Now, this isn't actually the Olympics, but part of the over-arching regeneration of the Lower Lea Valley / Royal Docks as part of Thames Gateway, and so clearly fits into the 'would have happened anyway category, but this tweet from Stop City Airport (SCAM) caught my attention:

This paper discusses the siting of the Summer Olympic Games at the global, national and local scales. The increasing corporatization of the Games is examined. Their use in city marketing campaigns is evaluated.

by Stuart Fuller

Here is a little secret for West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur awaiting the decision on who will get the Olympic Stadium next week. Whisper it quietly, but football fans rarely want to watch football in an Olympic Stadium. Why do I say that? Well a simple look at similar structures around the world, built for non-football events reveals quite a bit. The prospect of an Olympic Games being awarded to a city sends them into construction meltdown, over promising and in most cases under delivering on the legacy of the games. The whole story of whether a stadium will have an athletics track or not is not a new thing. We all know that at the end of the day politics will win the day, and we have seen all sorts of stories in the past few weeks about who will do what when/if they win the bid.

The saga of the Stadium's non-legacy rumbles on.

Ken has waded in claiming waste of public money and horrendous environmental consequences should Tottenham succeed with their bid entailing the demolition of the currently under-construction stadium and it's replacement with something more suitable to the needs of Premiership football. So it appears poor old West Ham are still highly likely to be saddled with that "fundamentally flawed" Olympic Stadium according to coverage by Paul Norman and Amanda Baillieu in Building Design.

GLA Budget and Performance Committee

The Finances of the Olympic Legacy
Part1: Olympic Park transfer and continuing liabilities
October 2010

A futile attempt to cut through the murk of the 2012 legacy financing and accountability. As one might expect, it's going to cost an awful lot of money on top of what's already been spent, no-one knows how much, when any benefits might be delivered, what they will be exactly or who will be accountable. Plus ca change.

The Property world is getting excited by the interest supposedly being showed in the Athletes’ Village and the Media Centre. Of course, expressions of interest are not the same as money on the table. But even if the money does materialise what does this signify? That property tycoons see an opportunity to make a profit? And that profit will be made at a loss to the public purse of at least £150million on the Village and an unknown sum on the Media Centre.

Research paper into the experiences of small businesses forced to move to make way for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

See attachment.

Clause 7.2 of especial interest in respect of legacy costs.