http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2010/11/10/fee-for-orourke-olympic-consortium-rises-to-694m/

The Laing O’Rourke-led CLM consortium overseeing the Olympics is set to pocket another £10m in performance payments bringing its fee for the job to £694m.

The rise came as 2012 chiefs highlighted cost-cutting measures on the project in response to the Comprehensive Spending Review.

Olympic Delivery Authority chief executive David Higgins said the Games’ budget had been reduced by £20m thanks to a series of efficiency savings.

But the effects of economies have been counter-balanced by a rise of £11m on the Aquatics Centre to speed-up construction work and an extra £10m in “performance management” bonuses for CLM for reaching “agreed milestones and savings achieved.”

The ODA’s latest financial report stated: “CLM’s enhanced payments are based on performance and they are incentivised to drive down costs across the programme.”

The extra £10m will see CLM’s fees to deliver the Olympics rise to £694m according to the latest final cost estimates for programme delivery. The other members of the consortium are Mace and CH2M Hill,

One industry source told the Enquirer: “You’ve got to hand it to O’Rourke, they know how to negotiate a contract.”

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/paulkelso/100013497/ditched-olympic-stadium-wrap-exposes-london-2012s-failings/

Given the economic climate the London 2012 Olympics were always likely to face cuts, but this week we had confirmation that these really could be the no-frills Games, in the case of the main stadium, literally so.

The Olympic Delivery Authority confirmed on Tuesday that a fabric “wrap”, intended to conceal the functional workings of the largely temporary stadium structure, had been scrapped to save £7m.

Instead of the innovative screen, which we were promised would feature a multitude of projected animations and ever-changing designs, visitors to the Olympic Park’s definitive venue will be greeted by the bare innards of the arena, the girders and breeze blocks currently painted an austere black

The decision is a classic example of the London project’s failure to get to grips with the stadium project and the issues surrounding its legacy.

At the launch of the stadium design in November 2007, a rather overblown all-star affair in a marquee on the stadium site, much was made of the wrap. It was the designer’s sole defence against the charge that aesthetics had been sacrificed in order to find an affordable, technically viable solution to the need for the stadium to be stripped back from 85,000 to 25,000 seats after the Games.

They promised a variety of options, from projecting the flags of competing nations or the pictograms used to represent each sport, which is the design that features in the computer-generated images still being used by the media.

Neither was the wrap purely decorative, they said. It was necessary to help prevent wind inside the stadium affecting the ability of athletes to challenge world records, as well as offering shelter to spectators in the event of – perish the thought – rain.

“This is not a stadium that’s going to be screaming from the rooftops that it’s bigger and more spectacular. This is just a cleverer building,” said Rod Sheard, the lead architect, back in 2007.

With the wrap gone – apparently the wind issues no longer apply – there is a danger the stadium will register barely a murmur, and Sheard for one is not happy. Sports minister Hugh Robertson said this week that fans of minimalist design will love it, a theory borne out by Lord Rogers, who has always loved an exposed duct or two and approves of the new wrap-free design.

But it is not only the stadium that the absent wrap leaves exposed. The decision also lays bare the muddled thinking that has dogged this particular venue.

The wrap was only required because of a design that prioritised stripping the arena  back to 25,000 seats in order to fulfil the commitment to an athletics legacy that was central to London’s bid.

“It’s a stadium that delivers on everything we said we would deliver on; a stadium with track and field as its primary legacy; a stadium that will be reduced from 80,000 seats in Olympic mode to a 25,000-seater community base,” Lord Coe said at the time.

In fact economic realities mean that football will be the biggest beneficiary. Athletics does not pay its own way, leaving West Ham, Tottenham and stadium management group ISG bidding to take on the arena. The terms of the Olympic Park Legacy Company’s tender document do not even demand that the main stadium retain a track, though there must be an athletics legacy funded by the new tenants.

Spurs and their American partners AEG won’t hesitate to rip out the track and offer an athletics legacy on the warm-up facility next door, though West Ham, backed by Newham Council, will retain athletics in the main arena.

Meanwhile the short-listing process has been delayed without explanation from the OPLC, which is doing little to inspire confidence that it can solve a riddle that has defied a neat solution in the five years since London won the Games. The OPLC’s prevarication has also cost London the chance of staging the 2015 World Athletics Championships.

If this carries on much longer, those responsible might want to reinstall the wrap so they have somewhere to hide.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5g8LRTIyQzoCDkKtd_HaqNSsIYSFw?docId=B2925281289474948A000

Troops and their families are to get 10,000 tickets to the London 2012 Games, organisers have announced.

Full details of how the tickets are to be shared out have yet to be confirmed but it is part of a tie-up between London 2012 and the Tickets for Troops organisation which counts the Prime Minister's wife Samantha Cameron as a patron.

She said: "It is fantastic that so many of our heroic troops will be able to cheer on our sporting heroes at the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in 2012.

"I am thrilled that 10,000 troops and their families will be able to enjoy this important national event."

The deal is part of a London 2012 Ticketshare scheme where proceeds from prestige tickets are being used to provide tickets to worthy causes.

Lord Coe said: "At this time of year it is especially apt that we take time to think of our servicemen and women so I am delighted that the Ticketshare scheme will include them - and their families. The Games are rightly a source of great national pride - as are those who serve in the forces and I look forward to seeing some of them at the Games in the summer of 2012."

Olympics minister Hugh Robertson, himself a former Army major, said: "London 2012 will be a time for national celebration and pride and I am delighted that some of our forces will be able to attend the Games, given their dedication and commitment to our country.

"As a former serviceman myself, I know that our troops and their families will really appreciate this opportunity to enjoy the sporting spectacle of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games first hand."

Tickets for the Games go on sale in March 2011. All serving members of the armed forces and those medically discharged since the start of military action in Afghanistan in 2001 are eligible to register for tickets at www.ticketsfortroops.org.uk

More than 200,000 tickets to sporting, cultural, entertainment and cultural events have been secured for members of the forces and their families since Tickets for Troops was set up in 2009. London 2012 is urging people to sign up online - at www.tickets.london2012.com

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/2018-bid-team-alarmed-by-bbcs-world-cup-expos233-2131894.html

The BBC is to screen a Panorama documentary titled Fifa's Dirty Secrets less than three days before football's global governing body votes on the venue for the 2018 World Cup.

The programme, presented by the veteran investigative journalist Andrew Jennings, is being billed within the BBC as an inquiry into "corruption allegations against some of the Fifa officials who will vote on England's World Cup bid", according to internal BBC emails seen by The Independent. Jennings "exposes new evidence of bribery and accuses some executives of taking kickbacks", the emails say.

The timing is hugely contentious. The BBC plans to transmit it at 8.30pm on 29 November, just as Fifa officials and representatives of candidate countries – including Prince William, David Cameron and David Beckham – gather in Zurich for the vote.

The England 2018 bid team, which is due to make its presentation at 11am on 2 December, is fearful that the programme could scupper hopes of winning a tournament which is estimated to be worth £3bn to the British economy. "This could be the final nail in the coffin," said a source last night.

The bid team will be concerned to learn that Panorama promises that its investigation also covers the "Fifa financial bonanza if England hosts the World Cup" – suggesting the England bid itself comes under scrutiny.

The Fifa president Sepp Blatter, who has the deciding vote in the event of a tied ballot, has a long-held animosity towards Jennings, who is author of a book called Foul! The Secret World of Fifa: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals. Jennings describes how he confronted the head of Fifa at the Abou Nawas Hotel in Tunisia in 2004, asking difficult questions about payments made to a Fifa official. "I'm not his favourite reporter," he wrote of his relationship with Blatter.

Such is the bid team's concern about the impact of the programme that its chief executive, Andy Anson, visited BBC director general Mark Thompson last week to ask him to move the transmission date. He was given short shrift. "We have been absolutely clear that the editorial independence and impartiality of the BBC is critical and sacrosanct," said a BBC source.

Mr Cameron has been desperately trying to shore up the England bid, mindful of the kudos that Tony Blair enjoyed after helping to win the 2012 Olympics for London. Yesterday in Seoul he went out of his way to meet Chung Mong-joon, vice-president of Fifa and, as president of Korea's FA, one of the 24 members of the executive committee who will decide where the 2018 tournament is played. "I was spending much more time on the World Cup than on the G20," said Mr Cameron.

Mr Blatter was invited to Downing Street last month to hear a presentation on England's bid and meet a delegation that included the Prime Minister, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and the England manager Fabio Capello.

Following an investigation by The Sunday Times last month into alleged Fifa corruption – leading to two executive committee members being suspended – the Fifa president made dark comments about the British media. "One can ask whether such an action is appropriate, trying to set traps for people. It is a deeply rooted problem [with the UK media]," he said. "Who is benefiting from this situation and who is being harmed? We are asking ourselves why did it happen and why did it happen specifically by English journalists? We are looking at that."

The former sports minister Richard Caborn claimed the BBC's decision to screen the programme so close to the crucial vote showed that schedulers were primarily concerned with ratings. He has lobbied the programme makers to delay the transmission date.

Andrew Jennings: The journalist Sepp Blatter loves to hate

Distinguished by his mop of grey hair, Andrew Jennings is a buccaneering investigative reporter with 30 years' experience. He has made sport, and in particular the political chicanery of staging the Olympic Games and the World Cup, his specialist subject. As such he has become the bête noire of Juan Antonio Samaranch, the late former president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and more recently of Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, who has banned him from his press conferences.

Jennings delights in confronting targets on camera and once challenged a Scotland Yard detective by ambushing him on a country jog and running alongside him in a suit, firing off questions. His award-winning investigation into Olympics corruption in 2000 led to a book, The Great Olympic Swindle. His Panorama programme in 2004 exposed a Bulgarian IOC member accepting bribes for London's Olympic bid.

In his investigations into FIFA, Jennings has previously targeted Jack Warner, the Trinidad & Tobago football executive, who featured in a Panorama investigation, The Beautiful Bung: Corruption and the World Cup, in 2006.

In that programme, over images of Blatter, Jennings said: "This is one of the most unpopular men in world football, and he controls it. His name is Sepp Blatter and his organisation is in a bit of trouble, and I'm another. My name is Andrew Jennings and Mr Blatter can't stand me." After the broadcast of Panorama's FIFA's Dirty Secrets, Blatter is likely to like Jennings even less.

It is expected that over 320,000 people will travel to London for the 2012 Games, a considerable increase on the 250,000 that visited Barcelona in 1992, or the 150,000 who made the trip to Athens in 2004. And with hotel space in the capital limited, home-owners are offering themselves and their properties up as an alternative option. According to Bloomberg, property website LondonRentMyHouse.com already has 100 properties listed for 2012, with more and more signing up every day.

However, home owners need to heed the examples of the 2008 Beijing and 2000 Sydney games, where demand drove up prices to unreasonable rates, which may have contributed to empty seats.

More than 90% of merchandise being sold on the official website for London 2012 is being made outside the UK, Sky News has discovered.

Of the 446 items for sale on the site, 67% are made in China and 18% in Turkey, while only 8% bear the hallmark "Made in the UK".

China not only manufactures the largest number of products, but the most popular ones - including the Olympic and Paralympic mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville.

Olympics organisers are expecting to raise £1bn from the sale of 2012 merchandise.

They are keen to stress that, while most of the souvenirs are made abroad, the majority of licensees are British.

"If you go through each of the licensees they're virtually all UK companies," said Paul Deighton, chief executive of the London Organising Committee.

"There are one or two who source their manufacturing from overseas, but that's really only in the case when there's no manufacturing left for that kind of product in the UK."

London 2012 Chairman Lord Coe said: "Where it is at all possible to procure British manufacturing, we will.

"Those licencees, where they have a domestic output potential - we will encourage that."

One Birmingham-based company, however, feels its specialist product could have been made at home.

Vaughtons made the Olympic and Paralympic medals for the 1908 London Games.

They were hoping to be considered for the lucrative contract of producing lapel pin badges for the Games, which are traditionally among the best sellers of any Olympics.

That contract went instead to Chinese company Honav, who manufactured the badges for the Beijing Games.

"We feel betrayed, there's no doubt about that, we feel disgusted, betrayed," said managing director Steve Hobbis.

Paul Deighton insists most products are licensed to UK firms

He admits that fulfilling the entire order may have been difficult for one UK company, but believes it would have given a boost to the entire industry.

"We couldn't have done it all. We would have maybe contracted out soldering, some of the stamping, maybe some of the enamelling. It could have been dealt with around the trade, around the area.

"There's lots of companies in the UK that could have assisted and at least they would have been made in the UK.

"It would have given a massive boost to the industry."

The fact remains that the organising committee LOCOG have to raise a total of £2bn in order to be able to stage the Games - even if that means the London 2012 souvenirs are not quite as British as they might appear.

There is a meeting on Tuesday evening (16th) this week of the Users' Forum for 
W'stow and Leyton Marshes with reps of the the Lee Valley Regional Park 
Authority - who have been trying to de-designate Leyton Marshes as Metropolitan 
Open Land so they can build a budget hotel on our Lammas Lands beside Lea Bridge 
Road.
  We gather this is part of the Olympics Legacy Masterplan - give us your public 
open spaces and we'll give you a cheap and nasty hotel with a few local jobs for 
chambermaids, cleaner, porters and kitchen hands on minimum wages (I think this 
is what they call "regeneration opportunities").
  The meeting is at 7pm at the ICE RINK by Lea Bridge (NOT at the Waterworks 
Centre or Riding Centre, as previously).
  There will be a presentation by the Park abouit the Northern Olympic Fringe 
Legacy Masterplan - which envisages high-rise flats on Marsh Lane Fields as well 
as various developments on open space in the Lee Valley Regional Park.
  PLEASE come along if you possibly can and make your feelings known and please 
pass this message on to anyone you know that might be interested to come and 
find out more (and if necessary make a bit of a fuss).
Katy.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23897633-bid-to-get-a-million-britons-into-sport-runs-out-of-steam.do

A government target to get one million more Britons playing sport was abandoned today as the Coalition unveiled a strategy to create a sports legacy from the London Olympics.

Amid growing signs that the official benchmark for creating a more sporting nation by 2012 would be missed — with only one in five Londoners taking regular exercise — a new £135 million government strategy will focus instead on improving community sports facilities.

Stricter safeguards for playing fields and preventing school-leavers from dropping out of sport with a targeted coaching scheme were among the measures aimed at capitalising on the Olympic effect.

Minister for Sport Hugh Robertson unveiled today's plan amid mounting concern that coalition cuts were undermining sports legacy plans.

Labour's £140 million free swimming scheme has been axed, and the ring-fence around a £160 million school sports scheme was removed last month.

The Places People Play strategy will benefit from a £135 million cash injection over the next five years.

All the money will come from the National Lottery, which is now the main source of funds for grassroots facilities after drastic government cuts to funding of community sports were announced last month.

The move was made possible after the coalition Government plundered the Big Lottery fund, and allocated lottery cash instead to the original four “pillars” of arts, heritage, charities and sport.

In the programme, to be run by the Government's grassroots agency Sport England, there will be a £50 million fund for facilities, £30 million for improving regional venues, £10 million to protect playing fields and £32 million to target people aged 14-25 with training courses.

Mr Robertson called it “the cornerstone of a grassroots legacy from hosting the Olympic Games”.

Shadow Olympics minister Tessa Jowell said: “The legacy promise that we made in Singapore was to transform a generation of young people through sport. This additional money is welcome, but it goes nowhere near replacing the funds that the Coalition have already taken away from sport, particularly sport in schools. However they dress it up, the Olympic Legacy promise that we made to this country's young people is yet another promise that has been broken by the Coalition Government.”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbmvk8GQBdnZ6b0hBGgUYp1WAwJw?docId=467a76828976409caf883b0a49c08092

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's overburdened airports cannot meet demand and are a "growing disaster" that could embarrass the country during the upcoming Olympic games and World Cup if they aren't improved, the head of the world's top airline association said.

The language used by Giovanni Bisignani, CEO of the International Air Transport Association, to describe Brazil's overwhelmed airports at an industry conference Thursday was some of the harshest criticism yet leveled at the nation on the topic.

"Brazil is Latin America's largest and fastest growing economy but air transport infrastructure is a growing disaster," he told industry leaders at a meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association in Panama. The organization represents 230 airlines around the world.

"To avoid a national embarrassment, Brazil needs bigger and better facilities for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics," Bisignani said. "But I don't see progress and the clock is ticking. The time for debate is over."

Brazil's robust economic growth has resulted in increased demands on air travel. Thirteen of the country's 20 largest domestic airports cannot accommodate existing demand, and the situation is critical in Sao Paulo, South America's biggest international hub, Bisignani said.

The rapid growth has resulted in regular and massive delays for air travelers in Brazil.

Experts have said aviation problems stem from chronic underspending on radar, runways and other infrastructure. Safety upgrades, backup systems and even training for air traffic controllers have been put off for years.

Bisignani's comments were pointed, but he isn't the first one to voice concern.

The International Olympic Committee has expressed doubt about the country's ability to upgrade airports ahead of the games. Earlier this year, Rio 2016 committee president Carlos Arthur Nuzman said the IOC's principal concern was the apparent lack of planning to revamp airports.

Committee spokeswoman Elaine Correia acknowledged improvements are essential, but said that the committee trusts the government will fulfill on time the promises it made in Rio's candidacy bid.

Brazilian business leaders have also sought the government's assurance that delays in these important infrastructure projects would not harm the country's image abroad.

Government officials, on the other hand, have repeatedly sought to calm anxieties over the country's preparedness.

Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim told the privately run Agencia Estado news agency on Friday that Bisignani's comments were vastly overblown, and made without real knowledge of the situation.

There are problems in Sao Paulo's airport, but construction in one terminal is almost over, and a new one is being built, Jobim said from the capital, Brasilia.

"These matters are being attended to," Jobim said. Infraero, the government agency that oversees airport infrastructure, is part of the Defense Ministry.

Rio is a sound tourist destination, and already hosts approximately 3 million foreign visitors a year. The World Cup is expected to increase tourism by 5 percent, and the 2016 Olympic games, by 10 percent, but according to Brazil's tourism board, Embratur, the country will invest an estimated $14.4 billion in Rio over the next five years to handle the flow.

Most of that money — 72 percent — will be used to bolster infrastructure, including roads, airports, hotels, and sports venues.

Sports Minister Orlando Silva has pointed out that Brazil's airport authority, Infraero, is set to invest $3.1 billion to guarantee that the airports in particular are ready before the World Cup. He has also sent observers to South Africa, which hosted the World Cup last year, to take note of how that country dealt with similar shortfalls.

In an interview with The Associated Press in June, Silva acknowledged the country isn't "at full speed" when it comes to transportation facilities, but said that improving airports was a top priority.