London Update: Olympic Venue Developments

(ATR) The Olympic Board for London 2012 has given the go-ahead for two venues, including equestrian, despite concerns over the impact the event would have on a hallowed park.

London 2012 issued a statement confirming that the Olympic Board had accepted the recommendations of accountants KPMG that there are “no significant savings” to be made by not building a temporary basketball arena in the Olympic Park at Stratford, or by moving the equestrian events away from Greenwich Park.

It seems that the logistics of staging the modern pentathlon riding and running disciplines in Greenwich, and close to Olympic Park, was an important consideration.

The latter decision is likely to prompt strong protests from local lobby groups, who regard the World Heritage Site as sacrosanct, and fear that the park could be permanently damaged in order to provide the cross-country course for the three-day event.

“None of the alternatives identified by LOCOG and considered by KPMG are in a location which is close enough to accommodate the modern pentathlon show jumping event which needs to be located close to the Olympic Park to allow the completion of all five events within one day,” the statement explained.

Any move to another equestrian center – Hickstead, 30 miles south of London in Sussex, or Badminton, nearly 100 miles to the west in Gloucestershire, had both been suggested – would also require additional, local accommodation for riders, the KPMG accountants found.

Of the 12,000-seat temporary arena due to be built in the Olympic Park for the preliminary rounds of the basketball tournament, plus handball semi-finals and finals, several Paralympic events and the holding area for competitors at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the statement said that: “The KPMG review showed that there are no significant savings to be made from moving the venue off the park to an existing permanent facility.

“This is due to the resultant costs of venue hire, operating costs and the loss of ticket revenue due to a reduction in capacity … In addition, using an alternative existing venue for Basketball has significant technical and operational issues and knock-on effects for Handball, ceremonies and the Paralympic sports.”

Significantly, the statement makes no mention of the two other venues under review by KPMG: a $60 million temporary arena south of the River Thames for gymnastics and badminton, and the shooting range at Woolwich.

During the 2012 Games, badminton players and gymnasts may face daily journeys across London to compete at Wembley Arena, while shooting events could be moved outside London to Bisley, in Surrey. Both Wembley and Bisley were 1948 Olympic venues.

“We are not coy or naïve and say that the world isn’t a very different place than it was this time last year,” Sebastian Coe, the Tory peer who chairs LOCOG, said of the credit crunch affecting the Games. “But we’re still having very lively conversations with any number of potential partners.”

Last month, Paul Deighton, LOCOG’s chief executive, told ATR that he felt that while his organization had managed to “over-achieve” in signing up sponsors towards its $3 billion budget, it was unlikely that 2012 would sign any new sponsors in the next 12 months.

“Because we began tier-one negotiations early we have already secured the majority of our domestic sponsorship,” Coe told a session of the London Assembly. “We are not complacent and of course still have funds to secure.”

Coe maintains that there has been no change in 2012’s building plans. “In infrastructural terms, those budgets are set and there is no lack of momentum,” he said.

Coe was heckled and jeered by some of his fellow Conservative party members at the Assembly when they questioned him about the necessity for dedicated Olympic lanes on London’s traffic-congested roads for the IOC and other officials. “Can’t the army of Olympic officials take the bus?” Richard Tracey, a former Tory government sports minister, said.

To demonstrate a grasp of Olympic matters, the Assembly – which is headed by Mayor Boris Johnson - then passed a resolution that Twenty20 cricket – a short-form of the traditionally English game – should be included in the London Olympics. This despite the fact that the International Cricket Council has not put forward a proposal for inclusion of the sport in the Games, even by 2016.

Written by Steven Downes

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