In just 78 days the world will be anticipating the start of the 2012 London Olympic Games, the planet’s greatest sporting event and the only time any country has hosted the games for a third time.
17 days later most Britons will be wondering how it managed to pass them by so quickly, virtually unnoticed. For many, the location of the games isn’t enough to qualify an involvement, and it’s very hard to get excited over something you’re not involved in. I doubt there are many people who look forward to a party they’re not invited to and it seems the invitations to the Olympics of those not living in London might have been lost in the post.
With the cost of the games expected to rise to nearly £12billion, there is no underestimating the individual burden to the tax payer of the Olympics.
Yet with as many as 60% of tickets at big events going to corporate sponsors, who themselves are just paying £1.4 billion towards the games, it appears that the ideals of broad participation and legacy that the bid was based on may have been swamped by a desire to please the wrong people.
Residents of London will of course be able to enjoy all of the free events, such as the marathon, as well as the live sites and the buzz of a city hosting the Olympics with millions of visitors from around the world experiencing the city. For those living outside the capital however, there is much less to offer, aside from a few football group matches dotted around the country. Though it wasn’t just London that footed the bill for the games, it appears it might just be London that gets to benefit from them.
All this may seem to suggest that far from embracing London 2012, we may be expected to show ambivalence towards it, but this would be the wrong attitude to take. The Olympics are always hosted by a city, not an entire country, so there should be no surprise in the fact that most of the venues are situated in the capital and the South East. But the athletes are competing under the name Team GB, not Team London, and we should come together as a country to support them.
The Gaskell-esque divide between the north and south of this country has gone on for far too long. Instead of being unsupportive of one another, with southerners complaining about the High Speed Railway and northerners about the Olympics, we should instead try to come together to celebrate an event which has the idea of unity at its core. If the world can come together to join in such a fantastic sporting event than why can’t our little island do the same? This is an exciting year for the UK, with both the Olympics and Queen’s Jubilee and we should take advantage of it.
Being involved in the Olympics isn’t necessarily about being at the events themselves, there were never enough tickets and most of them are outside of our student price range. When Lord Coe spoke about the legacy of the games he was talking about the continuation of the Olympic spirit, of increased participation in sport, not just about the venues that will be around for public use for generations.
There are live sites situated in every major city in the UK, areas where thousands of people can come together to enjoy the best and most exciting events on offer. The organisers of the games have done everything possible to give everybody a chance to feel involved, it is just up to us whether or not we choose to make the most of that opportunity.
Hosting the Olympic Games is about home advantage, national spirit and showing the world what a great city we have to offer. Victories at home are always sweeter than victories abroad, and we should make the most of what is likely to be the only Olympics we’ll see in Britain in our lifetime.
Admittedly, some will feel like they have paid for something they will never properly get to enjoy, and a balanced ticketing system could have helped to correct this perception. Nevertheless, there is no better chance to enjoy the Olympic games than when they are being hosted by your home nation and we should make sure that we do not let those 17 days pass us by.