Executive Summary
OVERVIEW
HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE
— Experience of planning Manchester
2002 has highlighted the significant physical demands on the host
city
— Costs associated with providing facilities
and infrastructure for, and hosting, an international sport event
which has never been hosted in this country, and for an untested
venue, are by nature not capable of accurate forecasting.
CONTEXT
— The World Championships in Athletics
do not have the same profile as the Olympic Games, but they are
a leading world sporting event
— It is arguable that the popularity
of the Championships peaked in 1993-95 and that events following
an Olympics (eg 2005) are less attractive than those preceding
an Olympics
— There is only one precedent of a
stadium purposes built for the Championships and, by 2005, only
two of the last six Championships will have been hosted in Capital
Cities.
REVIEW FINDINGS
— A commitment was made to host the
2005 WCA before the full implications were known
— Since then the anticipated cost to
the public sector of providing the facility and running the event
has increased, and there is a high risk that other interventions
will be necessary to deal with shortcomings in accommodation and
transport provision
— Government should decide whether
the need to honour its commitment outweighs the significant risk
that the 2005 WCA will be a poor quality event with very large
financial implications. However, there does not appear to be another
suitable London site
— The Review Team believes it would
be bad value for money to spend £112 million capital plus
significant ongoing revenue funding to provide a venue for a 10
day event
— The limited nature of the projected
Picketts Lock event profile, together with the threat to the future
of regional stadiums of moving key events to Picketts Lock call
into question the need for a National Athletic Centre
— The current operating budget for
staging the 2005 Championships is necessarily based on a high
degree of estimation, as strategies in key areas are as yet undefined,
and therefore carries a high degree of risk
— Manchester 2002, Paris 2003 and Athens
2004 could raise expectations and therefore the specification
for 2005
— The Review Team has added income
contingencies of £1.5 million and cost contingencies of £18.5
million for the £6.7 million commercial revenue budget and
£26.1 million cost budget. A capital contingency of £10
million has been added
— The degree of accuracy with which
the operational costs can be forecast will be higher for a tested
venue than for an untested one such as Picketts Lock
RECOMMENDATIONS
— If Government intends to enter into
the contract for the 2005 WCA on the basis of a Picketts Lock
location, the transport and accommodation provision and budgets
require urgent investigation. It is however, unlikely that the
financial implications will be fully known before a commitment
must be made
— A decision must be reached quickly
in order to begin the long design and build process allowing time
after handover for test events. Delays could rule out certain
of the options, and add to the cost
— Move the event if the IAAF agree
— If the IAAF will not agree, Government
should consider the risk of withdrawing from the event
— UK Athletics and the Sports Councils
should consider an alternative investment in athletics development,
using the savings from not holding the WCA at Picketts Lock.
August 2001
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