Beijing organizers essentially shouted Chinese culture at their worldwide audience in 2008, spending $67 billion on the Olympics while presumably using “we’re gonna need a bigger boat” as the punch line of every meeting they held leading up to the Games.
On the other hand, London, seemingly content not competing against Beijing’s incredible spectacle, aimed to only spend about $15 billion - or less than a quarter of what the previous Olympics cost.
Somehow they still came in under budget.
“The work of the construction and delivery teams, from the ODA and LOCOG, has set a very high standard,” said sports minister Hugh Robertson of the somewhat abnormal surplus. “I have no doubt that London 2012 has set a new benchmark for the management of Olympic and Paralympic Games in future.”
LOCOG ended up with about $603 million left over when all was said and done, which is great news for the London Legacy Development Corporation since it plans to spend $467 million of that on redeveloping the now four month old Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London.
The update to what will essentially be a U.K. sports version of Disneyland will keep the aquatics, cycling, basketball, and handball venues intact, and will also include 2,818 new houses and apartments in five neighborhoods, as well as three schools, three health centers, nine nurseries, and a library.