Legacy costs

The cost of the 2012 London Olympic Games -- somewhere in the region of 10 billion pounds Sterling, depending on how much of the ancillary costs you throw into the pot -- has largely faded from memory, thanks to the passage of time and the truly staggering amount (over $50 billion) that Russia spent on the Sochi Winter Games. Since the London Games ended, plans to bring the facilities into public use have generally gone well. Much of the main Olympic Park in east London is now open to the public, and just a few weeks ago, Sir Bradley Wiggins used the cycling oval to set a new one-hour distance mark.

There's one blot on the ledger, however: the Olympic Stadium. As this article reveals, the cost of converting the stadium into an arena suitable for soccer has now reached 272 million pounds Sterling.  The team that will move into the stadium, West Ham United (or Wet Sham, as their detractors prefer), will pony up a mere 15 mil' of that, and thereafter will reportedly pay a mere 2 million per year to play in what will be one of the most expensive, and surely one of the best, stadia in Europe. In the meantime the taxpayers of Newham, which is the home of the stadium and is one of the poorest municipalities in the UK, are paying 40 million toward the renovation costs.

The high cost of the conversion is the direct result of the original plan to downsize the stadium and then use it exclusively for track and field. However, as track and field events in the UK generally can't draw flies, it was belatedly realized that this was not viable, and a soccer tenant was sought. The specs for a soccer stadium and a track and field venue are very different: the existing seating was too far away from the action to be attractive for soccer. At the same time, the commitment to provide a venue for future track and field events had to be honoured. Hence the refurbished stadium will have retractable seating that can be moved close to the field for soccer, or rolled away to reveal the running oval on the rare occasions that track and field events take place.

I'm writing about this in part because it's interesting in its own right, and in part as a warning to other cities that may be thinking of bidding on huge sporting events, and to their taxpayers who may wonder about the veracity of the claims that are being made about the "legacy" that will be left behind. And yes, Toronto, this does mean you.  Recent weeks have seen renewed talk of the city bidding for the Olympic Games, maybe in 2028, and there's also talk of a bid for the men's soccer World Cup, which would undoubtedly see Toronto heavily involved. Given that this is a city that can't stick a decal on a road, extreme caution is advised!