【British Vision】Issue 18 新温布利大球场将延期竣工

Well, it was football's worst-kept secret, but now the truth is out. Despite the promises, Wembley Stadium will not be ready for the FA Cup final on May 13th. The match will be held in Cardiff instead. It's a humiliating blow for Multiplex, the Australian company, which won the contract to build the new Wembley. They blame constant design changes and problems with subcontractors for the delay and picking up the tab for the overrun, a sum that could top a hundred million pounds. Our business correspondent Faisal Islam has this report.

Que Será, Será. Wherever will be will be. No one is going to Wembley, the home of English Football, now yet another addition to the litany of disastrous² British infrastructure³ projects. Finally today, the Football Association admitted what has been suspected for many months, the FA Cup final, long planned as the showpiece debut⁴ for the stadium, moved after Australian developer’s Multiplex couldn’t guarantee it will be ready.

"Multiplex and indeed WNSL are unable to give us a hundred percent certainty that the stadium will be completed in time for the FA Cup final. Due to the magnitude of the Cup final, we are not prepared to compromise or take any risk on the stadium being unable to stage such a significant event."

It was meant to be ready in January, but constructing this 133-meter-high roof supporting landmark⁵ steel arch proved more complicated than expected, and it caused a series of fallouts with contractors¹ including a 50-million-pound high court lawsuit⁶.

They had six months where nothing was really being done in terms of the steel, because the steel was the biggest single component⁷ of this job, and the problem is they lost a lot of time on that, and therefore, so all backed up, so they had to find men and resources, and just chuck money at the job later to try and catch up to make up for the lost time.

The cost of this 90,000 capacity arena⁸ have escalated⁹ beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. The original costing was 325 million pounds. That’s more than doubled to almost 760 million. Putting together the finance alone cost 80 million pounds, and fees for lawyers and bankers stand at 82 million. It all adds up to 3,918 pounds per seat, making it far more expensive than other European stadiums. But those numbers aren’t the end of it. Multiplex has been picking up the bill over and above those costs after the FA cunningly got it to sign a fixed¹⁰ price contract. The Australian company undercut other bidders¹¹ substantially, determined¹² that it was to use Wembley as a flagship for its international expansion. Multiplex is expected to announce this week that it’s nursing losses of well over 100 million pounds on the projects.But no one comes out of this fiasco particularly well.

“In the birth of the Wembley Stadium, project was very difficult. There are a number of politicians involved in it. There are a number of different ideas about what they should actually do, whether athletics¹³ should be involved in it, and then the FA made a stupid move of putting a fixed price contract on it, but that put a huge amount of pressure on the contractors.”

So the FA can’t be too smug. It has a 425-million-pound loan to pay back, mainly through staging music concerts.

"Bon Jovi concert is still going ahead, so I presume that means, TakeThat concert is going ahead as well. But, if I put all this effort into it, and / sold all the tickets for it, because both of them have two shows, I would be very upset."

So Bon Jovi aren’t the only ones living on the prayer. The project was controversial enough from inception¹⁴, a sport rolling in TV cash, receiving a 170 million pounds of public subsidy¹⁵ to buy this site at what's widely considered to have been a vastly inflated¹⁶ price. The experience here doesn’t bode¹⁷ well for the far more complex plan to host 2012 Olympics.

Faisal Islam. Now....

1 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 disastrous   

adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的

参考例句：

• The heavy rainstorm caused a disastrous flood.暴雨成灾。
• Her investment had disastrous consequences.She lost everything she owned.她的投资结果很惨，血本无归。

3 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

4 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

5 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

6 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

7 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

8 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

9 escalated   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• The fighting escalated into a full-scale war. 这场交战逐步扩大为全面战争。
• The demonstration escalated into a pitched battle with the police. 示威逐步升级，演变成了一场同警察的混战。

10 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

11 bidders   

n.出价者，投标人( bidder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Bidders should proceed only if they intend on using a PayPal account to complete payment. Bidders的唯一形式，应继续只当他们在使用贝宝帐户，以完成付款打算。 来自互联网
• The other bidders for the contract complained that it had not been a fair contest. 其他竞标人抱怨说该合同的竞标不公平。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

13 athletics   

n.运动，体育，田径运动

参考例句：

• When I was at school I was always hopeless at athletics.我上学的时候体育十分糟糕。
• Our team tied with theirs in athletics.在田径比赛中，我们队与他们队旗鼓相当。

14 inception   

n.开端，开始，取得学位

参考例句：

• The programme has been successful since its inception.这个方案自开始实施以来一直卓有成效。
• Julia's worked for that company from its inception.自从那家公司开办以来，朱莉娅一直在那儿工作。

15 subsidy   

n.补助金，津贴

参考例句：

• The university will receive a subsidy for research in artificial intelligence.那个大学将得到一笔人工智能研究的补助费。
• The living subsidy for senior expert's family is included in the remuneration.报酬已包含高级专家家人的生活补贴。

16 inflated   

adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨

参考例句：

• He has an inflated sense of his own importance. 他自视过高。
• They all seem to take an inflated view of their collective identity. 他们对自己的集体身份似乎都持有一种夸大的看法。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 bode   

v.预示

参考例句：

• These figures do not bode well for the company's future.这些数字显示出公司的前景不妙。
• His careful habits bode well for his future.他那认真的习惯预示著他会有好的前途。