The SIG Column – 24 November

Finding yourself pulled into the negative opinions forming around the
preparations for London 2012? Nick Keller, chairman of the Sport Industry Group,
explains why now is not the time to lose faith in the benefits the Olympics will
bring…

‘I, for one, am sick to death of Olympic bashing. The seemingly intrinsic
British media trait of looking for the worst in everything has once again raised
its ugly head this week as Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell announced to the House
of Commons that the construction budget for the 2012 site had increased by
£900m.

Cue ridiculously exaggerated allegations of mismanagement and all round
predictions of the world ending.

Ok…so in an ideal world the cost wouldn’t have gone up. But this isn’t a
fairytale, its business. If you look at any preparations for previous Olympics
or indeed the preparations for any major sporting event and the costs have
always risen as the project goes on. There are two undeniable reasons for this.

Firstly, there’s a little thing called inflation which will always see
continual revisions of budgets. And secondly, such is the lead up time required
to initiate and implement projects of this magnitude, that it is impossible to
predict exact budgets so far in advance.
This is not unusual in business by
any stretch of the imagination. Name one company’s five-year prediction plan
that has turned out to be true? Name one business sector which has forecast its
growth chart for the future accurately? The answer is none because, quite
simply, it is impossible to do so.

Not that the 2012 Olympic organising committee and the government are totally
blameless. How they misjudged the VAT bill so dramatically is anyone’s guess and
the varying speculation on the contingency budget – a figure which has never
been confirmed by the organisers – is creating murky waters around the whole
process. Many people might say, and I’m inclined to agree, that the mere fact
that they have put in contingency plans immediately lends an air of doubt over
the organisers’ faith in the validity of their financial position as laid out in
the bid document.

But there is nothing here that can’t be fixed with over five years to go and
it’s certainly no reason to assume that the whole project will collapse around
our ears. Transparency of the figures was certainly required and, to a certain
extent with Tessa Jowell’s announcement, transparency is what we’ve got. The
Olympics can still deliver substantial reward for London and the whole country.

The bottom line is that the British public have been allowed to forget the
euphoria that came with winning the bid to host the Games far too quickly. The
optimism of what hosting the Olympics will bring to this country both culturally
and economically has been replaced by a wholly unattractive string of media
headlines. Headlines that attempt to draw concrete conclusions of a bungled
operation but fail because it is impossible to make a concrete statement
regarding finances at this point in proceedings.

It is not helpful to anyone to play the blame game so early in the project’s
lifespan. The public and indeed business needs reminding that the 2012 Olympics
is a massive opportunity and will have a lasting effect on this country the like
of which we will never see again in our lifetime.

In this light, I’ve drawn up five points that everyone should remember the
next time they read a negative 2012 headline which might help keep things in
perspective.’

1) Winning the bid has reinvigorated investment in grass
roots sports programmes and gone a long way towards getting sport back on the
schools curriculum. So you don’t want your kids to grow up obese? The 2012
Olympics will be the reason this doesn’t happen.

2) The Olympic Park will regenerate the most rundown area of
London into a thriving economic community. Think about the years after 2012 not
just the years before it.

3) Ok, so we haven’t got a great track record with
construction projects but have a little patience. Lost in the myriad of
escalating budget headlines was the fact that planning approval for the sites
were actually approved early. It is on track despite what media speculation
would lead you to believe.

4) Do you have fears over issues such as transportation and
security? Winning the Olympics has placed a greater emphasis on dealing with
these issues. Solutions will have to be found as opposed to continuing to
procrastinate through never-ending debate.

5) We’re hosting the Olympic Games. That’s the biggest
sporting event on the planet being staged on our doorstep. This is
NOT a bad thing.