So, finally, after twelve years of incredible tension and build up, the greatest show on the planet descends on the greatest City in the greatest country in the world.
For once we can be patriotic without being sneered at or looked down upon.
The first Olympic Games were established in 776 BC at Olympia, Greece.
In honour of Zeus, Greek city states gathered to one place, wars were halted, and the battle for the best athletes in all of Greece, favoured by the Gods, would begin.
Thus the Olympic Games became a symbol of honour and unity.
How it has all changed.
It is now the largest media event on the planet attracting viewers of up to a billion people for single events, like the opening ceremony, and drawing a total of 204 countries in active participation - more than the UN has in its ranks.
The blood, sweat, tears, sleepless nights and early morning starts over the last four years must be incredible...
and that is just Lord Coe to say nothing of the participating athletes.
Yet, beneath it all the Olympic Games is still a symbol of honour and unity and, more importantly, stands for all that is great in us as human beings.
When I hear people, especially newspapers and TV talk about peripheral issues like security or the cost like a load of old fishwives, it makes my blood boil as much as mentioning Quantitative Easing and monetary value in the same breadth.
Take security for instance - who would you rather have protecting the venues against terrorism? You can have a half-trained, overweight, officious guy in a tight fitting polyester uniform who up to now thought security was a pin code and closing the windows when you went out, or you can have the British Special Forces? No contest! My friend's son is a marine who is relocated for two months to Weymouth - the Olympic sailing venue - on protection duty.
In the event of a terrorist attack I know who I want protecting me.
As to cost, well let's have a look.
On the face of it the highest figure I can research as to the outright cost is £9.
3 billion to host the Games.
It seems big in isolation - however: - The Prime Minister's Office last week stated they expected that over £13 billion will flow into the UK as a result of trade agreements conducted around the period of the Games.
- An additional £4 billion is expected to flow from companies to companies as a result of highly level corporate entertainment...
brings a whole new meaning to the expression "there is no such thing as a free lunch"! - We are expected to enter a third dip recession, yet think of the massive uplift this summer in money flowing to airlines, hotels, restaurants, theaters, taxi firms etc - all being brought in by the huge influx of additional tourists.
135,000 hotel rooms were sold out and those are just the ones within 50km of the Olympic Park.
- Additional income streams will come from International Olympic Committee TV and marketing deals (£560m); sponsorship and official suppliers (£450m); ticket revenues (£300m); licensing (£60m).
In total a further £1.
370 billion.
- The Olympics will also generate £840 million in tax revenue.
Then we come to the cornerstone of my value hypothesis: - New venues, including the Olympic Park at Stratford and the athletes' village have cost £3.
1bn (including £547 million on the stadium).
- A further £1.
7bn was spent on regeneration and infrastructure.
That is great.
When the government prints money under the misleading heading of Quantitative Easing and thrusts it indirectly onto the non-lending banks, all it does is devalue the value of our money, especially bank deposits and cash equivalents.
At least when they spend £4.
8 billion on the physical structures above we get the following benefits: - Regeneration of surrounding areas like Stratford.
- Enhanced transport links.
- The physical asset which can be used, or in at least four cases, relocated around the country for future generations.
- A virtuous flow of money into the local economy by way of suppliers including builders, designers, building products, accommodation etc.
This is the "ripple" effect that we teach at our seminars, just on a massive scale.
Monies invested in areas will change the dynamics - good examples being transport links.
Changing to a high speed rail link that makes commuting quicker and easier will boost house prices over the medium and long term.
Providing the property produces cash flow on a BMV purchase, always look for the little extra that will boost capital returns.
When the last fish and chip wrapper blows out of Weymouth after August Bank Holiday and the only thing parked in the high street is tumbleweed, the legacy will not only be the haul of British Olympic Sailing medals - I hope - but a vital new relief road put in to carry additional Olympic traffic.
The Government may have sold off all our gold but at least this time with the Olympics investment they have turned worthless paper into hard assets.
Coming back to a recent bulletin on building a long term stock portfolio based around basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter, some of you have light-heartedly challenged me to put "my money where my mouth is!" and come up with some interesting stocks.
Never shy where food is concerned I am investigating a few areas and will next time report on some interesting developments in the chocolate market! So a final note on the Olympics.
A recent report by the "blood sucking vampire on the face of humanity" or Goldman Sachs as they are more commonly called, said that the Sydney Olympics broke even and the Beijing Olympics lost billions.
A statement of this banality hides the true value of the Olympics.
Does China care they lost billions? In an abstract, bland finance department deep within the Chinese government a bifocaled third level accountant was vaguely disappointed but to the 1.
3 billion population of that country it showed the world that China was the world's number one country - maybe not on paper but certainly in reality.
For the next few weeks we will all be glued to our TV sets watching the greatest show.
Technology means you can pick your events and follow them through without interruption.
Whilst sitting on a sofa stuffing our faces we morph into experts on sports and rules whose existence we had no idea of just a week ago.
We are experts at advising athletes whose whole life has been dedicated to winning a particular discipline what they are doing wrong - we succumb to hubris as the Greeks called it! Luckily the technology does not yet exist that allows us to be heard in the stadium when we shout at the TV screen although we all seem to be practicing for when that time comes! To us couch coaches or those lucky enough to get seats it will be a story of triumph and tragedy, drama and despair.
Records will be smashed, old immortals toppled whilst new as yet unknown heroes and heroines will emerge.
The impossible could happen - a fifteen year old girl from Lithuania may win gold at swimming, GB could get a medal at gymnastics! It may seem odd to many that these fantastic athletes dedicate so much of their lives to going a micro second faster, to run further, to jump longer or higher, to lift weights the size of a small car just to win a medal that in 100 years will just be single statistic in the vast book of physical achievements.
Yet this is the true essence of human beings.
Nothing in the world has been achieved without that innate belief we have as humans that yet more can be achieved.
Near the end of the film Kingdom of Heaven the great general Saladin, after a fierce siege, takes Jerusalem from the crusaders.
He is asked by the surrendering knight Orlando Bloom what it means to have recaptured that holy place.
Saladin turns and says "It means nothing...
it means everything! So it is with the Olympics! So for the next few weeks let's put aside our cynicism and ignore our worries.
Let's exalt in a truly great spectacle and reflect upon the dedication, bravery and achievement of the world's greatest athletes.
Now where is that TV remote? I think the beach volleyball is about to start!