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2012 Olympics budget be doubled
(AP)
Updated: 2007-02-05 10:43
The cost of the 2012 London Olympics has doubled and could reach as high as 9 billion pounds (US$17.6 billion; euro13.6 billion), according to a newspaper report Sunday.
The Sunday Times, citing figures obtained ahead of the official budget announcement by the British government, said the cost of building the Olympic Park had risen to 5.1 billion pounds (US$10 billion; euro7.7 billion).
The figure given in the bid book was 2.38 billion pounds (US$4.6 billion; euro3.6 billion).
Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell wouldn't be drawn on the amount reported by the paper.
"That is not the case at this point, because we are still, within government, negotiating both the likely cost of the Olympics and the funding requirement," she told BBC television's "Sunday AM" program. "But I think you will see over the next two-to-three years, extremely wild claims about what the Olympics are going to cost."
The Olympic Delivery Authority,the body responsible for building the venues and infrastructure for the games,determined the budget in consultation with Jowell and London Mayor Ken Livingstone.
Jowell said she was eager for the budget to be finalized, but appealed for patience.
"I'm quite sure people are getting impatient about the length of time it's taking to settle this," she said. "I would only say that this is five years before the games,Sydney did not settle their budget until two years before they hosted the most successful games ever."
The 1.7 billion pound (US$3.3 billion; euro2.5 billion) funding gap was likely to be filled by profits from lotteries, the paper said. The Olympics had already been promised 1.5 billion pounds (US$2.9 billion; euro2.2 billion) in lottery funding.
Jowell said the shortfall would come from "a number of sources" of both public and private cash but did not give further details.
Contingency funds were not included in the revised budget figure. The Sunday Times said that figure would be between 1-3 billion pounds (US$1.9-US$5.8 billion; euro1.5-euro4.5 billion).
The 5.1 billion pound (US$10 billion; euro7.7 billion) amount also doesn't include a tax on venue construction, which could add another 1 billion pounds (US$1.9 billion; euro1.5 billion) to the final figure.
The Sunday Times said if the tax is included, the worst-case scenario "is that the total bill could exceed 9 billion pounds."
Organizers are hoping that Chancellor Gordon Brown will give the games an exemption on the tax. Brown is widely expected to replace Tony Blair as British Prime Minister, who has said he will step down this year.
In November, Jowell said infrastructure costs had risen by 900 million pounds (US$1.7 billion; euro1.3 billion) because of rising steel prices, security costs and inflation.
The Olympic Park, in Stratford, east London, is largely a derelict 202-hectare (500-acre) site. It will be home to the Olympic Stadium, the athletes' village, aquatic center, velodrome and multi-sport arenas.
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