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London Olympic organisers defend ‘peculiar’ ticket payment process

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/18/london-olympic-organisers-defend-peculiar-ticket-payment-process

London Mayor Boris Johnson brands Olympics 2012 ticketing process ‘an oddity’ Locog gives itself until 24 June to inform successful applicantsThis article titled “London Olympic organisers defend ‘peculiar’ ticket payment process” was written by Owen Gibson, for The Guardian on Wednesday 18th May 2011 16.51 UTCLondon Olympic organisers including Lord Coe have been forced to defend their ticketing process in the wake of criticism from consumer groups and after the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, called it “peculiar”.Consumer groups including Which? have criticised the fact that money started coming out of applicant’s accounts this week but Locog has given itself until 24 June to inform them which tickets they have received, if any.Coe denied the policy was an attempt to avoid a scenario where customers may cancel their orders if they had only received tickets for less popular events. He argued instead it was an attempt to create the breathing space to solve any problems with payments.“The important thing here is, let’s not be coy or naive about, we want to make sure that people have the funds to be able to do this. We’re talking £500m here, this is not chopped liver,” said Coe. “We want to make sure people have funds available. In the event they don’t, we don’t want to rip up that application on the first day.”Which? has said the ordering process forced people to take “a gamble with their finances”. Johnson told a parliamentary committee that taking payment before emailing successful applicants was “a bit peculiar” and “an administrative oddity”, though he added it was “not the end of the world”.Locog’s head of ticketing, Paul Williamson, said up to 25% of ticket payments may not go through first time due to lost cards, technical problems or because there were insufficient funds, adding an extra layer of complexity to a system that had 6.6 million tickets on sale across 648 sessions at five price points and numerous venues. He said the ticketing process had been well trailed and that he had no regrets about the strategy.“We can’t tell people what tickets they’ve got until we’ve charged their card. We need to make sure it’s a fully paid for order before we inform people. That’s sensible business practice,” said Williamson. “The second reason is the sheer scale of this enterprise. More than 1.8 million applied and more than 20 million tickets were applied for. The sheer scale of it is why it takes time. If we told people the day after their credit card went through, we’d be telling people across three or four weeks. You might be told and your next door neighbour wouldn’t.”He said that by the middle of next week Locog expected to have charged well over half of all payments. The emails to inform applicants whether they were successful will all go out on the same day.“We’re trying to be fair to people. No one is going to be allocated a ticket they haven’t applied for. On average, people have applied for 12 tickets worth a total of £500. People are applying for tickets they’ve chosen,” said Williamson.He also defended the fact that Locog has not informed buyers where they will be sitting, effectively asking them to take on trust that more expensive tickets will have better views.“The higher price points are closer to the action and more central, the lower price points are further away and higher up. That’s quite normal in major events where you’re selling tickets a year beforehand,” said Williamson, drawing comparison with other events such as Wimbledon and the FA Cup final that sold tickets in price bands.In June, anyone who didn’t get any tickets at all will get “first bite at the second chance cherry”, said Williamson, followed by those who didn’t get everything they applied for. All the remaining tickets will go back on general sale in November. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogLondon Olympic organisers defend ‘peculiar’ ticket payment processRelated posts:London Olympics organisers appeal to protesters not to disrupt flame routeWill the 2012 Olympics be a sell out?London 2012: Ten best of the web
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May 18 2011, 11:55am | Comments »
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Olympic Park: name that neighbourhood

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/19/olympic-park-name-that-neighbourhood

Some sort of competition for naming the five Olympic villages for the London 2012 Olympic games in Stratford East London.

This article titled “Olympic Park: name that neighbourhood” was written by Dave Hill, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 19th April 2011 09.47 UTC The Olympic Park Legacy Company recently made known four of the entries to its competition to name the five residential areas the park will eventually contain. It says the four are a sample of the “hundreds” it has received, and quite an instructive sample it is. I’m guessing that the suggestion of Plastic Fantastic is aimed at Area 3 and a historical reference to the development of early forms of plastic in the old chemical industry area of Hackney Wick, where dry cleaning too was pioneered. But who would rush to reside in a place called that? Would it assist estate agents in their noble task of wooing purchasers of the mixture of flats and family homes destined to rise alongside the Lea Navigation Canal? Stylish modern living in, ah, Plastic Fantastic? The OPLC’s Duncan Innes anticipates it being “quite a funky little area,” with “lots of arty people living there,” perhaps because the new local industry is galleries. From the commercial point of view, I’d be looking for bog standard pretentiousness in that case. Leaside Quarter? Wick Modern? Old Laundry? The three other suggested names released are Little Athens and Redgravia, whose Olympic inspirations, though ingenious, are perhaps a bit too obvious, and Dog and Bike, which to me sounds like a pub and only a pub. Still, I suppose the efforts made public were chosen to give clues and motivation to other potential competitors rather than on the basis of quality, and they do concentrate the mind on the complexities of the task. It needs to be tackled seriously. The organisers reserve the right to reject all contenders if they don’t think they’re up to scratch and impose their own instead. Should the five neighbourhoods’ names be Games-connected or reflect local history? They can’t really be both. If Games-connected, should they have a British or an international flavour? If localist, how local? And if history is to be the guide, whose history should take priority? That last is, of course, a political question and there was more than a whiff of politics about the decision to elongate the park’s name to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Would such eager deference to royalty have happened under a Labour government and Labour London Mayor? The very Conservative Boris Johnson is plainly pleased with the monarchical association, and it is one that could in theory be extended to the neighbourhood names, giving the whole area a thematic unity. Charles Environs? Middleton Village? On the other hand, perhaps Boris’s predecessor, who played such a big part in securing the Games for the capital, should have a neighbourhood named after him to recognise his contribution? Alas, Kenton and Kensington have already been taken. I’d been interested to hear your suggestions for Olympic Park neighbourhood names, and I’m sure the OPLC would too. Full details of its competition and the five neighbourhoods are here and the BBC, a partner in the enterprise, provides further helpful information here and here. I’ll be away on holiday when this post goes live, which means I’m unlikely to respond to comments. However, I’m sure there will be more to say on this subject before the competition’s closing date of May 18.

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April 19 2011, 6:36am | Comments »
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Millions will watch as Boat Race is re-branded as ‘world-class event’

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/25/millions-will-watch-as-boat-race-is-re-branded-as-world-class-event

The 157th Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race will be shown in more than 200 countries and it’s one of the top 10 annual events in London

This article titled “Millions will watch as Boat Race is re-branded as ‘world-class event’” was written by Barney Ronay, for The Guardian on Friday 25th March 2011 20.38 UTC In terms of sheer weight of numbers, the biggest attraction of a busy sporting Saturday takes place tomorrow afternoon, not in Cardiff or Colombo, but on a suburban stretch of the River Thames between Putney and Mortlake. The 157th Varsity Boat Race, an event competed for by amateurs at several rungs below world class level, will once again attract six million UK TV viewers, with 250,000 watching from the river bank and a further multitude tuning in via BBC website streaming and TV coverage in over 200 countries. At last week’s weigh-in at City Hall the London mayor Boris Johnson described the student race as “a world-class sporting event that is huge for London”. He seems to be at least half right. Part nostalgia pageant, part emerging talent showcase, the Boat Race has in the last two years made a visible effort to reposition itself as a high-end London heritage event. Selling it has been the lot of Boat Race Ltd, the company responsible for dragging this unique sporting “property” — an unavoidably class-bound two-horse race — into the modern world of high-end revenue raking. “It really is a part of London’s history,” says David Searle, the company’s executive director. “The mayor has been incredibly supportive. He’s there to promote London as a centre of all things and the Boat Race is considered one of the top 10 annual events in London.” Menaced by the loss of its ITV rights deal two years ago, the race has since promoted itself aggressively and is now brought to you by title sponsor Xchanging, plus a slew of commercial partners. Despite all of this Boat Race Ltd maintain the race is still financially under-geared. “Running it is very expensive,” Searle says. “We pay the clubs [Oxford and Cambridge] to turn up and row. That’s very expensive. There’s travel and coaching for teams. We don’t get any money at all from the colleges.” If the Boat Race has perhaps been more energetically sold, paradoxically today’s race is one of the more parochial of recent years. The race is often maligned as a sub-standard event. This is perhaps unfair: with the national squads yet to be formed, and thanks to the unusual intensity of Varsity race training, these are still currently the two finest eights in the country. On the other hand, with London 2012 now officially looming the pool of available talent is at a four yearly low. Currently the priority for potential Olympians is national competition. Hence the unusual absence of jobbing overseas rowers in today’s field; 13 out of the 18 competitors are British with just one American. On the plus side both of today’s eights are unusually well-stocked with young British talent, including six undergraduates whose chief rowing experience has come through their colleges. Cambridge are fancied by many to repeat last year’s triumph. They are the heavier eight, by 13 kilos, and also the more experienced, with four previous rowing Blues. But even in the light blue boat there is a fresh-faced tinge. Cambridge’s Dan Rix-Standing didn’t even try out for the race last year. There is also undergraduate colour: David Nelson, an Australian economics student, likes to hunt crocodiles in his spare time back home in Brisbane. In the Oxford boat the teenage old Etonian Constantine Louloudis is flagged up as one to watch. Dark Blue cox Simon Hislop, a 26-year-old testicular cancer survivor and a campaigner for awareness of the disease provides the most heartening story of a race that, true to its own branding as an annual rite of spring, seems set to take place on an unusually placid River Thames.

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March 25 2011, 4:46pm | Comments »
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2012 Olympic Park: after the Games

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/17/2012-olympic-park-after-the-games

The man and woman guiding the future of the London 2012 Olympic Park after the Games themselves are over were questioned by the London Assembly yesterday.

This article titled “2012 Olympic Park: after the Games” was written by Dave Hill, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 17th March 2011 14.27 UTC The Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) is the organisation responsible for making the vast public investment in next summer’s three weeks of sporting endeavour pay off for decades after the medal podiums have been packed away. Its chair is Labour Baroness Margaret Ford of Cunninghame, formerly of government regeneration agency English Partnerships. Its chief executive is Andrew Altman, who used to be Philadelphia’s Deputy Mayor for planning and economic development. Together they took questions from the London Assembly yesterday. Their answers both solidified in my mind’s eye the shape the Olympic Park is intended to take after the Games and showed how much of that shape is still shrouded in mist. The points that interested me most were as follows: One: The OPLC top brass are upbeat. Ford kicked off with a list of big achievements over the past twelve months. One was the rescheduling of £600 million of debt accrued by the London Development Agency – the economic development arm of the London Mayor – in buying up the many small plots of land that now comprise the Olympic Park. Both the present and the previous governments have enabled this. Ford was very grateful: “The original debt schedule had the company starting to pay back that £600 million very, very quickly. We’d have had to just put a for sale sign up and flogged it to the highest bidder. We don’t have to do that now.” She professed delight too with the new park masterplan, unveiled by Boris Johnson and Jeremy Bunt (sic) last autumn. Ford described it as “rooted in family housing,” significantly more (40 percent) of which is now envisaged. She was delighted too by the government earmarking £220 million over the next four years for switching the park from Games mode to post-Games community mode. This sum, she said, will pay for all the necessary infrastructure for “the early stages of developing the entire site: the signage the security the lighting, the children’s playgrounds, the toilets.” She was chuffed too that a preferred anchor tenant – West Ham, in partnership with Newham Council – has been found for the main stadium. Looking ahead, Ford saw finding equivalent occupants of the giant International Broadcast Centre – big enough to hold five jumbo jets – as a major challenge in the coming year. “It’s not going to be one company,” she said. Instead, it will need to be “the right group.” The adjoining Main Press Centre too will need filling once the global army of Games hacks have disappeared. Market testing has been undertaken. Ford was candid about this part of “legacy” being the company’s “most difficult task.” Altman described wanting to have everything required for the post-Games evolution of the Park in place before the Games themselves, including operators for all the sports venues and other attractions, notably the rapidly-forming ArcelorMittal Orbit. Two: It’s not clear how affordable the park’s “affordable housing” will be The new masterplan envisages up to 11,000 homes being built in the park eventually, including about 1,300 already under construction in the athlete’s village. Lib Dem AM Mike Tuffrey was pleased to be reassured by Ford that she still thinks 35 percent of that 11,000 will be “affordable”, though that term can encompass anything from houses or flats for “social rent” to the more expensive “intermediate” variety that provide a toe hold on the London housing ladder. The government is introducing a new “affordable rent” model, which many feel will generate homes for rent that people on low incomes will find far from affordable. When asked by Labour’s Nicky Gavron how many of the park’s “affordable” homes might be for social rent – within the range of households on low incomes – Ford explained that the OPLC was still trying to work through the implications of the new model. To me, these already appear ominous. Bids for the first 800 post-Games homes have recently been invited. Three: Leyton Orient will not find a new home on the park. Ask Owen Gibson. Four: It’s hard to tell how much local people will benefit from new jobs, opportunities and skills Ford told Labour’s John Biggs, one the two AMs who represent the Olympic boroughs that, “Every investment that we make in the park we have to look at through the prism of, how does this help with education, how does this help with jobs, how does it help provide opportunities for local enterprise or social enterprise.” Biggs thinks, rightly, that delivering this community legacy is vital if the Olympic project is to succeed. His Labour colleague Jennette Arnold, the other Olympic boroughs representative, asked if Ford and Altman were committed to creating local employment for the full diversity of local people. Ford said she hoped to “import” the good work done in this field by the Olympic Delivery Authority and said that over the next twenty years the development of the park – in construction, horticulture and so on – should provide “a generation’s work opportunities”. That’s an aspiration to keep an eye on. Five: the park’s attractions won’t immediately be available to the public after the Games Conservative AM Andrew Boff extracted some detail about this. Altman explained that “a huge amount of work” will have to be done before the park can be re-opened after the Games: seats will be removed from the aquatics centre; the main stadium will be transformed; the handball stadium will be converted. Ford said they were chewing over where it is “better to put the fence up round the park, make it secure and safe, get the job done really quickly then open the whole thing up,” or better to cordon off and open up different bits at different times. She was “moving towards” the former option, but no decision had been taken. Either way, she and Altman are thinking summer 2013 “at the earliest,” before “a staggered opening” of venues and attractions starts. You can watch a webcast of the hour-long session here (assembly plenary, 16 March) which is followed by Sir Simon Milton, Boris Johnson’s chief of staff, taking questions about the transformation of the OPLC into a development corporation under mayoral control later this year. Your comments and queries on any aspect of yesterday’s business are very welcome.

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March 17 2011, 12:15pm | Comments »
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London 2012 Olympics countdown clock stops

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/15/london-2012-olympics-countdown-clock-stops

I was in Trafalgar Square yesterday, but that was before the unveiling ceremony of the countdown clock for the London 2012 Olympic Games. It all looked like and advertisement for Omega, buts as it turns out, not a very good one perhaps.

2012 Olympics countdown clock Trafalgar square London

This article titled “London 2012 Olympics countdown clock stops” was written by Owen Gibson, sports news correspondent, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 15th March 2011 15.24 UTC It was launched in a blaze of sparklers by Lord Coe, London Mayor Boris Johnson and potential London 2012 gold medallist Jessica Ennis. But on the day Olympic tickets went on sale, organisers suffered a major embarrassment as their official countdown clock stopped. The timepiece, which has become a traditional fixture for Olympic host cities and is made by sponsor Omega, stalled reading 500 days, seven hours and 56 seconds to go until the opening ceremony. The 6.5m-high structure, which is in a prominent position in Trafalgar Square, was launched on Monday night at an event hosted by Clare Balding. It was unveiled by four Olympic gold medallists from Team GB – rowers Pete Reed and Andy Hodge and sailors Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson. “The launch of the Omega countdown clock is an important milestone for any Olympic Games and is something of a tradition within the Olympic movement,” said Locog chairman Lord Coe before the launch. “It will be a daily and hourly reminder to everyone who visits Trafalgar Square that the countdown to the start of London 2012 has well and truly begun and that the greatest show on earth is soon coming to our country.” Omega says it is not immediately apparent what has caused the problem. In a case of life imitating art the BBC on Monday night launched a Thick of It style mockumentary, Twenty Twelve, which featured a PR farrago around a countdown clock. A spokeswoman for Omega said: “‘We are obviously very disappointed that the clock has suffered this technical issue. The Omega London 2012 countdown clock was developed by our experts and fully tested ahead of the launch in Trafalgar Square. “We are currently looking into why this happened and expect to have the clock functioning as normal as soon as possible.”

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March 15 2011, 10:39am | Comments »

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