COMMENT: The 2012 Olympics
On Wednesday the International Olympic Committee officially arrives in London in order to evaluate the British capital”s bid to stage the 2012 games. ABTN enthusiastically supports the enterprise to bring the world”s largest sporting occasion to the UK. The Olympics last came to London in 1948, when in spite of the ravages of the war, as the 1944 designated city it felt it had an honour to fulfil.
The UK has proved that it can handle the biggest sporting occasions, typically the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and the Euro 96 soccer competition. It has also shown that is can get it wrong. The wonderful Thameside site, now know as The Dome, is a classic example of second-rate politicians and third-rate organisers completely disorganised.
Our leader for the Olympic bid is Seb Coe, twice Olympic champion and a charismatic athlete. Coe was also a one term MP.
Let”s look at the positive side for London and the negative position for the competition. All the venues will be good at whatever city is chosen and therefore it is the supporting cast that needs to be viewed with care. With regard to London, by 2112 a whole series of brand new non-sporting 21st century innovations will be up and running, all vital parts of the Olympic infrastructure with perhaps Heathrow T5 the most important of them all, a fine gateway to the games. It is Europe”s largest current building project. Sadly BAA still hides T5 under wraps, the British media for the most part kept well away and London”s massive international press corps, always looking for a story, completely in the dark. If BAA were to move quickly the globe would know about T5 and with it the London bid. The same argument goes for the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras, another splendid project well under way and a useful tool in the promotion armoury. Last week”s announcement by Shangri-La shows what the hotel industry thinks of London and we can point to Marriott”s massive redevelopment of the Park Lane Grosvenor House, the Savoy”s future confirmed in this issue of ABTN, plus the impressive new Sofitel at Heathrow. Big business likes London.
The competition is very strong but not unbeatable. Madrid has a fine bid but is it fair to award Spain the Olympics with Barcelona still a memory (and a soccer venue)? The sailing will be in Majorca! Problems with the despicable Basque terrorists have not helped. Paris has been rejected twice in recent times. By 2012 the Stad de France will be 15 years old. In airline terms passengers vote with their feet. In spite of a less encumbered and at the moment a much more modern airport at CDG it still lags far behind Heathrow in terms of frequencies and connections. London is the hub of the world in terms of air transport (140m passengers in 2005 ” twice that of Paris). Jacques Chirac was of course mayor of Paris and a win (by him of course) would be a crowning glory. Jacques can be very tricky! Moscow last held the games in 1980 when there was an American boycott. Whilst the UK did take part it did not participate in the sailing events held at Tallinn, Estonia, having never recognised the Russian takeover of that country in 1944. New York in many ways has a strong case to host the games but in truth with Los Angeles (1984) and Atlanta (1996) venues in recent times it would be a travesty if American big business were again to commandeer the event.
Who will win the 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Olympic Games? If it were a question of honest voting and facilities maybe a host city would clearly emerge. Sadly politics and (possible) corruption might win the day. Who can easily forget when the New Zealand delegate for the 2006 World Cup voted against the instructions from his home committee and gave the competition to Germany? London needs to be as tough as the competition, if not tougher. This coming week is important, but not crucial. Lord Coe and his colleagues now have 141 days to keep London in the limelight, come up with new ideas, sort out any mistakes that may have been made and mobilise world opinion. We can win! But we need to work at it.
http://www.london2012.org.ukhttp://www.olympic.org