London Update - Government 'Nationalizes' Olympic Village; IAAF Checks London Will Deliver

 The British government stepped in on Wednesday with a cash injection of an additional $491 million from contingency funds into the London Olympic Village, after negotiations between Games organizers and private developers collapsed.

The 2,800 apartments to house 17,000 athletes and officials in 2012 were originally to be developed by private sector companies. After developer Lend Lease was unable to raise private funding, the government dipped into the Olympic contingency fund to enable work to go ahead on schedule. There were hopes a financing deal might be hammered out, but this week all parties agreed that the recession would make such a deal impossible.

In a statement, Tessa Jowell, Olympic Games minister, said, "A private sector deal was available, but because of the credit crunch it was not a good deal. After careful assessment it is clear that investing in the Olympic Village will now save public money in the long term."

John Armitt, chairman of the Olympic Deliver Authority, is optimistic that $750 million of the investment will be recouped from the sale of 1,400 apartments once the Games are over. ODA says it will continue to seek another private investor once the economy has improved.

"Today, we cannot get a good enough offer, because of the market, to put it into the private sector," Armitt said. "At some point in the next two or three years, I would expect it to move into the private sector."

The other half of the Olympic flats will be pre-sold to a social housing group, Triathlon Homes, for $400 million, funded with a $150 million grant from the Homes and Communities Agency and a $250 million loan from the European Investment Bank and an unnamed British bank.

The Olympic Village is the second 2012 venue to be nationalized. The $500 million media center also failed to attract private funding due to the recession.

Diack Observing London Preparations

IOC member Lamine Diack, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), this week leads a delegation on its first official visit to London ahead of the 2012 Games.

Diack’s team will go straight to London 2012’s headquarters in Canary Wharf for a briefing from LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe, an IAAF vice-president, and chief executive Paul Deighton on the track and field legacy to be left by the Games.

It was Diack who twice awarded the IAAF’s world championships to London – for 2003 and 2005 – only to be disappointed when the U.K. government failed to deliver on its guarantees to build a suitable stadium.

Later, the group will go on a site visit to see how London’s Olympic Stadium is rapidly taking shape in its 80,000-plus capacity Games mode. LOCOG plans to reduce the spectator capacity to 25,000 seats after the Games, when the stadium will become a home for a sports academy for London youngsters as well as staging national track championships, annual Grand Prix meetings and possibly international championships. Britain has never staged a European or world track championships.

On his site visit, Diack will also meet Christine Ohuruogu, the world and Commonwealth 400 meters champion and Britain’s only track gold medalist at the Beijing Olympics.

Ohuruogu recently announced that she was ending her management agreement with Nuff Respect, the company run by 1992 Olympic 100-meter champion Linford Christie. Instead, she will be represented by Vero Communications, the agency set up by Mike Lee, who ran the PR campaign for London’s Olympic bid.

Ohuruogu, whose family home overlooks London’s Olympic Park, will receive the freedom of the Borough of Newham from Mayor Sir Robin Wales on Thursday in a special ceremony at the Town Hall.

Bolt in Manchester Street Race

Usain Bolt, winner of three Olympic gold medals in world record times at the Beijing Games, competes in a televised 150-meter street race in Manchester this weekend.

He will present the player of the year award at Manchester United soccer club on Sunday. Bolt has also offered to provide a sprinting lesson for Cristiano Ronaldo, the star player at the world and European champion club, provided he receives a signed jersey in return.

The IAAF delegation will be attending the event in Manchester. On Saturday evening, another of Diack’s vice-presidents, Sergei Bubka, will lead a briefing on an Internet initiative by the federation.

London Triathlon Not Yet On Course

The course for the first World Series triathlon to be staged in London this August, while offering something of a dress rehearsal for the Olympics, will not be the same as that ultimately used in 2012, organizers admitted at a launch staged Tuesday.

“The course for London 2012 is still under discussion and still in the planning stages but the bike ride is going to leave Hyde Park,” said Paul Coleman, the International Triathlon Union’s series director.

“We want to showcase the city of London as much as possible as best we can, but we are trying our best to produce a challenging course for the athletes. It would be very good from our point of view if the athletes had some technical questions to address on the course.”

Organizers believe that staging the event in London could pull crowds of 250,000. “Off the back of the London 2012 Olympics, we're looking to attract as many major events to the capital as possible,” said Dan Ritterband, the London Mayor’s marketing director.

Wembley Being Resurfaced Again

The turf pitch at Wembley Stadium, venue for the Olympic soccer finals in 2012, has been dug up and is being resurfaced for the seventh time since the $1.2 billion sports arena opened for business two years ago. Head groundsman Steve Welch was let go following criticism of the playing surface after the semifinals of the FA Cup at the national stadium last month.

Wembley’s new turf pitch needs to be ready in time for the final of the FA Cup between Everton and Chelsea on May 30.

There were complaints about the playing surface following the staging of NFL games in the fall of 2007 and 2008, which both required complete re-turfing afterwards. The NFL last month admitted that it is considering staging the Super Bowl at Wembley, probably in January 2012.

Briefs…

…The full national swimming team, coaches and support staff visited the 2012 Aquatics Centre last weekend. Michael Scott, British Swimming’s national performance director, said: “The London 2012 Games may still be three years away but those that made the visit will use this as motivation to make sure they will be there swimming in front of their home crowd in 2012.”

… Zara Phillips, the former world eventing champion whose mother, the Princess Royal, is an IOC member, has distanced herself from NOGOE - No to Greenwich Olympic Equestrian Events. The lobby group latched on to remarks made by the Queen’s granddaughter which questioned the lack of London 2012’s legacy for her sport by staging show jumping, dressage and eventing in Greenwich, once the hunting grounds of her ancestor, King Henry VIII and now a world heritage site. Phillips made it public that she has no agenda against Greenwich as a 2012 Olympic venue.

Written by Steven Downes

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