London Update -- Games on Track; Mayor Johnson to Rebrand City

London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe tells international sports federations that preparations for the Games are on track and in some cases ahead of schedule –despite what he calls the "harshest" economic climate for the Olympics in more than 30 years.

"Every host city and organizing committee must respond and adapt to prevailing local and global conditions during planning and preparations for the Games, and for us this means acknowledging that we are now in a very different economic and financial environment to the one in which we bid for the 2012 Games," Coe said in a report Tuesday to the Association of Summer Olympic International Sports Federations (ASOIF) general assembly at Sportaccord in Denver.

"But I want to reassure you that our financial planning, revenues and expenditures remain on target, and we are committed to delivering the promises we made to you," Coe told the federations.

Coe, along with Director of Sport Deb Jevans spent 20 minutes at the ASOIF meeting delivering an upbeat assessment of the preparations for 2012. CEO Paul Deighton and communications director Jackie Brock Doyle are also in Denver.

"I’m blessed because we have got really smart people on our team and smart people rise to the occasion," Coe tells Around the Rings about how London has been able to meet the challenges of the recession and still keep on track toward the Games.

Coe says the quality of the LOCOG team, along with early planning and a large budget contingency, are the factors that have allowed London to be ahead of schedule in some areas of its work.

"We are coping; dealing very, very well," he says.

Mayor Promises to Rebrand London

One of London’s delegates at Sportaccord this week is Dan Ritterband, the marketing director for the Mayor of London, who is promising to "rebrand" the city ahead of the 2012 Games.

"The time is right to ask what it means to be a Londoner. As any consumer brand relaunch is laying out your stall, itgives us an opportunity to talk about ourselves differently and how we want to be seen to the world," Ritterband says.

Working together with tourist board Visit London, Ritterband promises a gradual campaign, with a $3 million budget, to alter some perceptions of the capital as an expensive and unpleasant place to live and work. An advertising agency will be appointed this summer.

The Olympics is central to a strategy to boost the fortunes of the retail, leisure, hospitality and creative industries, not merely in the east of London but across the city. London hopes to host Sportaccord either before or after the 2012 Games.

London Signs Crystal for Imaging

LOCOG announced Tuesday that digital imaging firm Crystal has become the sixth tier three supplier to the 2012 Games, as Official Digital Imaging Services Supplier.

Crystal was the Graphic Design Service Provider and Digital Services Provider for the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Olympic Games’ Opening Ceremony was one of more than 150 projects that the company helped produce at the Games.

Crystal will be providing a full range of digital imaging services for London including: 3D visualizations of all 36 London venues and many non-competition venues such as the Olympic Village and IBC/MPC; developing any elements of audiovisual material requiring digital animation for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and producing digital animation packages for each Olympic and Paralympic sport to help enhance the presentation of the sport.

Burnham: ‘GB Soccer Team Can Go Ahead’

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham believes that the Scottish Football Association’s insistence they will not issue sanctions against any player who takes part in the London Olympics has finally opened the door for a Great Britain football team at the Games.

The SFA said last week they would encourage their players to refuse to be involved in a GB team, but have never considered imposing sanctions.

"This is a positive move, which I hope now draws a line under the debate and allows the British Olympic Association to move forward with planning for 2012," Burnham said. "I hope the football authorities in Wales and Northern Ireland will give similar guarantees."

Meanwhile, despite Scottish football’s fervent claims of independence from the U.K., MPs from the Scottish Affairs Select Committee have asked the Treasury for cash to help pay for transport infrastructure in Glasgow ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Multimillion Dollar Prizes for Olympic Art

A $7.8 million nationwide prize was launched last Thursday by The Arts Council to fund 12 pieces of art inspired by the Olympic Games.

The competition is one of 10 projects put forward by the Cultural Olympiad for London 2012, and is open to artists of all disciplines.

Artists are invited to submit their idea in a 400-word pitch, with an optional three-minute film or maximum five images to the competition’s Web site www.artiststakingthelead.org.uk by May 29.

Moira Sinclair, executive director of Arts Council England, said: "The 2012 bid was always about more than sport." She added that this was a chance to "place creativity at the heart of the nation, to encourage participation in the arts."

Controversial sculptor Grayson Perry expressed cynicism about the prize, highlighting the differences between artists and the Olympic Games’ "central concept of muscles, nationalism and tricky politics." Perry told the Financial Times: "The last thing east London needs is some giant sculpture."

Shooting, Volleyball and Water Polo Lose Top Coaches

Last week’s decision by London’s Olympic Board to stage 2012 shooting at Woolwich was branded as "a farce" by Phil Boakes, the chairman of British Shooting, which lobbied for his sport’s eventsto be moved to the national center at Bisley, in Surrey. "I am absolutely angry about this," Boakes said.

Matters have been going against Boakes of late. A 75 percent cut in funding from U.K. Sport has seen British Shooting’s performance director, John Leighton-Dyson, made redundant, with several of his squad of young marksmen – already hampered in their training by Britain’s tough anti-gun laws – considering quitting the sport altogether.

Other British sports hit by funding cuts, volleyball and water polo, have also lost their chief coaches. Volleyball has been forced to axe the national coach, Lome Sawula, because of lack of cash, while water polo’s performance director, Nick Hume, quit last week citing U.K. Sport’s cutbacks.

Hume’s resignation came just days after British Swimming – which has responsibility for all aquatics – landed a $22 million sponsorship deal with British Gas.

David Sparkes, chief executive of British Swimming, believes that concentrating resources on the British women’s squad, ranked 12th in the world, is the right course of action. "I am very confident we will have a women's team in London. At this moment I am not sure I would risk a fiver on getting the men's team there."

Briefs...

...Construction begins today on the velodrome for London 2012. Designed with input from three-time British cycling champion Chris Hoy, officials are hoping this will be the world's fastest track. It is third venue to be started in the Olympic Park. The velodrome will seat 6,000 and is expected to cost almost $153 million.

Written by Ed Hula and Steven Downes

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