Sponsors to the fore in torch relay but who will light the flame in the London 2012 Olympic stadium?This article titled “The London 2012 torch mixes the Olympian and the corporate” was written by Owen Gibson, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 19th May 2011 09.58 UTCAs Seb Coe stood up to speak about the inspirational effect of the flame that will a year from now be passing through the cities, towns and villages of Britain having been “lit by the power of the sun on Mount Olympus”, three other figures looked on intently.They sat alongside him as he went on to talk about the galvanising effect he expected the tour to have on communities as the Olympic spirit coursed through them and they hosted their own celebratory events in the early summer gloaming.And they listened intently as Coe spoke affectingly about a husband and wife team who sold their house so the community gym they run in south-east London could survive – his nomination for one of the 7,200 out of 8,000 torchbearer slots reserved for members of the public.The three onlookers, who then got to take their turn to speak, were representatives of the three “presenting partners” – Samsung, Coca-Cola and Lloyds TSB – who get to plaster their branding over the torch relay. The man from Coca-Cola alone promised to bring “happiness and celebration” to the route.It is they (along with local authorities along the way) who effectively pay for the hoopla that will surround the torch relay that organisers hope will be the moment that the nation drops any lingering cynicism and truly embraces the Games.It was the most obvious manifestation in London to date of the sometimes uneasy, but ultimately profitable, mix of heady Olympic ideals and hard-nosed commercialism that has turned the modern Games into the globe-straddling event that it is.The genius of the International Olympic Committee’s commercial growth since the Los Angeles Games of 1984 has been to rake in huge sums from sponsors while enforcing very strict rules on how they can use the rights.As one of the very few events that the IOC allows them to overtly brand, the torch relay is where that symbiotic relationship – the organising committee Locog needs the sponsors to contribute £700m towards its £2bn budget, the sponsors want to extract every last drop of value out of their huge investment – becomes clearest.So it was that Coe began his press conference invoking the loftiest of Olympic ideals and ended it defending the involvement of Coke and answering questions on how many fizzy drinks his children guzzled.In common with their wider activity to date surrounding the London Games – which has tended to focus on warm and fuzzy corporate social responsibility activity rather than overt branding – all three sponsors have bought into the idea of using the relay as a means to run campaigns offering worthy members of the public the opportunity to claim their own slice of Olympic history and run a few hundred yards with the torch.A Locog team has spent two years painstakingly researching the 8,000-mile route and negotiating with local authorities. They hope that when the relay hits town, backed by wall-to-wall coverage from local media who will concentrate on the rich back stories of those running and the celebratory event that will take place every night (something between a Radio 1 roadshow and a county fair sponsored by multinationals, by the sound of things) Olympic fever will take hold up and down the country.Whether they succeed will depend to a large extent on those sponsors. If they get it right, Locog, the brands and the public will benefit. Get it wrong, and it could dent public enthusiasm.Sally Hancock, head of 2012 at Lloyds TSB, argued at the launch that in many ways the Olympics couldn’t have come at a better time for her company. Struggling to repair public trust and negotiating the internal challenge of merging two huge banks, the opportunity to create a feelgood factor around an event that is at once local and national in scale could be a huge one.But if the public is turned off and fails to buy into the concept – Locog has promised half the runners will be between 12 and 24 and 90% will be ordinary members of the public, to be nominated through four separate campaigns by the organisers and the sponsors– then it will feel like a long 8,000 miles.Locog will also have to get the balance right between safety and celebration. The defining public image of the Beijing international torch tour, which caused the IOC to turn it into a domestic event confined to the host country, was of a scrum of security guards bludgeoning their way through human rights protesters as bussed-in supporters of the Chinese government looked on.The UK’s experience will be becalmed by comparison. But Coe – who has often described Britain as a “slow-burn nation” that will take time to reach fever pitch over the Olympics – knows more than anyone how crucial it is that the relay is the moment at which the flame ignites that enthusiasm.And by the time the torch reaches the Olympic stadium, the eyes of the world will be on it. Which raises three obvious questions: Who will light the cauldron? How? And where will it be (there is still debate within Locog about whether it should be in the stadium, on top of it or on some sort of structure nearby)?The most memorable final torchbearers – Muhammad Ali in Atlanta, Cathy Freeman in Sydney – have held resonance beyond merely their status as sporting heroes in their home country. And the more spectacular the method of lighting the cauldron (the archer in Barcelona, the flying Beijing gymnast), the greater the risk of global humiliation.The task for Danny Boyle, the Trainspotting director already planning the opening ceremony in an east London warehouse, will be to come up with something to top what has gone before. Bookmakers immediately installed Sir Steve Redgrave as favourite, but will the emphasis on youth that characterised the bid promises lead organisers to a younger face? Coe, who might have been a leading contender were he not already so intimately involved with the staging of the Games, has already ruled himself out. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogThe London 2012 torch mixes the Olympian and the corporateRelated posts:London Olympics organisers appeal to protesters not to disrupt flame routeLondon 2012 Olympics countdown clock stopsLondon 2012: Ten best of the web
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The London 2012 torch mixes the Olympian and the corporate
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May 19 2011, 5:24am | Comments »
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London Olympics organisers appeal to protesters not to disrupt flame route
Lord Coe says he is confident balance can be struck between security and celebration as he unveils locations of the Olmpic torch’s 70-day journey around the UK to herald the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.This article titled “London Olympics organisers appeal to protesters not to disrupt flame route” was written by Owen Gibson, sports news correspondent, for The Guardian on Wednesday 18th May 2011 16.03 UTCLondon 2012 organisers called on protest groups not to disrupt the 8,000-mile journey of the Olympic flame around the UK, after unveiling its route for the first time.Lord Coe, chairman of the London organising committee of the Olympic Games (Locog), said he was confident the balance could be struck between guaranteeing the safety of the 8,000 torchbearers and ensuring a celebratory atmosphere.“We will make sure that the torch flame gets around the UK in the safest and most secure way, but at the same time we want communities to celebrate it and not [put it] behind a cordon of steel. I think we’ll get the balance right,” he said.He appealed to protest groups not to target the route of the torch, which according to tradition will be lit on Mount Olympus before beginning its journey around the UK at Land’s End on 18 May next year.“This is friendship, this is respect, this is showcasing extraordinary talent in local communities. I really don’t sit here thinking this will be a catalyst for massive demonstrations. I think people get this,” he said.The Beijing torch relay in 2008, the last that ventured beyond the borders of the host country before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) changed its policy, was chiefly remembered for protests and heavy-handed security. In Vancouver, protesters disrupted the last few days of the event, sparking counter-demonstrations from those supporting it.Coe, unveiling the first 74 locations on the torch’s 70-day tour of the UK, said the relay would be vital in igniting enthusiasm for the London Games beyond the capital and insisted that it would not be a giant marketing exercise for sponsors.“I am proud and excited as I envisage the moment that really marks the start of our Olympic celebrations in the UK and far beyond,” said Coe, who ran with the torch ahead of the Vancouver Games.“As it made its way around Canada, it drew renewable power from every community it passed through. As it made its journey across that huge land mass, Vancouver’s Games became Canada’s Games.“That is London 2012′s intention too. Ours will be a Games that takes place on your doorstep.”The 8,000 torchbearer places are divided between Locog and the three “presenting partners” – Coca-Cola, Lloyds TSB and Samsung – who will help fund the events that will take place at each overnight stop.As the only part of the Olympics that can be branded, it is likely the sponsors will have a heavy presence but, like Locog, they have promised to make the vast majority of their torchbearer places available to members of the public.Coe said more than 90% of places would be taken by the public, with half of the torchbearers aged between 12 and 24.Locog has already launched its own nominations campaign, inviting the public to put forward members of their community with inspiring stories.The sponsors will take a similar approach in distributing the tickets to the public and staff. The cast of public torchbearers is likely to be augmented by athletes and celebrities.The announcement has also sparked speculation about the likely identity of the final torchbearer who will light the cauldron in the Olympic stadium at the climax of the opening ceremony, with bookmakers installing Sir Steve Redgrave as favourite.The final route will take the torch to within an hour of 95% of the population across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and six outlying islands. It will visit the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, Shetland, Orkney and the Isle of Lewis. Coe said Locog was also in advanced talks to take the torch to Dublin.British IOC member Sir Craig Reedie said the route would also pass UK sporting landmarks including Wimbledon, Old Trafford, St Andrew’s and Much Wenlock in Shropshire, the birthplace of the modern Olympics.The event will also be crucial to the cash-strapped British Olympic Association. Under the terms of its recent settlement with Locog after it backed down in a row over the division of any surplus from the Games, it will receive the royalties to two branded items of Olympic merchandise.In Vancouver, more than 3.5m pairs of red mittens were sold to those who lined the route to raise money for Canadian sport. The BOA will unveil its branded merchandise next year. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogLondon Olympics organisers appeal to protesters not to disrupt flame routeRelated posts:London Olympic organisers defend ‘peculiar’ ticket payment processLondon 2012 Olympics countdown clock stopsIran claims London 2012 Olympics logo spells ‘Zion’
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May 18 2011, 11:57am | Comments »
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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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Health agency issues Olympics emergency warning
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/05/health-agency-issues-olympics-emergency-warning
Health Protection Agency says upheaval caused by its abolition could pose ‘extreme risks’ during the London 2012 Olympic Games
This article titled “Health agency issues Olympics emergency warning” was written by James Meikle and Owen Gibson, for The Guardian on Thursday 5th May 2011 16.30 UTC The NHS’s main public health body says its planned abolition weeks before the 2012 Olympics could compromise emergency responses if there are serious incidents at the games. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) warns the upheaval generated by huge organisational changes across the health service could pose extreme risks when Britain hosts the world’s biggest sporting event next summer. There is “high potential” for funds aimed at protecting the public at the event to be cut, it says. In the past, the risk to public health at the Olympics has come from incidents as diverse as food poisoning and terrorism. The agency is responsible for disease control and monitoring as well as scientific and public health advice during emergencies. Its responsibilities are to be absorbed within the Department of Health. Other authorities which tackle such crises are also in turmoil, with staff leaving primary care trusts well before they are abolished in 2013, while local councils are being hit by spending cuts. Labour has demanded the shakeup should “at the very least” be put on hold until after the London Olympics. Diane Abbott, the shadow health minister, said: “David Cameron seems to be prioritising driving through his NHS reorganisation above public safety during the Olympics. “For this Tory-led government to push our public health services into a state of chaos and abolish the current agency right before London 2012, with people from all over the world arriving in London, and the eyes of the entire world on Britain, is nothing short of a disgrace.” The revelation of the HPA’s concern over the Tories’ NHS plans comes as public health professionals fear their voice is being ignored, even during the government’s two-month listening exercise. They have no members on the Future Forum group overseeing the exercise, headed by GP Steve Field. The timetable for the shakeup has already been hit by the break in the progress of legislation – meaning the first changes are now scheduled for July 2012, the month in which the games begin, instead of April. That shift has led the HPA to say the risk of “compromising” national emergency responses during the Olympics is now even higher than when it first raised the issue in its official response to the shakeup in March. It warned then that there might be “considerable risks to the national capability to launch multi-agency responses to incidents and emergencies”. The agency said the planned changes would create “considerable uncertainty” and “preparation for, and response to, incidents arising in association with the Olympic and Paralypmic Games will be compromised” unless an appropriate structure replaced the current one. In a statement to the Guardian, the agency said: “Deferring the changes to July 2012 would increase the risk. We have made the Department of Health aware of our views concerning the risks in delaying.” It said a small number of its 3,850 staff had already left, citing concerns about the independence of their work and advice if they were moved to the health department. The HPA’s March document states that the move could also undermine wider public and professional confidence. Abbott said: “It is time that this government listened to public health professionals. Alarm bells are now ringing within the Health Protection Agency, local authorities and also local primary care trusts, and increasingly there will also be concern amongst the public. “We have worked hard to bring the Olympic Games to Britain. It should be a time in which we showcase what Britain is about to the rest of the world. The priority should be public safety and ensuring that we are prepared to respond robustly to major incidents and emergencies.” Lindsey Davies, former national director of pandemic influenza preparedness at the Department of Health who is president of the Faculty of Public Health, said: “The entire public health community has grave concerns about the potential risks from the timing of the changes.” Although there have been few major health scares linked to past Olympics, there was a terror attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics and a bombing which killed two people in Atlanta in 1996. A stomach bug struck competitors at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi last year. The agency says the games will raise the risk of diseases spreading due to the influx of international visitors and from mass gatherings in restricted spaces during the games. Early identification will help reduce the risk of widespread exposure and minimise the impact on visitors as well as local communities. Other concerns include heatstroke among crowds. About 300,000 people a day are expected to be in the Olympic Park during the height of the games. The Department of Health said it was working to ensure “business continuity” was maintained during the transition. A team had been established to ensure the the ministry and the NHS is able “to respond to major emergencies continues to be robust and to ensure the requirements of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are met. Work is under way to test how the proposed new systems would function during the 2012 Games. This work will focus and strengthen safety at the 2012 Games”. It is understood Olympics organisers are aware of the concerns but have not been directly involved in discussions. Thousands of athletes begin arriving in Britain for training camps in the UK in June 2012. The Olympic village opens in mid-July and the games run from 27 July to 12 August 2012. The Paralympics run from the end of August into September. A total of 17,000 athletes and officials from about 200 countries will stay in the village on the Olympic Park, in east London. In total, more than 10,500 athletes will compete in 26 sports based in various venues around the capital and beyond. Sailing will be based in Weymouth and the Olympic football tournament will be played in various grounds around the country. According to the detailed transport plan released last month, the busiest day of the games – Saturday 4 August – will see 700,000 ticket holders moving around London to watch sessions at 11 venues. In all, 8.8m tickets are available for the Games, with 6.6m on sale to the general public. About 20,000 broadcast and print journalists will also descend on London.
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May 5 2011, 12:51pm | Comments »
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Olympic stadium completed on time
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London 2012 Olympic Stadium designers hail ‘the beginning of the end’ of the construction phase as the main arena comes in on schedule and under budget.
This article titled “Olympic stadium completed on time” was written by Owen Gibson, for The Guardian on Tuesday 29th March 2011 19.51 UTC The designers of the Olympic Stadium in east London have hailed its completion as “the beginning of the end” for the construction phase of the 2012 Games. As International Olympic Committee inspectors arrived in the city for a three-day visit to check on progress, organisers hoped the good news on the completion of the Stratford stadium would overshadow an ongoing row with the British Olympic Association over how any hypothetical profit would be distributed. Lord Coe, the chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, watched Frankie Fredericks, a four-time Olympic silver medallist, lay the last piece of turf on the infield. The £486m stadium is the second major venue on the Olympic Park to be finished, after the Velodrome was unveiled earlier last month. “I do not want anybody to run away with the idea that this stadium is ready to stage a track-and-field championship tomorrow,” said Coe. “But as a chairman of an organising committee to be able to tick off this venue is terrific. It is fantastic. I think it will be an intimate theatre for sport and it has fantastic legacy potential, too.” Work began on the 80,000-seat stadium in May 2008 and the Olympic Delivery Authority, which is responsible for spending £8.1bn of public money on the infrastructure to host the Games, said its completion was a “huge milestone”. “The Olympic Stadium has been finished on time and under budget,” said ODA chairman John Armitt. “To complete a complicated project such as this in less than three years is testament to the skill and professionalism of the UK construction industry.” Rod Sheard, of stadium architects Populous, said he was looking forward to watching “this innovative design perform for the first time”. He added: “Its completion marks the beginning of the end of the construction phase of London’s Olympic Games.”
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March 29 2011, 3:35pm | Comments »
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London 2012 tickets, Japan appeal and census targeted by scammers
Warnings issued over phoney doorstop callers, fake emails asking for money and too-good-to-be-true London 2012 Olympic tickets
This article titled “London 2012 tickets, Japan appeal and census targeted by scammers” was written by Jill Insley, for The Observer on Sunday 27th March 2011 00.05 UTC Bogus doorstep callers have been posing as census collectors to try to get into people’s homes – and householders are being warned to be on their guard for fraudsters after today’s deadline for filling in the form. Following an attempt by a fraudster purporting to be a census official from the county council to get into an elderly man’s home in Leicestershire, the Local Government Association has urged people to be vigilant. Paul Bettison, the chairman of local government regulation, said: “Fraudsters are known to take advantage of any situation. If they can make money from it, then they will give it a go. “People visiting a household for official business should be able to provide photographic identification and unless that is the case, nobody should allow anyone access to their property.” Official census collectors will, from 6 April, visit a small number of households that have failed to complete the census – which can be returned in a pre-paid envelope or filled in online – but they will provide identification. Anyone who thinks they have been targeted by a bogus caller should call the census helpline on 0300 0201 101. Fraudsters have also been trying to scam money out of people wanting to donate cash to the Japan Tsunami Appeal. A spokesman for the Red Cross said: “There are some fraudulent emails circulating claiming to be raising money for the Japan Tsunami Appeal. These may request that you donate through companies like Western Union or Money Bookers, which we would never do. If you suspect an email is fraudulent, do not open attachments or click on links. “In addition to this we have also received reports of people requesting money over the phone, or cash on the doorstep. Although the British Red Cross does undertake both street and telephone fundraising, our calls are for regular commitment by direct debit and not for donations by cash or credit card.” An email forwarded to the Observer includes a donation form requesting details that including the donor’s credit card details, their mother’s maiden name, driver’s licence or passport details, and Verified by Visa password. Mark South, a spokesman for the Red Cross, confirmed the email was fake and added that people wanting to donate money to Japan should ensure they never divulge their personal details to an unknown source. Donors should only give through trusted channels, such as the Red Cross website or via the British Red Cross hotline on 08450 53 53 53. All British Red Cross marketing email addresses end @mail.redcross.org.uk, and the charity does not use general email providers such as BT Internet or Gmail to solicit donations. Anyone suspicious of an email they have received should contact the British Red Cross supporter care team on 0844 87 100 87 or at supportercare@redcross.org.uk. The 2012 Olympics have also proved a temptation for fraudsters who have set up websites to act as fake or unauthorised ticket outlets for the games. The official Olympic website – http://www.london2012.com – includes a tool that will check if a website is a genuine outlet, plus a list of known unauthorised websites claiming to offer London 2012 tickets. These include genuine-sounding names like http://www.london-olympics-tickets.org.uk and http://www.london-2012-games.com/2012-olympics-tickets – two sites that are defunct or look like they have been abandoned. However, other fake or unauthorised sites are still live, including http://www.londonolympicstickets.com and http://www.2010olympictickets.net. Real tickets will carry the name of the purchaser, and it is illegal to sell them on through auction sites such as eBay or to ticket resale sites. Those who buy legitimate tickets but can’t go to the event will be able to resell through an official resale exchange: this will launch early in 2012 before tickets are sent out, and will set prices at the tickets’ face value. But, a spokesman for London 2012 admitted, many people will have had tickets bought on their behalf and while spot checks may be carried out, only those with cancelled or fake tickets are likely to be turned away from events. He said it would be impossible to check whether all tickets are being used by the original purchasers and their friends and families as 8.8m tickets will be issued for events at 34 venues over 16 days. “We’re more interested in protecting people from losing their money through the purchase of fake tickets,” he added. Michael Norton, the managing director of PayPoint.net, said: “We expect fraud levels to increase dramatically following the passing of the ticket application deadline on 26 April. Opportunistic fraudsters will be looking to take advantage of those unlucky consumers not able to get tickets for some of the most oversubscribed events.” Tickets may only be bought using a Visa debit, credit or pre-paid card, which enable consumers to claim all their money back if they do fall into the trap of buying fake tickets. Norton said ticketholders should check the London 2012 site for a list of the official sales channels, research the true cost of tickets and not be lulled into a false sense of security by a well-designed site – some of the fake ones look very legitimate. He added that they should print out or take a copy of all sellers’ details, including the terms of the ticket purchase, full contact information for the ticket seller, and any published criteria about ticket location and likely delivery date. This will let them pursue any issue with the order even if the seller website changes and will support any future credit card chargeback.
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March 27 2011, 10:00am | Comments »
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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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Golden rower Tom James forces his way back into Olympic reckoning
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/25/rower-tomjames-olympicgames-boatrace
A Welshman Tom James heads the British squad‘s internal rankings for the boat race at the London 2012 Olympic games.
This article titled “Golden rower Tom James forces his way back into Olympic reckoning” was written by Martin Cross, for The Guardian on Wednesday 16th March 2011 15.33 UTC Tom James, one of the men who took a fours gold medal in Beijing, has made a dramatic return to the sport by heading the rankings of the British squad’s internal races, held last weekend. The Welshmen took a year out after Beijing 2008 and missed the 2010 season after an operation for a back injury. But the 27-year-old, who is still intent on forcing his way into the team’s top boat in 2012, surprised with his performance. On this form, it is likely that James could have a major influence on the shape of the British Olympic team. James will now be teamed up with Alex Gregory, a former fours world champion, who also came well in well in the internal series of races. Remarkably, though the two men have not raced together before, they share the same age and birthday. Britain’s chief coach, Jürgen Gröbler, will be hoping that this new combination will have enough synchronicity and dynamism to challenge his top pair of Andrew Triggs-Hodge and Peter Reed – who were told by Gröbler to sit out the trials. But despite being the anchor men of the British squad, since 2004, Triggs-Hodge and Reed – also Olympic champions – have recently suffered 12 straight defeats at the hands of New Zealand’s top pair. Now, Gröbler will hope that the new partnership of James and Gregory may just be the combination, either to beat Triggs-Hodge and Reed or push them hard enough to help them find more speed for the 2011 season. The 38-year-old Greg Searle is also a man in search of more speed. The Barcelona Olympic champion wants a second gold in 2012 but found the pace tough last weekend. While his physiology is still developing well, Searle knows he must be fully focused on delivering a better result in the next crucial trials race, now just four weeks away.
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March 25 2011, 3:37pm | Comments »
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London 2012: Ten best of the web
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/25/london-2012-ten-best-of-the-web
Lots of sites about London 2012 Olympics tickets including Oscar Pistorius, ticketing guides and Visa’s new Olympics ad
This article titled “London 2012: Ten best of the web” was written by Steve Busfield, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 25th March 2011 12.52 UTC 490 days to go As promised, here is this week’s selection of the best London 2012 Olympics content on the web (please add links below the line or send via email or Twitter. 1. Top 10 Olympic travel tips from Diamon Geezer. He also has a pretty good ticket guide (Via Owen Gibson) 2. There’s an (unofficial) app for that. 3. Visa has a London 2012 ad featuring plenty of Olympic stars. Eat your heart out Mastercard. Oliver Holt in the Mirror had this to say about it. (Via Penny Woods) 4. Worried about staying in London during the Games? Matt Beard of the London Evening Standard reports: “Top hotel chains in crisis talks with 2012 Olympics organisers over ‘rip-off’ re-sale packages.” 5. Have you looked at the terms and conditions of Olympic Tickets? Nick Pearce did and here’s what he found. 6. Oscar Pistorius’ dream of running in theOlympic Games at London 2012 moved a step closer when the South African set a new personal best, just 0.06 seconds short of the ‘A’ standard needed for automatic Olympic qualification, reports the BBC. 7. Want to know more about the BOA v Locog row? This piece by Alan Hubbard uses boxing metaphors to explain. (Via Owen Gibson again) 8. The mountain-biking arena is ready. 9. Should handball be an Olympic sport? There was a brief but entertaining below the line debate on our Watching The Games series. 10. For 2012 refuseniks, here’s an apposite cartoon from the Daily Telegraph’s Matt. (Via Chei Amlani) Please share your thoughts or more links below the line or send via email or Twitter.
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March 25 2011, 8:31am | Comments »
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Will the 2012 Olympics be a sell out?
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/24/will-the-2012-olympics-be-a-sell-out
Now the London 2012 Olympic Games tickets have been on sale for a week, the success of the event in London will be determined by the sports fans.
This article titled “Will the 2012 Olympics be a sell out?” was written by Owen Gibson, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 24th March 2011 11.21 UTC It is an extraordinary ticketing process in more ways than one. Ten days into the application process for 6.6m of the 8.8m tickets to the biggest sporting event ever to hit these shores and it remains hard to precisely calibrate the level of enthusiasm for being there. The keenest have constructed elaborate spreadsheets and affixed colour coded Post-it notes to their already dog eared Guardian guides as they try and spread their bets between events they are desperate to see and their chances of getting the hottest tickets (opening and closing ceremonies, velodrome, evening athletics sessions among them). For others, next August still feels like a long way away – particularly if there are more pressing financial concerns. My barber reckons he’ll leave it until closer to the time and see what’s left, our childminder has become so used to picking up tickets at the last minute from eBay or Viagogo that she too can’t see the point in shelling out more than a year before the Games. For some football fans, there’s the annual debate about whether to renew their season ticket to be had first, for others a discussion about whether to forego the family holiday in favour of the Games. The fact that Locog has promised a ticket resale system has perhaps encouraged those inclined to wait it out. Locog has successfully communicated the “marathon not a sprint” message to avoid a rush on the first day that applications opened – but could be a victim of its own success if people translate that as a signal not to hurry at all. Expect the reminders about this being the best chance to secure tickets for the events you really want to see to increase in frequency as the closing date on April 26 approaches. For the media too, there seems to be uncertainty about how to judge success. The usual media narrative around the sale of tickets for big events (Glastonbury, Take That, Champions League final) runs like this: huge hype around the onsale date, followed by a mad rush, creaking technology and a spate of stories about tickets being sold for exhorbitant sums and online scams. Because this process is so different, we have instead already seen the first stories hinting that sales have been “steady” rather than spectacular. In truth, it is hard to criticise Locog for doing exactly what they said they would do – give people time to find their way through a complex process. During this period of stasis, Locog – which can monitor what registered users are doing – believes many people are still calculating their options and trying different combinations of tickets in their online shopping baskets before hitting the buy button. Such is the scale of the task – 645 sessions across 26 sports at five main price points – that it was never going to be simple. Locog deserves huge credit for thinking long and hard about how to balance the need to raise the £2bn required to stage the Games with its promise to make it as accessible as possible. The eye watering prices for the most expensive (including that £2012 opening ceremony ticket) were justified on the basis that it was better for that money to flow to Locog, where it could subsidise cheaper price points, than touts who would mark them up anyway. But even given the number of £20 tickets (2.5m), the pay your age scheme, the concessions for over 60s and the free tickets for some school kids there is no getting away from the fact that the sums involved soon add up – particularly if you are buying for a whole family, and particularly if you are coming from outside London. There are already some grumbles about the high prices of the packages being sold through Thomas Cook and for all the entreaties from Locog and the Mayor to the hotel industry, staying in London during the Games was never going to be cheap. Which? has also raised concerns about the fact that money could come out of ticket buyers accounts on May 10 but it could be as late as June 24 before they are told which tickets they have. For most, it is likely to be a big outlay in one go. And while some have alighted upon the solution of applying for a Visa card with an interest free period to spread the cost, it is something of a surprise that Locog have not put in a place a more formal scheme to pay in installments. While reluctant to go into detail about levels of demand for individual sports and sessions, organisers say they are pleased with the level of steady engagement and that the spikes of demand are largely where you would expect them to be. Sports that are less familiar, but on the Olympic Park, are unlikely to prove too difficult to shift as people look for a relatively cost effective way of grabbing a slice of the atmosphere. More problematic could be the events at the cavernous Excel. And there must be a nagging fear that the there is a band of mid range tickets – those around £300 that are not the prized blue riband ones that people will want at all costs, nor the relatively cheap ones that will give you a slice of the experience – that will prove most difficult to shift. Somewhat ironically, given the extent to which it dominates media coverage and conversation in this country, football is likely to give organisers the biggest headache. With more than a million tickets to sell to a population who perhaps see the Olympics as an antidote to football’s dominance for the rest of the sporting calendar, just a few weeks after Euro 2012, it is a big ask. Bear in mind too that the Olympics (under 23 with a handful of over age players) is not the pinnacle of achievement as it is for most other sports, while the political issues surrounding the British team appear endlessly intractable. And while 2012 represents a huge opportunity for women’s football in this country if organisers can fill the Ricoh Stadium in Coventry or St James’ Park to see, say the Japanese women’s team take on the Swedes on a night when Team GB is going for gold elsewhere the Locog marketing and ticketing gurus will deserve every one of the plaudits that will flow their way. Locog chief executive Paul Deighton has set a high bar by promising to marry an electric atmosphere with full stands in all venues, while selling out all tickets. It is something that has never been achieved in recent Games. He has the British love of sport and major events of any kind on his side. But our natural cynicism and tendency to wait until the last minute might yet leave him with some nervous moments.
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March 24 2011, 1:28pm | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
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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Olympic Games 2012 medal haul will beat Beijing, promises UK Sport
Best showing ‘in living memory’ promised for London 2012 Olympic Games
This article titled “Olympic Games 2012 medal haul will beat Beijing, promises UK Sport” was written by Owen Gibson, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 15th March 2011 09.02 UTC With 500 days to go until the 2012 Opening Ceremony, the body responsible for Team GB has promised to beat its Beijing medal haul and record the best performance “in living memory”. Around 6.6m tickets will on Tuesday go on sale and UK Sport, which has invested £100m a year in Olympic sports since Beijing, said it would deliver “more medals, in more sports” than ever before. Peter Keen, the performance director, said a host of sports would be expected to step up and deliver “a load of ones and twos” to augment the medal hauls of those where Britain has recently excelled. “Some of the big boys are now pretty good at holding back and you’ve got some real wannabes who are coming up real quick,” he said. Keen picked out taekwondo as one sport that had invested its development budget wisely and built a “performance pathway” that would deliver in London and beyond. “We’re moving out of the comfort zone of sports we know well and do well and are able to translate those lessons into a wider number of sports while still retaining our performance in bedrock ones,” he said. “That’s a really good outcome and a really healthy one for the investment that has been made.” UK Sport on Monday set a new target range of between 30 and 61 world championship medals this year to keep them on track for success in 2012. Its chair, Baroness Campbell, said that British Olympic sport was in “a very strong place”, even compared to the same point in the Beijing cycle. “We’ve had unprecedented amounts of investment, we’ve got way better at targeting that and managing that money to have the results we want. We’ve got a really great set of world-class performance directors. We’ve got some of the best coaches in sport and our performances are better than they’ve ever been,” she told the Guardian. “Nobody wants to add even more pressure to the athletes but I think they are in a strong place and our ambition would be that the British team makes the nation proud and performs the best they have done in living memory.”
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March 15 2011, 4:09am | Comments »
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Iran claims London 2012 Olympics logo spells ‘Zion’
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/28/iran-claims-london-2012-olympics-logo-spells-zion
Well this seems a bit crazy but the London 2012 Olympics logo has been controversial from the start.
This article titled “Iran claims London 2012 Olympics logo spells ‘Zion’” was written by Julian Borger, diplomatic editor, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 28th February 2011 14.29 UTC Iran has threatened to boycott the London Olympics unless the organisers replace the official logo, which Tehran claims spells out the word “Zion”. The logo, a jagged representation of the year 2012, has been said by its critics to resemble many things, from a swastika to a sexual act, but the Iranian government argues it represents a veiled pro-Israeli conspiracy. In a formal complaint to the International Olympic Committee, Tehran has called for the graphic to be replaced and its designers “confronted”, warning that Iranian athletes might otherwise be ordered to stay away from the London Games. According to the state-backed Iranian Students News Agency, which is frequently used to convey official pronouncements, the letter says: “As internet documents have proved, using the word Zion in the logo of the 2012 Olympic Games is a disgracing action and against the Olympics’ valuable mottos. There is no doubt that negligence of the issue from your side may affect the presence of some countries in the Games, especially Iran which abides by commitment to the values and principles.” The letter, from the country’s national Olympic committee, leaves unclear what “internet documents” it is referring to. Amid the popular uproar that accompanied the unveiling of the logo in 2007, there were some claims, particularly on conspiracy-oriented websites, that its constituent shapes could be rearranged to make the world “Zion” and some animations were posted on YouTube showing how to do it. An IOC official confirmed that the Iranian letter had been received but said: “The London 2012 logo represents the figure 2012, nothing else.” A spokesman for the London Olympic organising committee added: “It was launched in 2007 following testing and consultation. We are surprised that this complaint has been made now.”
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February 28 2011, 8:43am | Comments »
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West Ham win delivers Olympic Stadium option nobody wanted
West Ham United Tottenham Hotspur Why couldn’t they have organised a stadium sharing system with West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur both playing at a rebuilt Olympic Stadium in Stratford, East London? After having taken away the running track, of course.
This article titled “West Ham win delivers Olympic Stadium option nobody wanted” was written by David Conn, for The Guardian on Thursday 10th February 2011 21.40 UTC The expected decision to hand the Olympic Stadium to West Ham United, a £600m jackpot for the club’s owners, David Sullivan and David Gold, will deliver precisely the post-Games option nobody would have sanctioned at the beginning: a permanent athletics track with 60,000 seats around it. Sullivan has said they will make it work, for supporters, financially and for community use, and that after looking closely at the design he has changed the view he held when he and Gold took over the club, that: “I don’t think running tracks work, particularly behind the goal. The customers are so far back it doesn’t work.” There are two accepted principles in planning a stadium to host the Olympics or other multi-sport events, both of which will have been overridden if West Ham’s bid is accepted. First: the only way a major stadium can be financially viable after the tournament, certainly in this country, is if it is occupied by a football club. That was resisted in the Olympic board’s original decision to reduce the stadium after the games to 25,000 seats with a permanent track. That decision was made partly out of distaste from the then mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, the Olympics minister Tessa Jowell and the bid spearhead Sebastian Coe for handing a glistening asset built with public money to wealthy Premier League club owners. Second: after the Games themselves, during which 80,000 spectators and global billions of viewers will be enthralled by the athletics, no similar crowd will ever watch what happens on the track again. Except possibly once in the stadium’s lifetime, for finals day of a World Athletics Championships. That is why retractable seating over the track, as at Stade de France, is widely seen as a good solution, or the City of Manchester Stadium option, of taking the track away completely, as Spurs were bidding to do in Stratford, and relocating it at a refurbished 25,000-seat Crystal Palace. That was why the design Coe, Jowell and Livingstone approved was temporary above 25,000 seats. Richard Caborn, the then sports minister, argued vainly for West Ham to occupy the stadium with retractable seating but he was overruled. West Ham’s proposal is to build the seating back up to 60,000 permanent seats, using £95m to install proper facilities and a more durable roof. Their pitch is that the stadium will be “intimate”, with none of their fans as far from the action as the outermost seats at Wembley – but Wembley is a 90,000-seat venue. In the proposed post-Olympic stadium, West Ham fans will have a track between them and their team – a minimum 35-metre distance according to the rival Tottenham bid, not confirmed by West Ham. Spurs pointed to major clubs in Europe, including Bayern Munich and Espanyol, who have moved or are moving out of their originally Olympic stadiums for newly built, dedicated football grounds with no tracks, and at the underuse of tracks left in modern Olympic stadiums. West Ham, however, are propounding the view, which Caborn supports and the Olympic Park Legacy Company is expected to approve, that incorporating a track is important symbolically. West Ham have said there will be 20 first-class athletics events in the stadium each year, although they have not specified what they are. Generally only the Diamond League event, once a year, which features Usain Bolt and other box office stars, attracts a capacity crowd to a maximum 24,000-seat Crystal Palace. UK Athletics will have to work extremely hard to promote its sport and prove the track is not the white elephant Spurs are arguing, retained for a gesture. Football will pay for the stadium, as the Olympic board did not want to accept first time round. West Ham insist they can fill it, saying they have 17,000 fans on a paid-for waiting list, as well as the 33,000 average crowd at Upton Park this season. “We anticipate a 60,000 sell-out for the big games,” West Ham say, with Gold promising to make tickets cheaper than standard Premier League prices, affordable to less well-off east London supporters, with some given away to local schools and community groups. The £95m for converting the stadium to a permanent 60,000 seats with the improved roof consists of a £40m loan from Newham council, a partner in the move, £35m provided by the OPLC and a projected £20m from selling Upton Park. The financial requirements on the partners in the separate company which will take over the stadium, principally West Ham, are to maintain it with no further cost to the tax payer, pay a rent, share some of the income and distribute profits for community activities. Neither West Ham, Newham, nor the OPLC will say yet what the rent is, how revenue will be shared, or what the profits are expected to be, even though the stadium has been built entirely with public money. West Ham have pledged that they can meet all the costs whether they remain in the Premier League, with its £45m average TV income and possible 60,000 crowds, or are relegated to the more straitened Championship. If it all does succeed as West Ham promise, it would result in the profitability and value increasing of a club who were close to insolvent before Gold and Sullivan bought 60%, for £30m each, last year. They have said that, as West Ham fans, they do not ever intend to sell, and want to own the club “for generations”. There are, though, no guarantees, and the partners, both of whom made their initial fortunes in pornography, made £27.5m each when they sold Birmingham City to Carson Yeung’s Hong Kong-based company in 2007 and 2009. Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed Thai prime minister, who had been convicted of corruption offences in Thailand, made a £130m profit when he sold Manchester City to Sheikh Mansour in 2008, the club’s value heightened by the occupation of Eastlands, built with public money for the Commonwealth Games. That was a scenario Coe, Jowell and Livingstone wanted to avoid, by sanctioning the reduced 25,000-seat bowl for which no viable legacy could be found. The OPLC has not yet said whether it has introduced any provisions to claw back money if Gold and Sullivan do, after all, make a super-profit from the Olympic Stadium.
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February 11 2011, 5:08am | Comments »
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