Eton Dorney...

[max_tranmere]

I heard that Eton Dorney, the Olympic rowing lake west of London, is not a natural waterway but was dug out at a cost of ?17 million. Eton school paid for all but half a million pounds of the construction and the lake is mainly used by the school for its kids to compete in rowing - its use for big sporting events are occasional. I was actually quite shocked when I heard this, how does a school have ?16.5 million spare to build a lake for its kids to go rowing in? Talk about having money to burn. There are great extremes in this country: people grow up on inner city estates and never get a chance to go abroad on holiday or even sit in a car because no one they know owns one. Then you have a school west of London that can spare sixteen and a half million quid on rowing facilities for its kids. Shocking.

[Jonone]

I dare say there are a lot of donations to the school - possibly a tax avoidance strategy - and money left in wills. When you consider the socio economic backgrounds of people that go to Eton I wouldn't be surprised that this kind of money accumulates.

[David Johnson]

http://bgafd.co.uk/forum/read.php?f=3&i=259697&t=259697

[Arginald Valleywater]

?30k a year, full waiting list, lots of donations from Old Boys......no problem. You must remember some American colleges have 80000 seater stadiums and more...

[Zorro]

?17 million to build seems very cheap, I wonder how much it would have cost if it had been put out by the government to tender?

I doubt it would have cost just ?17 million.

I wish we had asked Harrow to build the Velodrome
Millfield the Aquatic centre

etc etc

Would have saved us the tax payer a few quid

[max_tranmere]

It is good that Eton Dorney is used for things other than just for Eton School related events. The nation and the world can use it and it will obviously be there forever more so the advantages of building the thing will be felt by later generations. I do wonder if it was money well spent by the school, although they are their own body so can do with their cash as they please. A lot of inner city schools have had playing fields sold off, whereas places like Eton are never short of sporting facilities and get new ones (like this) as time goes on. Eton though are in a leafy area just beyond the suburbs so they have more room I guess.

[Bob Singleton]

Eton Dorney actually makes quite a lot of money from non-rowing events... the whole or parts of it are available for hire, and speaking to someone in the know, it's about 70% booked out until the end of 2013 for social rather than sporting occasions.