Londoners feeling the 'slow burn' for 2012

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London 2012 chairman Lord Coe talked about the "slow burn" when Britain was bidding for the Olympics. He meant that people would take time to start loving the Games.

He was absolutely right. After years of scepticism during the campaign, we saw real public enthusiasm for the event when it came to the final week before the International Olympic Committee decision in July 2005.

And on the day London won, many people enjoyed the party.

A BBC London poll is showing the same kind of trend with two years to go before the opening ceremony.

I spend my days highlighting the challenges of the Olympics and the public is more aware now that the Games won't be easy for London.

But what is interesting is that our Ipsos Mori poll of 1,000 Londoners shows increasing support for the Olympics in the last four years from 69% to 73%.

In fact 30% of people are more positive about the Games than they were when London won the bid.

Many see transport as the biggest headache with more than half of the people thinking the city's transport system will not cope well with the hundreds of thousands of extra passengers every day.

But the most striking result for me is that, despite the �9.3 billion price tag and the Governments cuts we are living through, most people don't want to see less money being spend on the Games. In fact 13% want more cash thrown at the Olympics.

It's almost as though they want the Games to be special, treasured and protected from these days of austerity -- an Olympic oasis.

What do you think?

Roberto Carlos Alan Shearer Daniel Passarella Davor Suker