Editing Millennium Dome (section)

=== Financial and management problems ===
{{Quote box
 |quote  = At worst it is a millennial metaphor for the twentieth century. An age in which all things, like the Dome itself, became disposable. A century in which forest and cities, marriages, animal species, races, religions and even the Earth itself, became ephemeral. What more cynical monument can there be for this totalitarian cocksure fragile age than a vast temporary plastic bowl, erected from the aggregate contribution of the poor through the National Lottery. Despite the spin, it remains a massive pantheon to the human ego, the [[Ozymandias]] of its time.<ref>''[[Sunday Times]]''. 1 February 1998.</ref><ref>Off message. Bob Marshall-Andrews</ref>{{nonspecific|reason=Does this refer to his book, or is that the title given to his letter to/article in (whatever it is) the Sunday Times?|date=February 2022}}
 |source = [[Bob Marshall-Andrews]] MP, ''[[Sunday Times]]'' 1 February 1998
 |width = 30em
}}

The project was largely reported by the press to have been a failure. During 2000, the organisers repeatedly asked for, and received, more cash from the [[Millennium Commission]], the Lottery body which supported it.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Millennium Dome: Report - Value for money |url=https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/the-millennium-dome/ |website=[[National Audit Office (United Kingdom)|National Audit Office]] |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=9 November 2000 |quote=In the face of the severe shortfall in the Company's revenue, during the year 2000 the Millennium Commission has approved four additional grants totalling £179 million}}</ref> There where numerous changes at management and board level, before and during the exhibition;<ref name=NAOReport/>{{rp|58–59}} [[Jennifer Page (Millennium Dome)|Jennifer Page]] was sacked as chief executive of the New Millennium Experience Company just one month after the dome's opening.<ref>{{cite news | title = My Crown of Thorns | publisher =Guardian News and Media | work = The Guardian | date = 4 May 2000 | url = https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/may/04/dome.millennium1 | access-date = 26 July 2008 | first=Jennifer | last=Page | location=London}}</ref> The project came to be seen as closely aligned with [[Tony Blair]]'s [[New Labour]], making its success or failure politically important.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Imogen West-Knights |title=Was the Millennium Dome really so bad? The inside story of a (not so) total disaster |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/12/millennium-dome-experience-disaster-inside-story-new-labour |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=12 March 2020 |quote=Here, perhaps, was a chance to make a physical monument to everything that New Labour Britain would be about ... "New Labour really did think it was going to be some sort of quasi-political, sociological experience that would underpin everything that they were about," the exhibition designer Peter Higgins told me incredulously}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Labour's White Elephant |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1718293.stm |website=[[BBC News]] |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=18 December 2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=Nicholas Watt |title=Dome too ambitious admits Blair |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2000/sep/25/uk.tonyblair |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=25 September 2000}}</ref> Part of the problem was that the financial predictions were based on an unrealistically high forecast of visitor numbers at 12 million. During the first year that it was open there were approximately 6.5 million visitors – significantly fewer than the approximately 10 million paying visitors that attended the [[Festival of Britain]], which only ran from May to September.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1098465.stm |title=Dome visitor total way off target |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 February 2022 |date=3 January 2001}}</ref> [[Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938]], held in Glasgow, attracted more than 12 million visitors, being open May to October.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Empire Exhibition Collection |url=https://libcat.csglasgow.org/web/arena/empire-exhibition |website=Glasgow Libraries Online |access-date=2 September 2024}}</ref> Unlike the press, visitor feedback was positive; as of August 2000, 87% of visitors said they were satisfied with their visit.<ref name=NAOReport>{{cite web |title=The Millennium Dome: Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General |url=https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2000/11/9900936.pdf |website=[[National Audit Office (United Kingdom)|National Audit Office]] |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=9 November 2000}}</ref>{{rp|41–42}} It was the most popular admission-paying tourist attraction in 2000, with almost twice as many visitors as the second most visited attraction, [[Alton Towers]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Dome was UK's most popular visitor attraction |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jan/03/dome |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=3 January 2001}}</ref>

According to the UK [[National Audit Office (United Kingdom)|National Audit Office]], the cost of The Dome at the liquidation of the New Millennium Experience Company in 2002 was £789 million, of which £628 million was covered by National Lottery grants and £189 million through sales of tickets etc.<ref>{{cite press release | title = Winding-up the New Millennium Experience Company Limited | publisher = National Audit Office | date = 17 April 2002 | url = http://www.nao.org.uk/pn/01-02/0102749.htm | access-date = 3 January 2007 | archive-date = 23 October 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081023164235/http://www.nao.org.uk/pn/01-02/0102749.htm | url-status = dead }}</ref> A surplus of £25 million over costs meant that the full lottery grant was not required. The £603 million of lottery money was still £204 million in excess of the original estimate of £399 million required, due to the shortfall in visitor numbers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.millennium.gov.uk/lottery/experience.html |title=Experience |publisher=New Millennium Experience Company |access-date=4 July 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070624075018/http://www.millennium.gov.uk/lottery/experience.html |archive-date=24 June 2007 }}</ref>