to end up a white elephant costing taxpayers far more than what the politiicians would have us believe, and that it would eventually mean council tax hikes for the rest of England (if not the UK) to bail out a rapidly failing project. Media reports suggest that my prophecies are rapidly coming to fruition. When, Oh when will the media strip bare the 'glossy political packaging' from 2012 and deliver the unpalitable truths that 2012 is currently in trouble, that London Borough of Newham has now become London Borough of Stratford, and that Stratford still has an army of beggers, rough sleepers and obvious criminal elements hanging around, which will continue to adorn its hallowed olympic turf well beyond 2012. Newham only has one small hospital for the whole borough,that can barely provide for its residents. There is no new 'development' on that front. Hackney has similar problems and the new London Hospital is nowhere near ready yet. Transport in and out of Stratford remains a joke, and tales of 'it'll be alright on the night, we're buidling new platforms, roads etc' are up there with the best of the Brothers Grimm. If 2012 is to be a half-decent show, then the gravy train needs derailing, and a steadfast austerity programme needs to be applied or else the taxpayer will be left with an on going expensive legacy for decades to come.
- Joannie, London, England
Watching this Olympic Fiasco crash and burn and the ministers and execs squirming themselves out of blame is far more enjoyable that watching the Games themselves. All agree?
- Dc, London
