Tonight:
4°c
At Canary Wharf, in the same building as Barclays' head office, is the headquarters of Locog, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. Also in the same premises is the ODA - that's the Olympic Delivery Authority. The first is charged with staging the Games in 2012, the second must build the venues and attendant infrastructure.
It's a good mix; sport and business. To get to the office of Lord Coe, chairman of Locog, you share the lift with earnest bank staff. In each lift there is a flat screen, blaring out the latest news from the markets. The Canary Wharf location and the presence of the bank are well chosen. This isn't a sports body operating in some ivory tower. This is one that is firmly connected with the real world and that means money.
Talking to Coe, as I did before he headed off to Beijing, he put great emphasis on the marriage between the London Olympics and business. Locog now has seven "tier-one" or main commercial partners - Lloyds TSB, EDF Energy, adidas, British Airways, BT, BP and Nortel - and one tier-two supporter, Deloitte.
Once Beijing is out of the way, the push for more backing will step up a gear. Coe wants to attract at least two tier-one companies, between 10 and 15 second-tier sponsors and more than 20 in a third tier.
The sums involved are not to be sniffed at. The tier-ones alone are each pumping in cash or services in kind totalling £50 million. Coe hopes that a triumphant Beijing will carry London aloft, that corporates imbued by the spectacle in China will clamour to be seen to be associated with London. There is, though, the small matter of a slump to contend with. Most businesses I know are busy reviewing their hospitality and sponsorship deals.
Coe's hope is that somehow the Olympics rises above all that. "These are economically fragile times, it's true, but they're joining the Olympic family here; they're not just putting their logo on a shirt, like in football. They've got to invest in the idea. They can't have a mindset that they're investing for 18 months and then they'll take a look at the economic cycle. We're asking them to look at the next four, five, 10 years and afterwards."
There's no doubt he's doing well.
"Four years out and we're beyond 50% of our fundraising target," he says with a smile. I've got a lot of time for Coe. Without him and his boundless energy, enthusiasm and prodigious high-level global networking we would not have the Games in 2012.
Alas, I wish I could say the same for some of the others involved in the mammoth project.
There's a third person in the marriage of sports organiser and business executive and that's the politician. Listening to Coe as he sets out his vision for Britain's children (and grown-ups) participating in sport it's easy to be swept along. Then you have to remind yourself, it was the Government that sold off the playing fields and cut back on sports resources in state schools. And it's the minister for sport, Gerry Sutcliffe, who has declared that unless our athletes win 41 medals in Beijing the Government will be holding a review of its sports funding. So, let's get this right, Gerry. Our courageous man or woman is pipped in the final metre by the person in lane four and that's it, you cut off the dosh? It's bizarre. Not only is it a ludicrous way of judging sporting glory, it does not sit with Coe and the 2012 ideal.
Significantly, the British Olympic Association and even sports-mad Australia decline to set medal tallies. That doesn't stop Gerry. Like his colleagues in education, health and other departments, he seeks solace in daft and ultimately meaningless league tables.
If I were Coe, I'd be demanding an urgent meeting with Sutcliffe and telling him to put a sock in it. Likewise, if I was one of the companies already committed to 2012 I'd be issuing a funding target of my own. It would involve Gordon Brown denouncing his crazy minister. No rubbishing, no money. You see, Gerry, two can play at that game.
