Olympic cities booms and busts

Now only six months away, excitement is ramping up for the London 2012 Olympics. Yet aside from putting on enjoyable Games, the spectacle, the sporting glory and the number of gold medals team Great Britain can win, London must contend with the legacy the Olympics leaves behind. This cannot be measured purely by cost alone but by the benefits or problems for the city the Games leave in their wake.

The finest Olympics revitalise rundown districts, inspire young people into sport and leave a city with fantastic sites and a healthy profit; Barcelona is a good example of this. The worst leave nations crippled by debt and half-dead venues – look no further than Athens.

The Olympic legacy London hoped for when it won the bid in 2005 was to inspire a new generation of sportsmen and women and to regenerate a rundown area of East London, without the facilities being a drain on public finances. Prime Minister David Cameron told a recent press conference he expected the Games to generate at least A$1 billion for British businesses.

So far six out of the eight Olympic venues have secured their future, but the prospects for the centerpiece of the 2012 games - the Olympic Stadium, which cost an estimated A$715 million to build - remain uncertain. This is also true for the Olympics Press and Broadcast Centre.

As for the cost, it is looking increasingly likely that London will breach its A$13.4 billion budget because of rising transport and security costs.

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