London opening ceremony budget needlessly inflated
Posted By Joe on December 7, 2011
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It was announced this week that the budget for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games opening and closing ceremonies has been doubled. Original plans had the figure set aside for these showpiece events at £40million. After seeing an artist’s visualization of what the ceremonies could be like with further investment, Prime Minister David Cameron has increased the budget by another £41million to £81million.
Now, the original £40million is all accounted for; it comes from London 2012 organisers Locog, and is raised via ticket sales, sponsorship and marketing, and from money put up by the IOC. However, the £41million extra is coming out of the £9.3billion budget already set aside for the Games; money set aside by the Government. The Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson, claims that this has been done to “drive the maximum benefit for the economy and for tourism. That’s why we’ve invested that £41m – it’s about the impression that people take away of this country. And we hope it’s an impression that people will say ‘we want to come back here, do business and spend tourism money’”.
Don’t get me wrong. The impression that people take away from the London Games is certainly important, and we do want people to return to this country and spend their money here. But surely the impression that we are giving to people who live in this country already is the more important one? And that impression seems to be, with this further investment, that we are frittering away money that could have been much better spent elsewhere.
Great Britain’s World Record holder for the marathon, Paula Radcliffe, certainly thinks so, describing the extra investment this week as “frivolous”. “The money could be thrown at other areas such as grass-roots sports,” says Radcliffe, “Staging the Olympics costs quite a bit, so it would probably be better if we spent the money in ways that will give more back in the long term.”
The increase in spending also goes against previous statements that the London Games would attempt to go against the growing trend of one-upmanship in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games. The incredible displays put on for the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the Beijing Games in 2008 should have been the tipping point, and the London 2012 organisers were backed by the IOC for saying that they would not try to outdo their Chinese counterparts. “That’s an arms race we won’t win,” declared Mr. Robertson of any suggestion London 2012 would attempt to compete with the Beijing Games opening ceremony.
Yet now it seems like this has all been forgotten. It was always expected that the budget for the Games would balloon and mutate, but it would be a lot easier to swallow if the increase in funding was allocated to something more than a seemingly very expensive advert for the host nation. The £9.3bn required to stage the London Games is already out of all proportion to any other such investment in art, leisure or culture. And now it seems that a further £41million that could have been spent on grass roots sport, identifying talent, training facilities, or some other area which would have had a long-term benefit to sport in this country, has been spent on something which has nothing whatsoever to do with sport.
According to Mr. Robertson, the opening and closing ceremonies are a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to showcase the very best of our country to four billion people around the world and have a potential advertising value of £2-5 billion. To get the ceremonies absolutely right, and boost the Games business and tourism legacy, we are putting additional investment into our ceremonies.” Showcasing the very best of our country is all well and good, but it is meant to be in a sporting environment – surely a better way of showcasing our country would be an extra couple of gold medals, a few more finalists, which could be achievable in the future with increased investment.
The last time I heard, we are in a recession. UK unemployment rose by 114,000 between June and August to 2.57 million, a 17-year high according to official figures. The Employment Secretary, Chris Grayling, said that what the UK is now seeing is “the impact of the international financial crisis”. If ever there was a time not to throw away £41million, that time is now.
As Paula Radcliffe said this week, “I think the way the Games are organised, and the atmosphere of the whole thing, is what people remember, as opposed to the opening ceremony.” I have no doubt London will put on a show. I’m sure it will be spectacular. But is there really any need to gift-wrap it in an over-the-top, lavish, “frivolous”, opening ceremony?
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