London Latest - LOCOG Lets Hotel Rooms Go; Underground Workers Reject Bonus

LOCOG Releases Thousands of Hotel Rooms

Fulfilling a bid promise, LOCOG is releasing thousands of hotel beds for the upcoming Olympics booked by organizers but no longer need.

More than 120,000 room nights originally booked for officials, media, sponsors, staff and other individuals connected to the Games are being released. LOCOG reserved a total of 600,000.

"We always promised that we would not hold on to hotel rooms we didn't need but return them to the individual hotels at the beginning of 2012," LOCOG CEO Paul Deighton said.

"We are now doing this and I hope that this enables the hotels to continue with their planning for this summer as we all work together to stage a spectacular Games."

VisitBritain CEO Sandi Dawe added:"The fact that such a wide spread of rooms in London will now be made available to the public is great news for overseas visitors wishing to come to the UK to experience the Olympics and all the other wonderful festivities that are taking place over the summer."

A spokesman for the British Hospitality Association estimated the release will free around 8,000 rooms for the Games.

Underground Workers Reject Olympic Bonus

London Underground workers are rejecting a proposed bonus of up to $780 to work during the Games.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, which represents thousands of Tube staff, said that the money offered was not an adequate reward.The union is pushing for a deal similar to those worked out with the Docklands Light Railway for $1,730 and London Overground for $940.

"It is well-documented that transport will be the biggest logistical challenge throughout the Olympics period, with massive pressure on staff and services from moving millions of extra passenger journeys around Greater London and the South East,"RMT general secretary Bob Crow said in a statement.

"All we are calling for is a fair deal for all the staff involved in delivering the colossal transport challenge that we will be facing this summer and the negotiations to achieve that are ongoing."

Transport for London commissioner Peter Hendy meanwhile dismissed the notion that the Games would be held to ransom by the demands of the union.

"There is plenty of time to get a deal," he was quoted Monday by London's Daily Telegraph. "No, we aren't being held to ransom, this is just negotiating, they just make a lot of noise about it."

Hendy also said that money had been set aside in the Olympic Delivery Authority’s budget for the Olympics specifically for transport workers reimbursements.

London 2012 chair Sebastian Coe said he was confident a deal would be reached soon and added: "The trade unions have contributed a massive amount to the Games already," he told The Telegraph. "This is a national effort, and I have no feeling at all that the trade unions will want to see anything but a successful Olympic Games."

Handball Qualification

Denmark is heading to London 2012 after winning the European Handball Championships.

The Danish men beat hosts Serbia in Sunday's final 21-19 to secure their second Euro title and automatic qualification to the Games.

By finishing second, Serbia gained entry to one of three Olympic Qualification Tournaments taking place April 6 to 8.

The top two teams in each tournament will book their tickets to London and join Denmark, Great Britain (host), France (world champion), Korea (Asian representative), Tunisia (Africa) and Argentina (Pan America) in the Copper Box in Olympic Park.

USA, Canada Win Football Berths

The women’s football teams from USA and Canada both booked their places at London 2012 after reaching the final of the CONCACAF region’s qualification tournament.

Pia Sundhage’s USA team secured qualification to an Olympic Games for a fifth successive time after overcoming Costa Rica 3-0 in one semi-final while Canada beat Mexico 3-1 in the other.

USA then routed their rivals 4-0 in Sunday's final with a pair of goals apiece from star forwards Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan.

"We qualified already, but that wasn’t the end of the tournament," said Morgan. "It's never just a game. It's never just a friendly. We wanted to finish the tournament off strong – no goals against, and we are happy with the end result."

The final berth for the Olympic tournament will go to the winner of the Oceanic Football Confederation’s (OFC) qualification tournament taking place in late March.The draw for Olympic preliminaries will follow April 24 with group winners and runners-up and the two best third-ranked teams advancing to the quarter-finals.

Reported in London by Christian Radnedge

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.