APPENDIX 21
Memorandum submitted by Helen Day Consulting
1. I have already written to the Committee on behalf
of the association of which I am Vice Chairman, the European Sponsorship
Consultants Association (ESCA), particularly emphasising the economic
effects in terms of sponsorship and support for sport, should
the Olympics be staged in London. However, I wanted to add a few
further points from my own perspective.
2. As background, I am an independent freelance consultant,
specialising in advising on the staging of major sports events.
Having been solely responsible for staging the 1995 World Skating
Championships in Birmingham (one of the very few events in recent
memory to have actually made a profit of over £0.5 million),
I gave evidence before the Committee as part of its consideration
on the Staging of International Sports Events in 1998.
3. Recently, I have provided expert advice on event
management to a number of major sporting events. Employed either
by Sport England or UK Sport on behalf of the Lottery, I have
provided preevent advice to World or European events in
judo, modern pentathlon, netball, and the Millennium Youth Games,
as well as assessing the bid documents and business plans for
athletics, boxing and basketball. Additionally, I have undertaken
detailed postevent Monitoring and Evaluation reports for
Disability Athletics, World Football for Players with Learning
Difficulties, World Senior Boxing, the World University and Commonwealth
Rowing Championships and am currently working on the World Indoor
Athletics to be held in Birmingham this March.
4. Most relevantly, last summer I was contracted
by KPMG as their sports expert to provide input regarding all
the sporting aspects of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester,
working on behalf of the DCMS, Manchester City Council and Sport
England to assess the Lessons Learned from the Games. My report
was supplied to KPMG for incorporation into their document, which
I understand the Committee has recently considered. Hence, from
my above experience, and the fact that I am a member of London
Sport, I wish to comment on the potential bid for the 2012 Olympics,
based on the commercial aspects of organising such as major sporting
event.
- The staging of major sports events is virtually
always a catalyst for public interest and enthusiasm in sport,
as well as for economic impact and regeneration. The goodwill
created, and the business generated as a result of a major sporting
event is unquestionable. Additionally, the incentive to élite
participants, and to the grassroots participants is incalculable
in the long run, in terms of results, and of health and social
aspects.
- Britain has a long history of staging highly
successful sporting events, in terms of administration, media
coverage and organisational ability, such as Euro '96. While the
international sporting reputation of the UK is not high at the
moment, particularly due to the cancellation of the World Athletics
Championships and the long delay in the planning of Wembley.
- It is a very costly exercise to put on a major
international oneoff event, since the scale of the organisation
is vastly bigger and the costs in terms of financial commitment
and cashflow, facilities needed and the higher quality of delivery
that is required, than any other national event that a sport will
have run before. Prior to the essential support of the Lottery,
many national sports federations could not even consider staging
major sports events, and even so, they will virtually always run
at a loss. Additionally, the extra time and effort put in to organising
the event can take a major toll on the resources of sport, at
a time when it should be gaining extra benefit from having the
event on home soil.
- At the Commonwealth Games, from my investigations,
it is clear that the early planning was done without sufficient
research into the budgets needed and the potential cost. Most
of the plans put together by Manchester were based on a breakeven
budget put together by people with no previous experience on staging
sports events, whereas in reality, it proved to be a much more
costly exercise.
- While the Commonwealth Games were an undoubted
success in terms of impact, new facilities, regeneration of a
deprived area, economic income, sporting success and local community
benefit, the longer term sporting benefits are much harder to
measure. In organisational terms, not enough money within the
budget was put aside to support the sporting administration within
the Games, with too few people of limited experience, so that
in future, there is not the legacy from Manchester that there
ought to have been to put that knowledge to good use in future
for sports event organisation in the UK.
- The initial report into staging the Olympics
was written before the experience of the Commonwealth Games, and
there is now a great deal more background information available
upon which to base a realistic budget and to develop plans. It
is suggested that more time is spent immediately to go into greater
depth in looking at the strengths and weaknesses of staging the
Olympics, using wider expertise and more relevant information—so
that the problems that arose in Manchester of underfunding
and changes in organisational direction and the scale of the event,
are not repeated in the case of an Olympics.
- I cannot comment on whether London is the only
suitable venue in the UK to attract an Olympic Games to the UK,
but while there are some advantages of staging in the capital
city, there are distinct problems in terms of the massive size
of the city in terms of transport and communication. Manchester
proved a wonderful sized city, in that it could cope with the
influx of people but it was accessible and had a great atmosphere
throughout the city.
- If the UK wishes to bid of an Olympic Games,
it is only viable if this has the wholehearted support of
the Government, both vocally and in financial terms. The experience
of Australia over three successive campaigns, where the first
bid came from a city, followed by one supported by the state,
and finally the successful bid which was undertaken by the national
government for Sydney. Unless the Government (and all parties)
agree to give full backing for the bid, it will not be successful—and
even if it was, then the event could never be staged without the
100 per cent backing of the Government. Not least, since London
does not have a metropolitan authority, but is made up of many
local councils, it requires the national government to pull all
the stakeholders together into a cohesive group, in order to be
able to deliver a highly successful and coordinated Games.
- While the proposal to bid for an Olympic Games
is being put forward by the British Olympic Association, there
are many other bodies that have an interest in this, notably UK
Sport as the recognised coordinating agency for major sports
events, and Sport England, from the facilities and Commonwealth
Games experience. It is imperative that these, and the sports
federations, work closely together on any bid, and that they utilise
the existing expertise within the public and private sector, to
give the UK the best advantage to secure the Games.
- If there is not acrosstheboard support
of a bid to stage the Olympic Games in the UK, and if the Government
do not give unequivocal support at this stage, then it is my view
that the relevant agencies cannot risk staging the Games themselves,
and should not enter the bidding.
- However, the benefits to the UK from staging
an Olympic Games are so enormous, to the sporting world, to the
community of London, to the economy, and to the wider national
public interest in major sport, that it is definitely worth bidding
to stage the Games in the UK.
- In conclusion, it is proposed that the Culture,
Media and Sport Committee use its best efforts to persuade the
government to give full, unequivocal support and financial backing
to a bid from the UK to stage the Olympic Games in London in 2012.
8 January 2003
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