London Update -- LOCOG Recruits Atkins Engineers, Woodward Scheme Questioned

Atkins Engineers, which has helped clear the Olympic Park site, has been named the official engineering design services provider for LOCOG. (LOCOG)London 2012 appoints Atkins to be the official engineering design services provider.

Atkins has been involved with the London Games since 2005, helping to clear and clean the Olympic Park site and develop roads, bridges and utilities.

The contract calls for Atkins to provide building services design, civil and structural engineering, acoustics, fire and accessibility advice at Horse Guards Parade, Greenwich Park and Hyde Park and other temporary and permanent venues in London and across the U.K.

The announcement Monday follows the signing last week of the Boston Consulting Group (providing “strategic support” as a tier three sponsor) and recruitment firm Adecco as a tier two sponsor, putting an estimated $28 million into London’s Olympic kitty.

The tier-three deal with Atkins brings to 12 the number of commercial backers recruited by London 2012.

“In the last week we have been able to announce three deals in a difficult economic situation so that people in our delivery areas can identify who they need to work with,” said LOCOG chief executive Paul Deighton. “The deals we are looking at now are really deals that are capable of bringing delivery to the table.”

The announcement comes after Nortel Networks, the telecommunications equipment company – one of LOCOG's seven top tier sponsors – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Wednesday.

Nortel and LOCOG were quick to reassure that the $58 million cash-and-kind deal signed last July was not at immediate risk. Indeed, Deighton has briefed that all sponsorship contracts have specific clauses to guarantee the Olympic organizers’ interests.

But there were no illusions that this was exactly the sort of news which LOCOG officials had feared, so it was little surprise that the announcements of three lesser sponsorship packages – worth around $60 million in total – were pushed through to try to spin a more positive message about funding for the $14 billion London project.

With their skyscraper headquarters sited at the heart of Canary Wharf, the business district to the east of the City of London, LOCOG has already witnessed firsthand the human effects of the world credit crisis among its neighboring banks and their employees.

The biggest fear is that the Nortel news will damage confidence among potential sponsors about joining the Olympic scheme. Thus, LOCOG released details of three new backers in as many days. The PR crunch for London 2012 may come if Nortel is forced to lay off any of its 2,000 U.K.-based work force while maintaining its Olympic spend as it works through Clive Woodward's coaching program will be discussed at a BOA meeting next week. (Getty Images)the Chapter 11 process.

BOA Meeting over Funding

The British Olympic Association’s attempt to provide its own, separate coaching program for medal hopefuls will come under scrutiny at a meeting next week amid concerns in the difficult financial climate.

The scheme is the brainchild of Clive Woodward, the former coach of the World Cup-winning England rugby team who was signed up by BOA chairman Colin Moynihan a year ago.

As the BOA’s director of elite performance, Woodward needs around $7 million per year to deliver his program, which aims to assemble experts in a range of areas such as sports psychology, nutrition and sports science.

But with the BOA over budget and losing existing sponsors, B&Q, the national governing bodies of several Olympic sports want assurances that the Woodward scheme is viable.

“We have expressed our concerns about the financial challenges faced by the BOA,” said Andrew Finding, the chief executive of the British Equestrian Federation. “We have reservations about the cost of the ‘value-added’ elements such as the coaching program.”

Written by Steven Downes

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