The ground was well laid and the British Premier only played along with it when he stood before the IOC and went about his flamboyant way of speaking, convincing them that London’s was the most deserving of bids for the 2012 Olympics. London’s foresight had as many people in the country participating in sports from all walks of life possible and hoped that their lives could be improved in the process.

With an investment of around 3.75 billion pounds sterling the premier said that the preparations that will kick off in the form of infrastructure will be first on the priority list of the UK government. The eventual result that they will be looking for is more involvement of the younger people in sports and for them to develop a healthy and active nationals.

That may be noble but how can one rationalise this intention and the step it has taken thereof when the most probable result is that the already regular participants will be on the field while their fans who are the eventual target of the governments initiative will be cheering them at home most probably lazing all day on the sofa.

A bare 79% of people have their morning exercises thrice a week (the minimum needed is five). This statistic puts them in between France (24% active) and Finland (52% but improving). A recent report has predicted that such people will find themselves in dire circumstances health-wise. Their average life time period will decrease by nine years and they will more prone to coronary heart disease and diabetes. The government though will face an extra financial burden of around eight billion pounds. The idea makes the government “the stand up guy” but the realities it has to face are staggering. The general expenditure per head here is 36 pound, as opposed to 109 pounds invested by France per head, and the present infrastructure too is old and falling apart.

Logic shows that such high profile events do not increase the onfield interest of the people but that it  is their best chance. Nothing anyone can think of right now shows more promise in light of the response the people could have towards it. By 2020, almost two billion dollars has been reserved to be fed into community sport. Most of it will go into doing up the present poor infrastructure and the upgrading of facilities. The coming years will see money that will be put into community sports that will equal half of the money that will be put into the coming 2012 Olympics.

However, people in the field feel that the issue is being politicised. These plans of the government to reach sports out to people shows well on paper but it will not translate into real results. It is the opinion of many that the government has wished to take up the issue to evade flak that could arise from poor participation of athletes in the event or bad performances from their own. The past years have seen the authorities neglect sports. As a result of that the present government is tied down to getting and proving a point. The track record of the government is also not very impressive.

In the Commonwealth Games at Manchester, the organisers fell a million pounds short of funds. They were rescued out of this embarrassing predicament by monetary inputs by the government, Sport England and by the City Council. The games used 300 million pounds of public funds. After the event was over, the stadium was given away to Manchester United. The aquatic centre, which was a joint collaboration with Manchester University, the tennis and squash centres were made decent use of. The aquatic centre gets 600,000 visitors annually now. The City Council is into 13 collaborations to make use of these facilities. One success story here is the seven thousand people who play squash at the Squash Centre here. The City Council had in mind pushing sport ahead and the games did it for them. This point would have been proved if there was at least a survey to show the increase in participation of the games. The research proved a two percent drop in participation from the residents of the city. One resident said that the conclusion was no surprise. She had been striving to save the local swimming pool, the maintenance costs of which the City Council was not able to pay.

The games may have brought some benefits to the City but it is small compared to the job that is required of them in this area of development. So much more could be done with that money.The New East Manchester Corporation is the office lying below the over towering city's new residence. It is responsible for the development of the area with support of seven hundred and twenty million pounds by 2010. A few of the developments that they have spurred are Sport City which already had Fujitsu as an occupant and a recently built residential complex built to bring the younger working generation to the city. They are of the opinion that games have played a part in the spurring of development in the area but not as much as one might need to be excited about it yet. A concern of theirs is that younger career driven people come into the city and change this scenario. Their opinion is that the 300 million pounds could be used better. One would benefit more in sports and health provision than in stadiums.