Coe Reveals Details of London Olympic Bid

Details of London's bid to host the 2012 Olympic games were unveiled today, with the bid team pledging that the capital could host "the best games the world has ever seen".

Sebastian Coe, the double Olympic champion and the chairman of London's bid team, said a successful bid would leave a "lasting legacy for the UK".

Lord Coe promised that a London games would be "financially successful", despite the majority of tickets being priced at less than £30, and said the bid would provide "excellence without extravagance".

Proposals contained in the bid, which was delivered to the International Olympic committee on Monday, were revealed at a ceremony that was also addressed by the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, and the London mayor, Ken Livingstone.

Following criticism from the IOC earlier this year, the plans have been modified, further concentrating them in a single area. The revamped proposals would mean that 80% of athletes would stay within 20 minutes of their venues, and 50% would live within the Olympic park in the Lower Lea Valley, east London.

The Olympic village and Olympic stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies and athletics events would take place, would be a five-minute walk away from the park.

More than £3bn has been earmarked to cover the cost of bringing the games to Britain for the first time since 1948. The Athens Olympics cost £6.2bn - almost twice their original budget - but Lord Coe insisted that "not a penny of the budget will be drawn from the public purse".

He said 60% of all profits would be ploughed back into British sport, and that the games would make at least £100m, despite the low ticket prices. Ticket costs would start at £15, with 75% priced at less than £50, making them 30% cheaper overall than Paris's proposals and 40% less than New York's.

There would be 9.6m tickets on sale - 8m for the Olympics and 1.6m for the Paralympics - with estimated sell-out rates of 82% and 63% respectively.

Lord Coe said London had fallen behind its rivals in terms of world-class sporting venues, but that "the games will put things right". He said all facilities would have a 25-year business plan for long-term use. "There will be no waste, no white elephants," he said.

"We have the opportunity to change the face of British sport for ever. The opportunity will not come round again. It has to be grabbed, and it has to be won."

There are plans for the proposed 80,000-seater Olympic stadium to be converted into a 25,000-seater athletics stadium after the games, with an institute of sport serving as a "nerve centre" for sports medicine and science.

The 9,000 homes created in the Olympic park would "provide much needed housing" in an undeveloped part of east London.

Lord Coe also pledged that London 2012 would be the "best connected games ever", with 10 train lines serving the main area. Nine already exist, while a so-called Olympic javelin shuttle service would ferry 25,000 passengers an hour to and from central London.

All three party political leaders appeared in video messages to back the London bid. The prime minister, Tony Blair, said: "Sport matters hugely to this country. And when that passion is combined with London's excellent technical and legacy plans, I know we would make a great host city."

Mr Livingstone, who said the bid had already boosted the drive for transport and infrastructure projects in the region, called on Londoners to get behind the campaign.

"I want all of us not only to get behind the bid, but to participate in it," he said. "The bid belongs to us all - support it and believe in it. It's our chance to renew, revitalise and re-energise our city.

"Nothing could be more inspiring than to compete for the honour, to win it and go on to deliver the most successful games in history."

In total, 75% of Britons and 69% of Londoners back the bid, according to an ICM poll carried out for the BBC. A survey conducted this week for Le Parisien newspaper found that 79% of those surveyed in France wanted Paris to host the games.

London remains second favourite with bookmakers to secure the 2012 Olympics. William Hill puts the bid at 9/4, behind the French capital at 4/9. New York is rated at 12/1 and Moscow at 33/1.

Lord Coe said London's bid would embrace "ethnic diversity and tolerance" - a possible swipe at Madrid, which has been pushed out from 13/2 to 9/1 after the racist abuse directed at England's black footballers on Wednesday.