Introduction:
The UK government established the Millennium Experience Company (MEC) in 1996 to build and run the Millennium Dome. The Millennium Experience is a limited company governed by the companies' acts and wholly owned by the government.
The dome was built on the Greenwich site, which was proclaimed as home of time to celebrate the new Millennium. It was also intended to go back into the history books alongside the great exhibition of 1851 which heralded the industrialization of Britain, and the festival of British of 1951, which captured the mood of national revival after the Second World War .
The Dome is the largest structure of its kind in the world, over one kilometre in circumference, 50 meter high at the centre and covering over 20 acres of ground space. Though it was designed as a one year temporary structure, its life span could be extended to around 20 years by maintaining and replacing roof panels.
English: The Millennium Dome, London, UK
The O2, the largest single-roofed structure in the...
The Millennium Dome at night, Sept 2000The Millennium Experience Company roped in ã750 million from national lottery money, private companies and other sponsorships.
The dome was built to hold the millennium exhibition till the end of Dec 2000 and then to be sold to a private investor.
The current Problem:
Since the Millennium Dome was closed for visitors from 31st Dec, 2000, the Millennium Experience Company has been facing financial crisis in running the empty Dome. This is due to the reason that the MEC did not manage to find an appropriate buyer the end of year 2000 as it had planned.
The MEC has been constantly under criticism form the opposition party and the general public for its mismanagement. The company has been spending huge amounts of taxpayer's funds into the maintenance of the Dome. The maintenance cost for the dome have significantly increased over a period of...