After weeks of delay and speculation, London has finally expressed its committment to a 2012 Olympic Games Bid. Announced today in the House of Commons, a London Games is expected to cost 4.5 billion pounds – half of which is expected to be underwritten by the Government.
Tessa Jowell, secretary of state for culture, media and sport proclaimed “I am delighted to be able to inform the House that following discussions at cabinet today the government has decided to give their wholehearted backing to host the Olympic Games and the Paralympics in 2012
“This morning the prime minister has telephoned (IOC president) Jacques Rogge to inform him of our decision.”
“We are going all out to win. Silver is nowhere in this race. The whole Government has backed this bid. There will be some stiff opposition, but we have a great case and everyone, from the Prime Minister down, will be working hard to make it” said the Secretary of State in a release from 10 Downing Street.
Full backing also comes from London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Sports Minister Richard Caborn and officials of the British Olympic Committee as well as Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The estimated cost of the bid, a two-year campaign ending with the election on July 6, 2005, will be about 17 million pounds.
London will have to prove to the IOC that they can get the job done. The 2005 World Track Championships that were originally to be hosted by London were sent to Finland due to funding problems and the new Wembley Stadium was delayed and encountered several cost overruns. The Commonwealth Games were successfully held in Manchester in 2002.
London last hosted the Games in 1948 and previously in 1908, after being invited, and not elected, both times. Although elected to host in 1944, those Games were cancelled due to the war. Manchester was the U.K.’s last bid for the Games in both 1996 and 2000.
U.K. bookmaker Ladbrokes was quick to get in on the action by setting odds. Currently, both London and New York are at 3-1 behind Paris at 2-1. Toronto hasn’t even tabled a bid but are given 8-1 odds. Then it’s Madrid at 10-1, Leipzig and Rio de Janeiro at 14-1, Moscow at 16-1, Sao Paulo at 20-1 and Havana at 200-1. There are no odds set for Istanbul.
Interested cities have until July 15, 2003 to submit their bid intentions to the IOC and London has now joined Madrid, Leipzig and New York in that regard. Other official announcements are expected from Paris, Havana, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo, Moscow and possibly Toronto should the other Canadian city of Vancouver not win its 2010 bid.
