The Olympic Damp Squib

The Independent reports that the hoped for Olympics greedfest (hoped for by those with their snouts in the trough) has not materialised, and that the forthcoming Games look like turning into a financial damp squib.

"Hotel prices have been slashed, and thousands of tickets remain unsold. Olympic package holidays are being flogged at half price and flats near the stadium languish unrented. It looks like the Olympic bubble could well have burst. 

With a surplus of top-end tickets and VIP packages, ticketing and travel companies have slashed prices in a last-minute effort to fill spaces."

This comes as no surprise whatsoever, as in February I wrote:

"Locog have had to publicly humiliate themselves (not for the first time) by admitting that they had overestimated the number of rooms needed by officials, media, sponsors and assorted freeloaders for the coming games.

By how much did they overestimate the demand?

By a staggering 20%!

Locog have had to hand back 120,000 of the total 600,000 nights booked for the Olympics.

Needless to say this 20% reduction in bookings has given the greedy hotel industry a well deserved kick in the goolies.

Tour operators are now panicking and have warned that the newly available rooms will not boost visitor numbers.

For why?

- the vacancies have come too late
- tourists have been put off by the naked greed of the hotel operators
- tourists have been put off by the transport/travel chaos expected in London during the games

It is estimated that up to one million beds will go unsold over the Olympic period, costing the tourism industry around £3.5BN.

Now who was it who said that the Olympics would be a boon to tourism?

Oh yes, Locog!"

My advice to any tourist brave enough to endure the chaos of London during the Olympics is to negotiate hard with the hotels (who are desperate for business), don't let the greedy bastards get away with overcharging you for a shoddy room and lousy service!

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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HMRC Guidance For Selling Olympic Torches

Given that the forthcoming Olympics are about making money, rather than sport, HMRC has very wisely issued some guidance to those people who are thinking of selling their Olympic torches.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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A Nice Little Earner - Torchbearers Charged For Torch

People who have volunteered to carry the Olympic torch around the UK, have received an email from the powers that be (London 2012) telling them that they will have to pay £199 if they want to keep the torch as a souvenir.

However, not everyone will have to pay the charge (if they want to keep the torch). Some sponsors of the torchbearers (eg Coca-Cola) have stated that the torchbearers it nominates will not have to pay.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Sponsorship Stupidity - The True Olympic's Spirit

The paranoia of Olympics sponsors (when it comes to protecting their "investment" in the London Olympics) knows no bounds.

Last month I wrote:

"There seems to be something of a hissy fit going on between the BOA and the agents of one of the sponsors of the London 2012 Olympics.

The agents of some competitors, who are sponsored by Nike, have told the BOA that athletes would be in breach of contracts if they are forced to wear Team GB’s official ”presentation outfit” which is sponsored by Adidas.

The agents have told the BOA that athletes might have to take off their shoes before mounting the presentation dais.

The BOA have hit back, and said that the rules mean that the athletes must wear the sponsor's (Adidas) footwear at all times."

The issue over footwear won't die down, the Telegraph reports that Aidan Kirkwood (a soldier injured in Afghanistan) was required to cover up the Raebok logo on his trainers with white tape when he appeared at an Olympic torch relay event this week.

There's the true "Olympic spirit" for you, money before sport or community spirit!

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Locog Not Backing Britain!

Following the furore over recently published evidence that some Olympics merchandise manufactured in China was produced using child labour, Sebastian Coe (Chairman of Locog) is quoted by Procurement Leaders:

“We place a high priority on environmental, social and ethical issues when securing goods and services. As soon as we were made aware of the Playfair 2012 report, we instructed our independent monitor to carry out a comprehensive investigation and review. The outcome of this will be made public as soon as it is concluded.

We have taken a lead in ethical sourcing and supply chain management but there is always more to do and we are committed to making a real difference to workers’ lives and creating a valuable legacy that we can share.”

That's fine, but could not all of this been avoided had Locog not instead sourced their supplies of Olympics tat from UK based companies instead of from China?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Locog Loses Its Grip

The Telegraph reports that, despite the past hype pressurising people to rush to buy them, there are in fact around 4 million unsold tickets for the London Olympics.

Locog don't appear to be on top of things, as they have admitted that they are still working out last minute seating plans at venues.

Quote:

"We simply do not have a full picture to present at the moment."

Locog will release the 4 million unsold tickets in April, of which 1 million cover most sports and the opening and closing ceremonies.

Unsurprisingly, some people who were pushed into buying tickets for lesser events (because the hype implied that the main events had all been sold out) are more than a little aggrieved at having been taken for a ride.

To add insult to injury, in the money making spirit of the Games, Locog are now attempting to charge people for lining the streets to watch the cycling event at Box Hill!

Previous assurances (which Locog deny ever making), that the event was free, have been swept aside in the spirit of mammon.

London Assembly’s economic development committee chair Baroness Doocey is quite rightly less than impressed with Locog, re charging for watching the cycling she said it would be "dreadful and most regrettable".

The Olympics are about money, not sport!

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Locog's Lack of Transparency

The ongoing controversy over Locog's handling of Olympics ticket sales (eg as highlighted in the recent Channel 4 Dispatches "Olympics Tickets for Sale") won't die down.

Unsurprisingly, The London Assembly’s Economy, Culture and Sport Committee has accused Locog of hiding behind its legal status as a private company and claiming commercial confidentiality despite benefiting from significant taxpayer funds.

The Telegraph reports that the committee has demanded that Locog reveals details of the ticket sale operation, including how many tickets have been sold at each price point at each venue and the total allocation of sponsor tickets, by Feb 27.

A report prepared for the committee, Sold Out?, said:

“Our conclusion, with the Games just a few months away, is that Locog has not yet done enough to ensure the transparency of the ticketing process. 

Locog’s lack of openness raises the risk that public trust in the process will diminish, fuelling a sense among Londoners that the opportunity to attend an Olympic and Paralympic Games in their own city was never truly within their reach. 

Locog told the Committee it intended to make the distribution of tickets roughly equal between the different price points for each event. However, we have received no confirmation that this principle has been implemented. 

Locog cited both data protection rules and the need to maintain commercial confidentiality as reasons why the information would not be published until after the Games. We do not accept these arguments. 

We fail to see therefore how commercial confidentiality can reasonably be used as a justification for non-publication of information which is clearly in the public interest. 

There is now even less transparency than in Sydney: despite having now sold the vast majority of tickets for the Olympic Games, Locog still refuses to publish a breakdown of the number of tickets available, or sold, to the public for each session. 

There are legitimate concerns that the most popular events may have a disproportionate number of the highly-priced tickets, and so far Locog has done very little to dispel these fears.”

Despite having sold the majority of the tickets, Locog still refuses to publish a breakdown of the tickets available, tickets sold, or how many were available for each session.

Why?

The committee chairman, Dee Doocey, said:

“Locog’s legal status should not excuse them from the transparency and openness we expect in other areas of public life.

It is completely unacceptable that an organisation that only exists because of a huge investment of public money can hide behind its status as a private company to avoid questions it does not like.

Locog is putting public confidence at risk by refusing to provide a complete breakdown of how many tickets were available for each event.”

Why does Locog choose to remain so secretive, given that it receives money from the taxpayer, what it is it afraid of?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

How "nice" to read that Septic Bladder and the "elite" of FIFA will be staying at five star hotels, and enjoy chauffeured vehicles and best seats at the blue riband events during the 2012 London Olympics.

Septic Bladder will have a free chauffeur driven car, on call for 24 hours a day, which will use the special Olympic lanes in London. Bladder's family members will be given special passes that entitles them to all events, and they will be able to stay at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane.

The Olympics is not about sport, but about money and junkets; FIFA will feel right at home here!

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Money Up Front

The London organising committee (Locog) continues to defend its ticket allocation and payment process (described by Boris Johnson as "a bit peculiar").

It has begun to deduct money from applicants' bank accounts. However, it may be as late as 24 June before those charged know what tickets they have been allocated.

Why do it in this manner?

Locog have provided the answer to the Telegraph:

"It is really important..is our ability to nail our revenues from tickets."

As noted before on this site, the Olympics are about money not sport.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Snouts In The Trough

It would seem that some people involved with the London Olympics 2012 simply cannot resist sticking their snouts in the trough.

The Telegraph recently reported that some of London's leading hotel groups (including Intercontinental, Hilton and Thistle) are taking legal advice following their discovery that some of the rooms that they have supplied to Locog (at preferential rates) are being resold by Thomas Cook at "grossly inflated prices".

One premium three-night ticket and accommodation package is on offer at the Hyatt Regency Churchill for £6,499 per person, including meals and transfers (the face value of the tickets is a "mere" £1,740).

Locog has taken 56,000 rooms, and has given Thomas Cook (a sponsor of the games) access to 8% of the rooms.

As I have noted many times before on this site, the Olympics is not about sport it's about money!

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Mobiles Nixed On Tube

Britain's four mobile companies (O2, Vodafone, 3 and Everything Everywhere) have nixed the £150M project to allow mobile phones to be used on the London Tube (in time for the Olympics).

Technologically speaking this leaves the London tube firmly in the third world.

However, the abandonment of the scheme (which would have allowed commuters to make calls, text and browse the internet on the Tube) is a blessed relief to the long suffering passengers of the overcrowded and unpleasant Tube system; as it at least saves them from further annoyance from noisy mobiles and their owners.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Time To Knock Some Heads Together

The government has woken up to the fact that the absurd row between the British Olympics Association (BOA) and Locog, over the share of post Olympics spoils (if there are any), is severely damaging what is already a rather tainted brand.

The Sports Minister, Hugh Robertson, has weighed in and stated that he is "prepared to do anything" to end the row.

Which is political speak for "I will knock some heads together".

Robertson will meet BOA chairman Lord Moynihan today, and doubtless explain to him that everyone thinks that the BOA are acting like a bunch of knobheads.

The meeting will of course be reported as being a "full and frank" discussion:)

The BOA's and Moynihan's positions have been further undermined (they have been made to look even more foolish) by the the statement issued by London 2012's chief financial officer, Neil Wood, as per the BBC:

"With reference to a claims by the BOA of a meeting last July between Locog and the BOA in which statements allegedly were made by me to the effect that the Olympics would make a profit of about £400m with the Paralympics making a corresponding loss and at a subsequent meeting I allegedly revised this figure down to £300m - I have never made such statements, which are in fact untrue."

As I noted earlier this month, "as regards the BOA, it is clear that not one penny more should be allocated to this inept and incompetent body".

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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The Volte Farce

The Telegraph reports that Mike Whitby, leader of Birmingham council, has had to make something of a volte farce.

He had suggested that residents be charged to watch Jamaican and United States athletics training in Birmingham, in the weeks leading up to the 2012 London Olympics.

However, following a public bleating and outcry, he has had to backtrack.

I disagree with the public bleating, making money is entirely within the "spirit" of the games. Additionally, given the size of the ever increasing Olympics "budget" (£12BN including running costs) and the fact that the country has a £4.8 Trillion debt, any opportunity to reduce public costs should be grasped firmly.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Ker Farking Ching!

My sympathies to Kamel Kichane, owner of Cafe Olympic in Newham, who has fallen foul of the Olympic money making machine.

Mr Kichane took advice from Newham Council, three years ago, about naming his restaurant Cafe Olympic. The council gave verbal permission for the name.

However, trading standards officers from the council are now threatening him with legal action unless he changes the name (as they claim it is an unauthorised use of the Olympic brand) at a cost of £3K.

Will the organisers of the Olympics also be pursuing other larger organisations, who use the word "Olympic" in their names, eg Olympic Airlines?

No, I thought not!

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Milking The Olympic Cow

The Telegraph reports that those who own property within a reasonable distance of the London Olympics could be sitting on a gold mine.

Allegedly, if estate agents etc are to be believed, two bedroom properties within half an hour of London Olympic venues could bring in over £3K a week and five bedroom houses nearly £10K a week at the time of the Olympic Games.

Why would people be stupid enough to pay so much for something that they could watch far more comfortably from their own homes?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Ticket Plans Nixed

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG), despite allowing the governing bodies of the 26 Olympic sports in Britain to buy tickets for the London Games ahead of the tickets going on general sale next year, has forbidden the governing bodies from making any of their tickets available to the public.

LOCOG only want those tickets to be used exclusively for the people who run their sport, or for the governing bodies' sponsors.

For why?

LOCOG want exclusive control over the public's ticket sales market, in order to maximise their revenue from sponsorship and in order to maximise the prices that it can charge.

This means that plans by sports' governing bodies to raise money (eg via competitions to win tickets) and to reward volunteers have been nixed.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Spurs Bid "Completely Unacceptable"

The Chairman of UK Athletics (UKA), Ed Warner, has lashed out at Tottenham Hotspur's bid for the Olympic Stadium post London Olympics 2012.

Spurs with their bidding partner, AEG, have been named as one of the preferred bidders. However, if they win, they plan to remove the athletics track and turn the stadium into a mecca for the "god of football".

All very well, maybe. However, when the London Olympics organisers bid for the games in 2005 they made a "promise" (how these things tend to be "forgotten" with the passage of time) to leave a legacy of an athletics track.

Ed Warner hasn't forgotten that promise, and has told the BBC:

"It is [essential] for Tottenham and AEG to go back to the original promise made in 2005.

That was about UK Athletics being at the heart of the Olympic Park...

Anything they might propose for an athletics legacy has to be a compromise to the stadium continuing to operate at a world-class level. To my mind that is completely unacceptable."

The question is will money override fairweather promises?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Airfares Capped

When London made its bid to host the 2012 Olympics, within its long list of promises was one to pay the airfares of all athletes, officials and assorted hangers on. At the time, the cost of this largess was estimated to be around £20M.

However, time moves on, as we all know we are now in a recession and the Olympics "budget" at the time of the bid was based on fantasy anyway.

The London Olympics organisers are now proposing to cap the airfares promise, and base payments on distance travelled (rather than actual cost incurred).

Needless to say national Olympic committees around the world, who had expected a freebie are now complaining loudly that they might have to stump up some of the cost for attending the games. For good measure, they are also complaining that they are having to pay for furniture and equipment for their temporary offices during the games.

Here are two thoughts on the matter:

1 Why the hell should we pay for others to fly here?

2 Attending the games, as far as I am aware, is not compulsory. Those countries that don't want to spend the money don't have to attend.

Problem solved!

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Legacy Matters

It seems that members of the London Assembly are, quite rightly, a tad cynical about the promises made concerning the legacy of the London 2012 Olympics.

John Biggs, chair of the assembly's budget and performance committee, is quoted by Publicpropertyuk.com:

"A huge amount of money has gone into creating the Olympic Park and this investment must result in an economic benefit for east London and the capital as a whole.

Everyone thinks responsibility for the legacy is cut and dried, but our investigation suggests there are still many unanswered questions which need to be addressed if London is to get the kind of legacy that was promised."





Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Beware Betting Scams

As noted many times on this site, the Olympics is more about money rather than sport.

The IOC is concerned that the London Olympics 2012 will be subjected to betting scams/corruption/fixing and, as such, will be monitoring betting patterns.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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