The cost of ambition
Lord Coe told Special Report that he is proud of the legacy that will be left after London 2012.
Last Updated: 11/07/12 9:39am
Lord Coe told Special Report that he is proud of the legacy that will be left after London 2012.
Lord Coe and his Olympic team promised the International Olympic Committee and the people of Great Britain a lasting legacy that will facilitate and promote sport for generations to come.
The budget has soared from the original estimate of £2.4 billion to a whopping £9.3 billion, however Lord Coe says that the budgets are not quite the same.
"They are two very different budgets of course," explained Lord Coe on Special Report.
"The budget that we set ourselves in the organising committee which is the money that we have raised through the private sector has not changed - that is two billion, it was set as two bill and it has remained as two billion.
"I am really proud that during a really massive economic downturn we have maintained a balanced budget and delivered on time and to budget.
"The thing that has altered of course is that when we nudged across the line the ambition became bigger.
"If we won the right to stage the games and we are putting them in East London and building venues, why don't we do a lot of other things that makes that a sustainable landscape?
"We are leaving behind 13,000 homes, we are leaving behind a school, a primary health care centre that will deal with the whole community. We are leaving behind venues that London has never had.
"The actual cost of those venues has altered very little from what we said in 2005, and the operating budget - which I am in charge of - has not altered at all."