Future indefinite? london 2012, the spectre of retrenchment and the challenge of olympic sports legacy

London Journal

Volumn 34, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 179-196

  Gold, John R ^a   Gold, Margaret M ^b  

^a OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^b LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EXPLORATION; FUTURE PROSPECT; LITERATURE REVIEW; OLYMPIC GAMES;

ENGLAND; EURASIA; EUROPE; LONDON [ENGLAND]; UNITED KINGDOM; WESTERN EUROPE;

EID: 70350225843     PISSN: 03058034     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1179/174963209X442450     Document Type: Review

References (104)

1. Alistair Osborne and James Kirkup, 'Tessa Jowell: Britain Would Not Have Bid for 2012 Olympics if We Knew About Recession', Daily Telegraph (12 Nov 2008), 1.
2. Roger Blitz, 'Olympic Sponsors Unite to Increase Infl uence', Financial Times (14 Nov 2008), 4.
3. Donald Getz, Event Management and Event Tourism (New York, 1997).
4. Maurice Roche, Mega-Events and Modernity: Olympics and Expos in the Growth of Global Culture (2000).
5. John Horne and Wolfram Manzenreiter, Sports Mega-events: Social Scientifi c Analyses of a Global Phenomenon (Oxford, 2006). A compelling treatment of related issues is found in Peter Hall, Great Planning Disasters (1980).
6. For example, James Lyons, 'Credit Crunch Hits 2012 Olympics: MPs Call for "Austerity" Games', Daily Mirror (14 Nov 2008), 5.
7. Anon., 'Think What the Olympic Budget Could Have Bought Us', Country Life (10 Dec 2008), 23.
8. For example, see Jennifer Quinn, 'London Offi cial States Obvious: Olympics May Not Be Worth $13.8 Billion', NBC New York Online (13 Nov 2008), http://www.nbcnewyork.com/topics/?topic=Tessa+Jowell (accessed 27 Nov 2008).
9. 'Second Thoughts on London 2012: Tessa Jowell', The Australian (15 Nov 2008), http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0, 25197, 24651797-5017910, 00.html (accessed 27 Nov 2008).
10. 'UK Minister's Olympic Bid Comments Cause Uproar', China Post (15 Nov 2008), http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/europe/2008/11/15/183292/UK- ministers.htm (accessed 27 Nov 2008).
11. Cyrille Vanlerberghe, 'Des Jeux Olympiques déjà trop chers pour Londres', Le Figaro (14 Nov 2008), http://www.lefigaro.fr/economie/2008/11/ 13/04001-20081113ARTFIG00643-des-jeux-olympiques-deja-trop-chers-pour-londres-. php (accessed 27 Nov 2008).
12. Henry Samuel, 'Gallic Glee at London's Olympic Headache', The Daily Telegraph (15 Nov 2008), 24.
13. Andrew Pierce, 'Foreign Workers on Their Marks for Olympics Jobs', The Daily Telegraph (14 Nov 2008), 8.
14. Simon Hart, 'London is Fortunate to be Hosting Olympics, says Mayor Boris Johnson', Daily Telegraph (14 Nov 2008), 13.
15. For more on those aspects, see Graeme Evans, 'London 2012', in John R. Gold and Margaret M. Gold (eds), Olympic Cities: City Agendas, Planning, and the World's Games, 1896-2012 (2007), 307, 298-317.
16. Jon Coaffee, 'Sports, Culture and the Modern State: Emerging Themes in Stimulating Urban Regeneration in the UK', International Journal of Cultural Policy, 14:4 (2008), 377-97.
17. Iain Macrury and Gavin Poynter, 'The Regeneration Games: Commodities, Gifts and the Economics of London 2012', International Journal of the History of Sport, 25:14 (2008), 2072-90.
18. Adam Brown and Joanne Massey (eds), Literature Review: The Impact of Major Sporting Events (Manchester, 2001).
19. Floris Langen and Beatriz Garcia, 'Measuring the Impact of Major Cultural Events: A Literature Review', Arts Research Digest, 44 (2008), 1-7.
20. Broadly speaking, 'tangible' legacy involves directly measurable outcomes (e.g. in terms of provision of facilities or reference to visitor numbers), whereas the outcomes included in 'intangible' legacy cannot usually be directly measured. For example, increased numbers of tourists are tangible, whereas the image of an attractive tourist destination is intangible.
21. Holger Preuss, 'The Conceptualisation and Measurement of Mega Sport Event Legacies', Journal of Sport and Tourism, 12:3/4 (2007), 211. The terms 'hard' and 'soft' legacy are sometimes used interchangeably with 'tangible' and 'intangible' legacy.
22. Its fi rst use was in the bidding documents for the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games. Martha J. McIntosh, 'The Olympic Bid Process as a Starting Point of the Legacy Development', in Miquel de Moragas, Christopher Kennett and Nuria Puig (eds), The Legacy of the Olympic Games 1984-2000 (Lausanne, 2003), 450.
23. John J. MacAloon, 'Legacy as Managerial/Magical Discourse in Contemporary Olympic Affairs', International Journal of the History of Sport, 25:14 (2008), 2064.
24. A. Varley, 'Barcelona's Olympic Facelift', Geographical Magazine, 64:7 (1992), 21.
25. Macrury and Poynter, 'The Regeneration Games', 2077.
26. International Olympic Committee, The Environment: The Third Dimension of Olympism (Lausanne, 2000). For more on 'Olympism', .
27. Norbert Müller, Pierre de Coubertin, 1893-1937: Olympism, Selected Writings (Lausanne, 2000).
28. for more on the links between sustainability and sports legacy, see Vassil Girginov and Laura Hills, 'A Sustainable Sports Legacy: Creating a Link between the London Olympics and Sports Participation', International Journal of the History of Sport, 25:14 (2008), 2091-116.
29. International Olympic Committee, 'Focus: What is the Olympic Games Global Impact Study?', Olympic Review (Jun 2006), http://multimedia. olympic.org/pdf/en-report-1077.pdf (accessed 27 Nov 2008).
30. To clarify the timing: submission of bids for Official Candidate Cities normally takes place two years before the selection of the host city. There is then a seven-year preparation period before the games and a further three-year period afterwards in which legacy should be scrutinised.
31. International Olympic Committee, The Legacy of the Olympic Games 1984-2000: Conclusions and Recommendations (Lausanne, 2003), 2. For more discussion of the components of legacy.
32. Richard Cashman, The Bitter-Sweet Awakening: The Legacy of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games (Sydney, 2005).
33. Jean-Loup Chappelet, The Tale of Three Olympic Cities: Forecast for Turin on Basis of Grenoble and Innsbruck (Turin, 2006).
34. Alan Tomlinson, The Game's Up: Essays in the Cultural Analysis of Sport, Leisure and Popular Culture (Aldershot, 1999).
35. Michael Payne, Olympic Turnaround: How the Olympic Games Stepped Back from the Brink of Extinction to Become the World's Best Known Brand (Westport, CT, 2005).
36. J. A. Mangan, 'Prologue: Guarantees of Global Goodwill: Post- Olympic Legacies - Too Many Limping White Elephants', International Journal of the History of Sport, 25:14 (2008), 1869-83.
37. Girginov and Hills, 'A sustainable sports legacy', 2092.
38. Anon, 'Sports development in British society', http://www. sportdevelopment.org.uk, accessed 2 December 2008.
39. Girginov and Hills, 'A Sustainable Sports Legacy', 2092.
40. John R. Gold and Margaret M. Gold, 'Access for All: The Rise of the Paralympics Within the Olympic Movement', Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 127:3 (2007), 133-41.
41. Mike Weed and Chris Bull, Sports Tourism: Participants, Policy and Providers (2003).
42. Rebecca Jenkins, The First London Olympics 1908 (2008).
43. Graeme Kent, Olympic Follies (2008).
44. Janie Hampton, The Austerity Olympics (2008).
45. It is often claimed that this was because the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in April of that year had placed such severe strains on the Italian economy, but there may well have been an element of pretext here. It is now suggested that the Italians were preparing to withdraw from the games before the eruption occurred.
46. Bill Mallon and Ian Buchanan, The 1908 Olympic Games: Results for All Competitors in All Events with Commentary. Results from the Early Olympics, 5 (Jefferson, NC, 2000), xxxvii.
47. This had been a source of weakness that, arguably, had threatened the continued existence of the modern Olympics. John R. Gold and Margaret M. Gold, 'Athens to Athens: The Summer Olympics, 1896-2004', in John R. Gold and Margaret M. Gold (eds), Olympic Cities: City Agendas, Planning, and the World's Games, 1896-2012 (2007), 24-5.
48. British Olympic Association, Minutes of Council Meeting, A7/3, 18 Feb 1907.
49. It could be argued that there was also some infrastructural legacy that was not specifi cally related to sport, most notably the extension of Central London Railway from its terminus at Shepherd's Bush to a newly opened station at Wood Lane to allow access to the games from central London. This development, however, equally served the Franco-British Exhibition and was not solely for the Olympics.
50. Rebecca Jenkins, The First London Olympics 1908 (2008), 226-61.
51. Martin Wimmer, Olympic Buildings (Leipzig, 1976), 22.
52. Anon., 'The Olympic Games', The Times (30 Mar 1907), 10.
53. Mangan, 'Prologue', 1870.
54. Fred H. Hawthorne and Ronald Price, The Soulless Stadium: A Memoir of London's White City (Upminster, 2001), 7.
55. Jenkins, The First London Olympics, 46-52.
56. In passing, it may be noted that the last visible remains of the Franco-British Exhibition site were fi nally demolished in 2003 to make way for the Westfi eld shopping complex (opened October 2008).
57. Namely, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Philadelphia, although there was informal interest from several other potential US contenders.
58. R. A. Voeltz, 'London 1948: The Games of the 14th Olympiad', in J. E. Findling and K. D. Pelle (eds), Historical Dictionary of the Modern Olympic Movement (Westport, CT, 1996), 103.
59. Richard Holt and Tony Mason, Sport in Britain, 1945-2000 (Oxford, 2000), 27-9.
60. Janie Hampton, The Austerity Olympics (2008), 29.
61. Organising Committee, The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad: London 1948 (1948).
62. Holt and Mason, Sport in Britain, 31.
63. Hampton, Austerity, 318.
64. Gold and Gold, 'Access for All'.
65. British Olympic Association (BOA), 'London 2012 Olympic Bid - an Eight Year journey', http://www.olympics.org.uk/contentpage.aspx?no=268 (accessed 27 Nov 2008). In passing, it is worth noting that, for both Birmingham and Manchester, the rationale of bidding was more that of gaining international publicity for their cities than any realistic belief that their bids would be ultimately successful. This point was confi rmed by the leader of Manchester's campaign: Sir Bob Scott, 'A Personal Point of View', paper presented to symposium on 'The Big Question: The Changing Role of Research in Bidding For, and Measuring the Impact Of, Large-scale Cultural Events', Liverpool, 23 Oct 2008.
66. After Manchester's second defeat, there was a hiatus in which the UK did not participate in bidding for either the 2004 or 2008 Olympics.
67. BOA, 'London 2012', 11.
68. The very existence of such bodies was important. The BOA had concluded that the lack of a unitary local authority after the Thatcher government abolished the Greater London Council in 1985 was a major weakness, since it left the city without a local authority to underwrite the bid. Creation of the Greater London Authority in 1999 and appointment of a mayor for London in 2000 had done much to rectify the situation.
69. See Christopher R. Hill, 'The Politics of Manchester's Olympic bids', Parliamentary Affairs, 47:3 (1994), 338-54.
70. Arup with Insignia Richard Ellis, London Olympics 2012 Costs and Benefits: Summary (2002), 6, 10, 11.
71. Department of Culture, Media and Sport/Strategy Unit, Game Plan: A Strategy for Delivering Government's Sport and Physical Activity Objectives (2002), 66.
72. The procedure, working to a model first adopted in December 1999, is outlined in: International Olympic Committee, Candidate Acceptance Procedure, Games of the XXX Olympiad 2012 (Lausanne, 2003).
73. The first volume covered concept and legacy, political and economic structure, legal, customs, environment and meteorology, fi nance, and marketing. The second volume was devoted to sports and venues, the Paralympic Games, and the Olympic Village. The fi nal volume examined medical services, security, accommodation, transport, technology, media operations, and Olympism and culture.
74. Evans, 'London 2012', 307.
75. Noam Shoval, 'A New Phase in the Competition for the Olympic Gold: The London and New York Bids for the 2012 Games', Journal of Urban Affairs, 24:5 (2002), 592-3.
76. Mike Lee, The Race for the 2012 Olympics (2006).
77. Evans, 'London 2012'.
78. London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), London 2012: Candidate File (2004), 1, 15.
79. LOCOG, Candidate File, 1, 1.
80. Evans, 'London 2012', 299.
81. LOCOG, Candidate File, 1, 11.
82. LOCOG, Candidate File, 1, 19.
83. Evans, 'London 2012', 312.
84. LOCOG, Candidate File, 1, 19.
85. LOCOG, Candidate File, 1, 23.
86. LOCOG, Candidate File, 1, 19.
87. LOCOG, Candidate File, 2, 25.
88. LOCOG, Candidate File, 2, 177.
89. LOCOG, Candidate File, 2, 193.
90. Olympic Programme Directorate, Programme Execution Plan (2005), 65.
91. London Development Agency, Briefing Note: Policy Context for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, Nov 08 (2008), 1.
92. There are residual tensions between the boroughs and the LDA/mayor of London over planning and legacy. See House of Commons, CMS Committee (2007), 32.
93. Roger Blitz, 'Jowell Admits Private Sector Shortfall for Olympic Village', Financial Times (10 Dec 2008), 4.
94. Roxanne Millar, '£40m Olympic Legacy Pool Scrapped Amid Funding Fears', http://www.contractjournal.com/Articles/2008/10/15/61574/40m- olympiclegacy-pool-scrapped-amid-funding-fears.html (accessed 2 Dec 2008).
95. Robert Booth, 'Wembley Back in the Running as Credit Crunch Hits Olympics', Guardian (20 Nov 2008), 10.
96. Matthew Syed, 'UK Sport Must Look Beyond Medal Success at London 2012', Timesonline, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article5280919.ece (accessed 2 Dec 2008).
97. Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Before, During and After: Making the Most of the London 2012 Games (2008), 6.
98. Legacy Trust UK, 'Ouraims', http://www.legacytrustuk. org (accessed 2 Dec 2008).
99. DCMS, Before, During and After, 6.
100. Central Council of Physical Recreation, '"Sport being forgotten in Olympic funding row" says CCPR', http://www.ccpr.org.uk/news/newspages/ sportbeingforgotteninolympicfundingrowsayccpr.htm (accessed 2 Dec 2008).
101. Central Council of Physical Recreation, 'Chief Execs of Sport United on Olympic Troubles', http://www.ccpr.org.uk/news/newspages/ Chief+execs+of+sport+united+on+Olympic+troubles.htm(accessed 2 Dec 2008).
102. Andrew Shonfield, Modern Capitalism: The Changing Balance of Private and Public Power (Oxford, 1969), 61.
103. Alan Tomlinson, 'The disneyfication of the Olympics: Theme Parks and Freak-shows of the Body', in John Bale and Mettte Krogh Christensen (eds), Post- Olympism?: Questioning Sport in the Twenty-fi rst Century (Oxford, 2004), 158.
104. Lyons, 'Credit Crunch'.