London Briefing Chris JohnsThe noise surrounding London's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games is steadily getting louder as decision day draws near.

The organisers of the bid have an extremely snazzy website, easy to navigate, which tells us, among many other things, all about the proposed venues for the various events.

I would recommend anyone vaguely interested in sport, London or web design to take a look at this site: it is one of the best that I have encountered.

Whatever about the merits of London's claim to the games themselves, the organisers deserve plaudits for the quality of at least one important aspect of their campaign

The potentially thorny issue of transport is dealt with in a no-nonsense fashion: how to get around is explained in enough detail without either over-complicating the issue or making a political statement about the adequacy, or otherwise, of London's transport infrastructure.

The biggest hint about one of the more difficult issues is found on the map that illustrates how to get from Heathrow to east London, home of the yet-to-be-built Olympic Stadium. Sadly, there is a big hole in the middle of the map called central London.

You have to get off the Heathrow Express and navigate you way to Kings Cross; not always as simple as it sounds - but zoom in, and the interactive map will guide you.

I'm not sure if it exists yet, but there appears to be a train that will take us from Kings Cross to "Stratford International" in seven minutes: "Spectators will be transported from central London to the Olympic Park in just seven minutes via the Olympic Javelin high-speed rail shuttle. A total of 10 rail and tube lines serve the Park." Perhaps they mean "will serve the park".

London's campaign got off to a shaky start when its chief executive, Ms Barbara Cassani, an Irish-Italian-American, resigned shortly after assuming her role.

She had previously established herself as a successful creator of the low-cost airline Go; there were mutterings that the last thing London needed was a focus for the anti-American lobby on the International Olympic Committee.

Diplomatically, Ms Cassani now says that she quit because it became obvious to her that somebody with much greater connection to sport would increase the likelihood of a successful bid. Hence the decision to replace her with Sebastian Coe, the Olympic gold medallist middle-distance runner.

Naturally enough, the organising committee has been trying to drum up as much support as possible from within Britain, as well as trying hard to impress the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The National Health Service has been persuaded to become a "supporter" of the Olympic bid, along with many other public and private sector organisations.

Chelsea has declared itself "proud" to become the first Premiership club to officially support the campaign.

In a sign of the times, much was made of the fact that Chelsea has six London-born members on its rather large squad. I guess the French contingent at Arsenal is simply too large for the Gunners to follow suit.

There will no doubt be disappointment at the news that business support for the games has, according to a recent London Chamber of Commerce survey, dropped considerably.

Apparently "disruption" is a big concern: business people with premises on the site of the Olympic Stadium are reported to be underwhelmed by the whole idea.

Nevertheless, considerable private sector support in the form of hard cash has found its way to the organising committee.

Benefits of the games are claimed to be extensive: Lord Coe argued, just before Christmas, that Scotland, for example, would derive many gains from the London Olympics.

I have even heard suggestions that Ireland should back the bid because of the potential spin-offs.

It would, of course, be churlish in the extreme to ask if anybody has listed or quantified these great prizes.

If it is hard for the disinterested observer to discern what the fuss is all about, I suppose that the key point is that everyone wants to host the games.

Paris, New York and London would hardly be competing to pour billions of pounds, euro and dollars into a project that has long since passed its sell-by date, would they?

The clock is now ticking, with less than six months to go before the IOC announces its decision. Next month, IOC delegates will visit London. I doubt they will have to get the tube between Paddington and Kings Cross. At least, I hope they don't.

Chris Johns is an investment strategist with Collins Stewart.

All opinions are personal.