On the Scene - Deighton Talks Risks; MPC Opens; Sports Presentation Innovations

(ATR) London 2012 CEO Paul Deighton tells Around the Rings at the month-to-go mark that his team is leaving no stone unturned in dealing with risks that could undermine the success of the Games.

"It’s such a big project as you can imagine we’ve got risk registers and issue lists going up the gazoo – so every risk and every issue we’ve identified, we’ve got teams wrestling it to earth and hammering it to death so those I know will get taken care of," he said when asked about his biggest worry with 30 days to the opening of the Olympics.

"There’s always that thing in your head saying I don’t want to be here in a month's time having missed something. But to be honest we’ve had so many people trawling over it ... my expectation that the things that are challenges are the things we’ve spent most time on and that we’ve got the people and systems in place to manage them."

Deighton's comments came at a key milestone in the countdown to the Games – the opening of the Main Press Center that will be home to around 5,800 of the world's media during the Olympics.

The coming weeks will be spent "refining everything we’re doing working with our teams making sure their ready," Deighton said.

Venues will be locked down one by one throughout July, with security teams sweeping the 36 competition facilities to put them in Games mode.

Deighton said training of the venue and volunteer workforces would continue as the arenas became operational.

Most challenging is building the temporary venue for beach volleyball at Horse Guards Parade, a development that will go right to the wire. Deighton said it would be finished just over a week before the Games. The project had to wait until after the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June.

The Olympic Lanes for athletes, officials, VIPs and media comes into service quite late in preparations – around July 25 – in order to minimize disruption to London residents and businesses in the run-up to London 2012. But parts of it, including the M4 which links Heathrow Airport to the city, will be operational a week before the Games "so people coming from the airport benefit from that".

"We’ll obviously pay very careful attention on the journeys from the Olympic Village to training venues a week before to make sure they’re running smoothly," he added.

"If that creates any particular challenges for any groups that need to move around the Games we’ll sit down with TFL [Transport for London] and work through it like we do for everything."

Football Ticketing Concerns

Ticketing sales continue to exercise the minds of LOCOG's senior officials following controversy over the ballot scheme and problems with the official website crashing under the weight of extraordinary demand for tickets.

Deighton told a press conference in the new Main Press Center that around seven million tickets had so far been sold, with another two million to shift before the Games. He said a "fair amount" of tickets for football were still available.

By that he meant 1.2 million, an enormous number of tickets that LOCOG are concerned may not sell out. Questions about the prospect of seeing empty stadia are not going away.

Still, Deighton put on a brave face when pressed if he was worried about the possibility of unfilled venues for football matches at the six venues across the U.K.

"I’m relaxed about it," he said, "for the very simple reason that we’ve sold more tickets for football than anything else, we’ve just got a lot of matches because of course there’s a men’s and a women’s competition and they’re big venues – there are just a lot of tickets to sell."

Deighton suggested that the football venues would not be lacking in atmosphere.

"I think we’ll have very vibrant noisy venues," he said. "We’re using our ticketshare scheme where corporate hospitality buyers donate [$31] to buy a ticket for a young person to go to the Games, so we’re channelling some of that towards where there’s capacity in the football matches. So I think when we get there we’ll be happy with the outcome."

Main Press Center, Sports Presentation Plans

The MPC is the first venue on the Olympic Park open for business. Around 120 journalists and broadcasters turned out for the ribbon-cutting carried out by Olympics minister Hugh Robertson and senior LOCOG officials. The venue is the equivalent in size to a 32-story office building.

The MPC will provide 31,000 square-meters of office space across four floors of workspace for journalists, photographers, accredited non-rights holding broadcasters, as well as IOC and LOCOG staff during the Games. It will be open for 52 days with the Catering Village serving an estimated 480,000 meals and 1.6 million cups of tea over 24 hours a day.

A 200 meter-long High Street will feature a range of shops and services including a post office and dry cleaners, pharmacy and general store.

Also announced Wednesday were plans to enhance the sports entertainment experience for spectators.

At the first press conference to be held in the MPC, LOCOG sports director Debbie Jevans talked about the role of 32 "mood video tapes" that will be used at some of the venues, primarily athletics and swimming, to "build up the atmosphere". They include a video montage of famous Olympic medalists and memorable moments from recent Games.

All venues will have presenters who will act as anchors in venues, appearing on the big screens. They will host each session and guide the spectators through all the key sporting elements.

Other added value offerings for London 2012 include 12 venues providing in-ear commentary – a first for any Summer Games, Jevans said. The service, costing spectators $15, is aimed at educating them about the rules, scoring and some of the plays.

"We are really excited about this innovation," she said.

More than 200 video packages have been put together for the 26 Olympic sports to give spectators "an overview of the sport in a dynamic and engaging way".

Music will be a key element of the sports presentation at the Games, Jevans revealed.

A music library of 2012 songs with five music themes – energy, primetime, extreme, heritage and world stage – has been compiled. Each theme will be tailored for specific sports, for example heritage for tennis at Wimbledon or extreme for BMX.

The "Rock the Games" program unveiled today will feature live performances and exclusive new recorded tracks from various world-renowned artists.

Five official songs have been composed for "Rock The Games" led by chart-topping band Muse whose track "Survival"was played to journalists today. They will soundtrack various sport sessions. The other songs are provided by Elton John vs Pnau, Delphic, Chemical Brothers and Dizzee Rascal.

In addition, Scissor Sisters and Rizzle Kicks are the first artists announced to play concerts at some of the Olympic venues.

Outside the venues but around the Olympic Park site, an entertainment program will also run at select locations. Roaming performers will entertain the crowds and there will be a bandstand for other artists.

Jevans admitted some international sports federations had voiced a "degree of nervousness" when they got wind of London 2012's sports presentation plans because the "field of play was sacrosanct".

"When we went through the detail and said what we were doing would enhance their sports, they then began to work with us," she recalls.

Jevans and Deighton told reporters that there was no danger the music would get in the way of the sports or crowds generating their own atmosphere at the venues.

Torch Relay Update

The Olympic Torch has been carried by trains, planes, hot air balloons and even by zip line on its way to the London Games. Day 40 of the the journey will see a new method of transport as the first torchbearer of the day rappels down the Dock Tower in Grimsby.

The torch will be carried 112 miles by 137 torchbearers as the relay goes from Grimsby to Lincoln.

The flame’s journey Wednesday will be marked by fly-bys in Skegness and Bracebridge Heath before the Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows put their acrobatics on show over the evening ceremony at the Yarborough Leisure Centre.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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