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2012 Games 'will fail to boost grassroots sport'
Matthew Beard, Evening Standard25.07.08
The London Olympics may fail to deliver on its key pledge to boost the nationwide popularity of sport, it has been claimed.
Olympics chiefs came under attack for allegedly failing to devise a costed plan for improving participation in grassroots sport on the back of an increasingly "elitist" 2012 project.
Doubts about the Olympic sports legacy dominated the Evening Standard Influentials debate last night and came to a head in heated and sometimes personal exchanges between fellow panellists 2012 chief Sebastian Coe and author and Olympics opposer Will Self.
They were responding to warnings from audience member John Bryant of a "widening gap" between drugenhanced elite sport and the Games' aims of drawing people into sport.
Mr Self said: "I'm always slightly surprised by the idea that kids who are ordinary at sport are going to be galvanised to participate by elite performances. It's understandable Seb Coe wouldn't understand because he is an elite sports performer. Those of us who are just OK at sport actually are intimidated."
Mr Coe, double Olympic champion and chairman of 2012 organising committee Locog, said: "I will fight the nostrum that this is just about elite sport. The challenge is not whether we finish fourth or 20th in the medals table but what we do to convert big British moments into 10,000 more kids picking up sport." He conceded London had a "Third World" sports infrastructure but said the Olympics would remedy this.
Mr Coe accused Mr Self of being a newcomer to the debate about the plight of the capital's sports venues. "You were never out there when we were closing playing fields in Enfield. You were probably standing outside theatres."
Kate Hoey, the London mayor's commissioner for sport, said: "Legacy is about what is happening at grassroots level and there has to be a budget for ordinary kids in London. We haven't got that and we should be honest about the fact we have spent so much time worrying about making sure the Games work and facilities are built." Ms Hoey won applause among the audience when she proposed moving two of the Games venues because she said they would deliver no grassroots legacy.
The Labour MP and former sports minister, who opposed the London 2012 bid, said that shooting at the Royal Artillery barracks in Woolwich should be moved to the national centre in Bisley, Surrey, and that the equestrian events be moved out of Greenwich Park to Hickstead. Members of the audience raised concerns that Greenwich Park would be off limits for a year due to the Games and said there had been "no public consultation".
Olympics minister Tessa Jowell came under attack from other panellists about the Olympics budget which stands at £9.3billion compared with the original figure of £2.4 billion. She insisted this had not been kept artificially low to win the bid and that she could not have predicted that VAT, not part of the bid figure, would have been added to the bill.
Standard columnist and Olympics sceptic Andrew Gilligan said: "Because you did not tell the truth about costs at the beginning, nobody believes your assurances now."
He reminded Ms Jowell that former London mayor Ken Livingstone admitted the budget was a "con trick" to leverage investment into the East End. Mr Self said: "Can we square the circle here? It may be a deliberate deceit on his part and you guilelessly walked into it."
Mr Coe said the figure was always more than £2.4billion but said "maybe we didn't get this across properly". Mr Gilligan disputed claims by Olympics chiefs that "75p in every £1" was being spent on regeneration, claiming the Games chiefs' own budget figures disproved this.
In answer to the debate question "Are the Olympics good for London?", a show of hands among the 200-strong audience at the Royal Society of Arts showed about two thirds believed it would be beneficial and a third were unconvinced.
Video: watch highlights from the debate here
Will the Olympics be good for London? - what the panellists said...
Reader views (7)
I think the French are quite content that Britain 'won' the 2012 event if its taken Canada until this year to pay of its 1970s event Britain will never pay the cost only the people organising it will make the real gain with the usual inflated fees etc. How much is the real cost to London Tax payers going to be? were paying now for the current money crisis due to Labours total destruction of this once Great Britain.
- Mike Kelly, London England
I do not think that Britain will be as successful as China in the Olympics because they used an incredible amount of money on them. We do not even have that much! However Britain can aim to make the Olympics unique and well organised because we still have to show the world that we can manage and be successful even if it wont be as great as other countries, for example: China
- Nabiha, Brighton, England
Grassroot sports, would anyone describe what they mean by grassroots sports? The Olympics has taken the money away from us developing the present facilities and we have to wait to see the outcome after the Olympics.
We would of been developing sport stars for every Olympics and not when we are staging it.
We don't have the up to date facilities like USA and France, no quality swimming pools, football pitches, athletic track and changing facilities..
But we will build a stadium and then reduce the numbers, is this stadium going to have an effect on any ones life?
- Adrian, London
I'm sorry but Britain's involvement in the 2012 Olympic Games "has been" and "will continue to be" a total disaster from start to finish!
We're having the 2012 Games in a country that couldn't budget themselves out of a wet paper bag even if their lives depended upon it! So far, the official budgetary shortfall is apparently in excess of 400%!
... And this is in a country where the party in government (New Labour) - who have made a mess of just about everything they touch - can't even balance their own accounts, to the extent that they are on the verge of filing for bankruptcy due to their £25M to £30M debt!
It is high time that Britain's Cabinet ministers, MPs, senior civil servants and senior local government officials awarded themselves a compulsory "Reality Check" before Britain goes completely down the pan!
As for the 2012 Olympics, residents of Spain & France must be having a colossal laugh at Britain each time they see our media headlines regarding "latest developments" etc!
- Fraser, Telford Park
With money tight now and for the foreseeable future and the fact that we have committed ourselves to a 10 billion pound Olympics. Can anyone seriously believe that there will be money available for so called grassroot sports.
Already before any building work has begun the organisers are cutting back on the size of the village the design of the pool, the fabric of the stadium and so on and so on just to meet the present budget.
Londoners have no hope of any improvements in sport facilities unless they live in Stratford, in fact they will be lucky to keep what they already have by the time the games start.
- Mr S. Port, London
Will Self's idea that watching great athletes put the rest of us off is rubbish. Just look how much busier tennis courts are in July than they are in May - clearly loads of people get the urge to play tennis after watching Wimbledon on TV. I certainly do, and I'm useless at tennis.
- Tom, London
Sorry, this just isn't a story. Olympic proponents will always claim great things and opposes will always deny them. A debate such as this adds nothing of any value and to claim it gives weight to the view that the Olympics is a big waste of money is completely misleading.
- Phil, London
