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The London 2012 torch mixes the Olympian and the corporate

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/19/the-london-2012-torch-mixes-the-olympian-and-the-corporate

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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May 19 2011, 5:24am | Comments »
I posted to distributedresearch.net

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.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

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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.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

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Related posts:London 2012 Olympics countdown clock stops Iran claims London 2012 Olympics logo spells ‘Zion’ Olympic Games 2012 medal haul will beat Beijing, promises UK Sport
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March 24 2011, 1:28pm | Comments »
I posted to distributedresearch.net

Who will live in the Olympic Park homes?

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/23/who-will-live-in-the-olympic-park-homes

Dave Hill wonders if the Olympic Park‘s post-Games vision really can be translated into reality.

This article titled “Who will live in the Olympic Park homes?” was written by Dave Hill, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 22nd March 2011 10.39 UTC First, lap up a projection of the Olympic Park’s future. That’s the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, to give it it’s full handle – a place of graceful living in stylish family homes amid world class sporting facilities, giant visitor attractions and rather large butterflies. Behold. Appetising, isn’t it? Speaking at the unveiling of the revised park masterplan last October, Boris Johnson declared: Not since Georgian England has London seen such an ambitious and comprehensive vision for a new district. Our plans seek to combine the classical best of this city with the greatest benefits of modern urban living. But who will actually live in this promised paradise? How many of its inhabitants will be drawn from that rather large pool of Londoners on low or even average incomes who find the bulk of the capital’s housing stock beyond their means? There are signs that the percentage could be rather small. The masterplan makes provision for only 35 percent of the 11,000 homes the park is anticipated to eventually contain being “affordable”. And that term “affordable” is a stretchy one. It accommodates everything from homes let by housing associations for subsidised “social rents” to “intermediate” range properties that households with quite large, middle-class earnings can part-purchase through schemes designed to help people onto London’s ludicrously steep housing ladder. Soon “affordable” will demonstrate still greater elasticity. Next month Mayor Johnson will bring into effect his First Steps policy programme, making “intermediate” schemes available to family households with incomes as high as £74,000 a year – rather more than a member of parliament is paid – compared with the present £60,000. (See policy 1.2C on page 22 of his London Housing Strategy). Meanwhile, the government is preparing to bring in what it calls its new “affordable rent” model, which will underpin the finances of housing associations. This will require the introduction of housing association rents at a level of “up to 80% of gross market rents” in the area concerned – a figure far higher than the highest at present. At last week’s London Assembly plenary Margaret Ford, the Olympic Park Legacy Company’s chair, candidly acknowledged that she and colleagues were still trying to work through its implications for their housing plans. These could be far-reaching, especially in light of the government’s forthcoming capping of housing and other welfare benefits. Rents set at 80 percent of local private sector levels look likely to be beyond the reach of many families in the greatest need of the sorts of homes Boris and OPLC want to see built in large numbers on the park. Is that what London’s Mayor wants? You can read much more about that ideal future of the park on the OPLC’s website. It will have its own, brand new postcode – London E20 – and bear the hopes of many that it will succeed where so many regeneration schemes have failed in the past. Although its completion is a long way off, the process of translating that “comprehensive vision” into reality is already underway. More than half of the 2,800 future homes presently comprising the athletes’ Olympic Village have already been sold with nine developers shortlisted to buy the rest. Bids have been invited to build the first 800 post-Games homes in one of the five new neighbourhoods set out in the masterplan. Will the end results resemble those vibrant, mixed communities of regeneration cliche or a rather less attractive legacy – one that benefits the affluent and wealthy investors from which ordinary working and struggling Londoners are all but priced out?

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

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March 23 2011, 3:09pm | Comments »

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