mayfly.net

There has been lots of news recently about cost overruns for the 2012 Olympics. From what I can see, however, the details about the Games operating budget – i.e. LOCOG’s budget – are out there and nothing has changed. Consider this from the QandA on the BBC News website.

“At the time London was chosen to host the 2012 Olympic Games, it was estimated it would cost nearly £2.4bn to build the infrastructure, while just over £1bn was earmarked for the wider regeneration project for the area post-2012. A further £2bn would be needed to stage the games themselves – although this money would be raised privately.”

The key is that last bit – a further £2bn. That remains LOCOG’s budget. There is nothing in the press that talks specifically about LOCOG’s budget not increasing, which is a shame. It’s the capital budget for the new build venues in the Olympic Park, and the extent to which the Olympics will be the catalyst for a wider regeneration of, let’s face it, a pretty grubby piece of London, that is responsible for the overruns. Any dialogue about costly regeneration is a political football, all the more so when associated with something quite so much in the public eye as the Olympics. Is that the reason the status of the operating budget is so obfuscated? Probably!

No link for this which I received by e-mail.

China is to use mice to test the safety of food for athletes competing in the 2008 Olympic Games.

“Milk, alcohol, salad, rice, oil, salt and seasonings will be tested by white mice 24 hours before they are used in cooking or served to athletes,” the Xinhua news agency quoted Zhao Xinsheng of the Beijing Municipal Health Inspection Bureau as saying.

Zhao told a meeting on hygiene safety for the Games that the mice would develop an adverse reaction to any food poisoning within 17 hours, sooner than test methods such as bacteria cultures.

He said all the food would be securely stored, and all food arriving at the Olympic restaurants would be recorded by the control headquarters after being transported by special vehicles and staff.

Zhen Xiaozhen, of the medical team of the Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, said most of the food for the Olympic athletes would be Western style, complemented by Chinese dishes.

Health inspectors were to receive training in management and inspection techniques of Western food starting this month, said Liang Jin of the inspection bureau.

Recently, the closing remarks at a LOCOG staff briefing made by Sandy Holloway, who was the CEO of the Sydney 2000 Organising Committee (aka SOCOG), have been invading my head. I also noticed, when searching for this on t’Internet, that the remarks were published on a poster which appeared in the SOCOG offices. Bref, we should expect that the lifecycle of LOCOG will be characterised by the following phases:

1. Euphoria
2. Disenchantment
3. Search for the guilty
4. Persecution of the innocent
5. Successful completion – and finally…
6. Glorification of the uninvolved

I’m still waiting for 2 :), although some would say the VAT story (a non-story if ever there was one) is an indication of things to come. We shall see.

We’re about to put in place a senior technology team. This is very exciting. It’s been a long road through the bid and the first 18 months of LOCOG. Mike Power, Pascal Wattiaux and myself have been covering a huge brief. But that’s all about to change, and I’m really delighted. Which all proves the point that the worst thing anyone can do when working for an Olympics organising committee, is resist change.