Examination of Witnesses (40-44)
16 SEPTEMBER 2003
MS BARBARA
CASSANI
Q40 Rosemary McKenna: May I join
in the congratulations on how quickly you have got such a grasp
of the issues and such a broad range and been very open with us?
That is very important. I also support the bid for some training
facilities throughout the country. We do want everyone to be involved
and everyone will be involved. I think it would help if there
were training facilities throughout the UK and I would hope that
my constituency would be involved in that as well. You said earlier
that it was interesting watching how this process of creating
your team was playing in the media. You survived a very cynical
media when you created the airline; survived and more. Has that
given you the tough skin that you will need to cope with press
scrutiny and speculation during the bid?
Ms Cassani: I hope so. It is very
difficult when you are in a sense by yourself at the beginning
of building a team to be fielding all the inquiries from the press
as well as trying to do the doing, if you will. I was very lucky
and was able to pull together a few people early on to get the
doing going, but once I have the team in place, the quite justifiably
eager to know press will have more of us to talk to. I think that
will begin to help people. I cannot pick up every phone call myself
and it has created a degree of frustration and it is justifiable
in a way. The way I look at it is that this is simply where we
are. It is my job to move us out of this early stage as quickly
as possible, but I will not make that move with haste. It is important
that I bring people in who are right for the bid, who will help
us to win, not simply to help the press tick the box that I hired
someone. I can assure you that I shall do the right things for
the bid and my skin will be as tough as it needs to be to get
through that.
Rosemary McKenna: Best of luck.
Q41 Michael Fabricant: You said something
earlier on which has really intrigued me. You mentioned the Dome.
What do you have in mind for that?
Ms Cassani: The Dome has now moved
into the hands of Anschutz, the American company and we are in
discussions with them to place some of the sports in it. As someone
who lived through the millennium process myself, it would be lovely
to see it used for the Games in an effective way. We are discussing
a number of sports. It does depend upon how they develop it on
the inside and they certainly would not change their development
plans for something which will happen in seven years. At the moment
we are looking at possibly basketball or gymnastics and we are
also looking at the land surrounding the Dome and may be able
to use some of it for temporary facilities. They are obviously
very open to working with us as well, because there is nothing
like having something in the bag for seven years out. Hopefully
we will find a solution for both of us.
Q42 Michael Fabricant: So there is
life after death after all.
Ms Cassani: We live in hope. There
is another facility which is also very attractive, which is the
ExCeL Centre and, again, it exists and that is very much in line
with what the IOC wants us to do, that is use existing facilities.
Q43 Derek Wyatt: When we looked at
the Commonwealth Games one thing which eventually came out was
that there was not enough political clout in the bid team. One
of the recommendations we made was that a minister should actually
take full-time responsibility. For a time Ian McCartney was that
person. I cannot see that figure currently in your list anywhere.
Have you decided not to have a political appointee or what?
Ms Cassani: In a sense the Government
plays such an important role because they are one of our stakeholders.
The governance structure of the big company has the three stakeholders,
the DCMS, the GLA and the British Olympic Association, really
at the helm of all the big decisions we make. We have appointed
our board to represent those interests and each of them has board
representatives as such. The DCMS have appointed Patrick Carter
and Derek Anderson to act on the board. They also have a full-time
group of people working over at the DCMS to promote the issues
and to resolve issues for the bid. I have had as much access as
I have wanted to the minister herself and Richard Caborn has also
been very up front in coming to our assistance, in helping me.
For example, we met over at the World Athletics Championships
to talk about how we can make sure we present the bid as well
as possible. At this stage, we have the right level of government
input. Hopefully when we move to the stage where we are implementing,
a different structure may be required, but for now I feel it is
appropriate.
Q44 Chairman: Thank you very much
indeed; a useful first run round the course. No doubt we shall
be meeting again.
Ms Cassani: May I say one more
thing? I should like to invite everyone on this Committee to come
to visit us. Give us a little more time because we do not have
any desks, although we have a beautiful view from the top of Canary
Wharf; the offices were donated to us by the Canary Wharf Development
Corporation. If we could take you on a tour of the area and bring
you in, you would really be most welcome.
Chairman: Thank you very much indeed;
most grateful.
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