The World Squash Federation (WSF) announced that it has appointed VERO Communications to be its Bid Management Company to secure Olympic inclusion for the sport, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that squash is on the shortlist for the 2020 Games.

The news follows another victory for a VERO-supported bid team after PyeongChang won the rights to host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. The company were also instrumental in the success of London 2012, Rio 2016 and Qatar’s successful FIFA World Cup bid for 2022.

WSF President N Ramachandran said of the appointment: “I am delighted that we have reached agreement with VERO for them to be our Bid Management Company and communications advisers and we look forward very much to working with VERO Chairman Mike Lee and his colleagues in trying to realise our long-held goal of Squash becoming a Summer Olympic medal sport from 2020.

“When we met Mike, we felt straight away that he understood our sport and our ambitions. VERO have a tremendous track record in assisting bidding cities and sports so Squash will benefit immensely from drawing upon their experience and knowledge.”

Mike Lee OBE, VERO Chairman, added: “We are thrilled with this appointment. Our aim is to help Squash put forward a compelling case to the IOC Programme Commission and wider Olympic Family on why the sport would be a fantastic addition to the Games.

“There is a long road ahead in the campaign but we are excited by the challenge. Working with President Ramachandran and the WSF team, we will do all we can to help ensure that the voice of Squash is heard all the way to the IOC Session in Buenos Aires in September 2013.”

Asics, cialis the sports performance brand, has announced plans to accompany the London 2012 Olympic Games with an experiential venue and reinforce its sporting associations by encompassing a strong brand presence around the event.

Despite not being an official sponsor of the Games, the brand is working with communications agency Imagination, to develop ‘an immersive and engaging experience’.

The Asics Olympic venue will host customers, partners and guests during the Games but will not be located in the surrounding area of existing Olympic venues, after it was announced earlier this week that strong measures would be put in place to protect official sponsors of the Games.

The proposed measures will only be implemented on a small area around the venues, and only around the time the events are taking place.

The company is also working with 180 Amsterdam, on an advertising campaign to run during the Olympics.

LA2015, stuff the Organizing Committee for the 2015 Special Olympics World Games, have signed a broadcast deal with ESPN for the event.

Through the agreement, ESPN becomes the Official Broadcaster of the event, which begins July 25, 2015.

The agreement provides ESPN with rights to the 2015 Special Olympics World Games Opening Ceremony from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, daily competition, Closing Ceremony and other cultural activities. ESPN will produce the Opening Ceremony live as well as a nightly highlights program and KABC-TV will also play a role in the coverage for the Los Angeles market. ESPN will feature both English- and Spanish-language coverage of some parts of LA2015. Specific programming and coverage details will be announced in the months ahead.

Sports fans around the world will have access to ESPN’s coverage via its networks and media platforms in the U.S., Mexico, Spanish-speaking Latin America, the Caribbean, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Special Olympics International, ESPN and the Games Organizing Committee will work together to find additional regional media partners to bring the World Games to more fans and sports participants around the world.

“ESPN’s reach and caliber of coverage made them a natural partner for the Special Olympics World Games,” said Patrick McClenahan, President and Chief Executive Officer of LA2015, the Games Organizing Committee. “ESPN’s legacy of work with Special Olympics and our shared values of athletes first, unity, competition and overcoming adversity among others, strengthen the foundation of these World Games as a global celebration of the courage, determination and joy of our athletes.”

John Skipper, ESPN President, Co-Chairman of Disney Media Networks, said, “This agreement reflects our belief in sport as a powerful vehicle to showcase and promote acceptance and inclusion. We are very proud of our long relationship with Special Olympics and our commitment to highlight the power of sport to positively impact people of all ability levels.”

Former London & Partners Senior Project Manager, Alexandra Goldschmidt has joined the National Football League’s (NFL) UK office as Sponsorship Manager.

Goldschmidt joins the team headed up by UK Commercial Director, Ben Dunn as the NFL looks to continue its expansion in the UK. 

Goldschmidt will work with new and existing commercial partners as the NFL continues to attract new fans to the sport. Her experience of working on behalf of London in bidding for and supporting major events in the capital will help the NFL as it develops new partnerships and increases it’s footprint in London and the UK. 

Dunn was excited by the new addition to the team: “We are delighted that Alex has joined the NFL commercial team in the UK. Her experience of London and the events sector will be incredibly valuable to us.  The momentum of the NFL in the UK has never been stronger as we work to deliver two sold out International Series Games at Wembley in 2013.  The ultimate ambition of the League is to determine whether London can host a franchise that competes in the NFL.  There are tremendous opportunities for existing and new partners around the fastest growing spectator sport in the UK, and Alex will be instrumental in delivering these.” 

Over the last 5 years Goldschmidt has worked with multiple private and public sector partners, governing bodies and rights holders on projects such as the Badminton & Gymnastics World Championships, the UEFA Champions League Final, the Red Bull Air Race and the 2017 World Athletics Championships bid. 

Goldschmidt added: “Having worked with the NFL around their International Series Games for the last 3 years, I have seen them go from strength to strength.  With regular-season games confirmed until 2016, and the move to 2 games this autumn I am delighted to be joining them at such an exciting time.”

Hundreds of young sports stars from across the world will take part in pioneering Culture and Education Programmes when they compete at two world championships in Glasgow this summer.

The city, currently bidding to host the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (YOG), will welcome the world’s best young track cyclists and netball players for what will be a month-long festival of sport in August. The £113million Emirates Arena will host both the 2013 Junior Track World Championships (JTWC) and 2013 World Youth Netball Championships (WYNC) as part if its international sporting events programme.

And in a boost to the city’s bid to host the 2018 YOG, organisers have confirmed that Culture and Education Programmes will be introduced at both world championships. While sport is at the very heart of the YOG, elite athletes remain at the Games for the entire competition to take part in a wide range of activities as part of a Culture and Education Programme. That same approach will be taken in Glasgow this summer.

During the two championship events young athletes will learn about the importance of pursuing a dual career and how to deal with the challenges of success in an increasingly global media environment. They will also learn about the dangers of over-training and issues around doping in sport. The Glasgow organisers will draw from work already going on in these areas to support the city’s young athletes at the Glasgow School of Sport.

During Glasgow 2018 the city’s status as a European cultural powerhouse and the fact its young people speak more than 110 languages would be utilised to make sure the Culture and Education Programme also empowered young people across the globe.

The city already works with organizations such as Unicef and the British Council to link with 95 countries across the world. And yesterday the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee announced a partnership with Unicef aimed at inspiring young people to be the best they can be. This partnership illustrates Glasgow’s ability to empower young people across the globe through proven links.

The JTWC, which takes place in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome at the Emirates Arena between Wednesday 7 and Sunday 11 August, will showcase the next generation of track cyclists. Glasgow joins an elite list of JTWC host cities that includes Los Angeles, Cape Town and Moscow. Riders will go for gold in a range of events including the team sprint, keirin, individual pursuit, omnium, sprint, madison, points race, team pursuit, scratch race and various time trials.

Some of the world’s top track cyclists including the current golden girl of British cycling, Becky James, started on the road to glory at previous JTWC. James, who won gold in both the sprint and keirin at the 2009 JTWC, became the first British woman to win four medals at Track World Championship (TWC) level earlier this year. James took gold in the sprint and keirin as well as bronze in the 500m time trial and team sprint.

Former track star Kevin Stewart, who broke the British record in the 200metre time trial at the 2009 JTWC, before going on to ride for Team Scotland at the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games is excited at the prospect of seeing the world’s best young track cyclists go for gold in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.

He said: “The Junior Track World Championships is a fantastic event and will showcase our future World, Commonwealth and Olympic champions. To have an event of this magnitude and prestige at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome will really demonstrate what a world-class facility we have in Glasgow. This is an event to be really excited about as the standard of competition is drawing closer and closer to senior level and this year will be no different with some sterling riders showing racing well beyond their years.”

At the WYNC, which takes place between 22 and 31 August, host nation Scotland will battle it out against 19 other countries in a bid to be crowned the best in the world at under-21 level. Among the nations already confirmed are netball giants New Zealand, England and Australia. The 10-day event, which is part of UK Sport’s £27million Gold Event Series, is the first world netball event to be staged in Scotland since 1987 and will take place less than a year before the sport takes centre stage at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Glasgow 2018 Bid Champion and Patron of Netball Scotland, Katherine Grainger CBE, said: “For many young players this summer’s World Youth Netball Championships will be the first step on a long and successful career in the game and it is fantastic they will be doing that in Glasgow. The event will bring together the best young players in the world for what will be 10 days of genuinely world-class action. 

“But what these events will also do is educate young athletes to help them handle the successes and pressures that can come with their careers, and make sure they are equipped to deal with them so they can fulfil their potential both in their athletic careers and beyond.”

Glasgow 2018 Bid Director Paul Bush said: “We are looking forward to an incredible summer of sport in Glasgow with two world championships taking place. Not only will the events showcase some of the world’s best young sports stars, they will also highlight the city’s commitment to enriching the lives of young athletes through exciting new Culture and Education Programmes.

“The fact that the 2014 Organising Committee has also shown its commitment to the development of young people across the globe is a reflection of Glasgow’s wider commitment to using its expertise and partnerships to make sure young people have the opportunities they need to become champions in their own lives.”

By Paul Freudensprung

Only a few days to go until the IOC members will select the host city of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games at the IOC Session in Durban, generic order South Africa. While this race for hosting the Olympic Games probably lacks the excitement of the last two Olympic Summer Games bids where some of the major global metropolis competed for the chance to become a host city, case still some interesting points can be highlighted with regards to venue development.

Also in this campaign an already well documented aspect can be observed: Two candidate cities from established winter sport regions in Alpine Europe, Munich and Annecy stand against PyeongChang, a city in Korea, where winter sport development has only started with its first Olympic bid for the 2010 Games. Again the IOC members have a choice to opt for well proven existing winter sport arenas and infrastructure, which host annual high-level events that draw major crowds. On the other hand, they can choose a new sports destination that allows opening new markets for winter sports. If we take the latest host city elections as a measure the IOC, but also FIFA, are leaning towards decisions to develop new markets for their events (2016 OG in Rio, 2018 OWG in Sochi).

But let’s have a closer look now on how this all really translates to venue development for the 2018 OWG Bid and compare the budget allocated by the three candidate cities:

Permanent & Temporary Venue Development  Works – All Venues
	Munich				PyeongChang			Annecy
Existing Venues – no permanent works required	$           32,40	7		$          51,10		6	$                 –			0
Existing Venues – permanent works	$           16,10	2		$          19,70		2	$       132,40			7
New Permanent Venues	$           53,30	1		$    1.146,40		6	$       678,60			6
New Permanent Venues – specific for the Games	$         570,10	6		$       239,30		3	$       423,50			6
Temporary Venues	$         217,00	6		$          73,00		1	$       149,90			6
Total venue development expenditures	$         888,90	22		$    1.529,50		18	$    1.384,40			25

Source: 2018 Candidate City bid Documents

In relation to the development aspect, it can be seen that the new winter sport destination PyeongChang has an almost equal number of existing venues and a lower number of new and temporary venues compared to both European candidate cities, Annecy and Munich. In fact, the bids of the traditional winter sport regions are not that different in terms of venue development from the new winter sports destination in Korea.

At first glance this fact may be surprising, but PyeongChang is bidding the third time for the Olympic Winter Games and has been building sport infrastructure all along the way. Nevertheless the Korean candidate city posts the highest venue development expenditures of all candidate cities, with the lowest number of competition and non-competition venues (twice the cost of Munich despite a similar number of venues not requiring works).

As Annecy would use the Games to extensively renovate and upgrade existing infrastructure and build the highest number of new permanent venues (12, compared to 7 Munich and 9 PyeongChang) its overall venue development expenditures are much higher than Munich’s and come close to PyeongChangs. Annecy is the only candidate without an existing venue not requiring any permanent works (Munich 7, PyeongChang 6). It shows, that also established destinations can have large infrastructure development potential, if the Games are used to modernize existing facilities. In relation to overall venue costs, only Munich is in line with the IOC’s paradigm to reduce the cost of the Games.

Munich and Annecy with 6 temporary venues each, follow an approach where venues without a permanent legacy for the region are built exclusively for the Games. For PyeongChange this translates into 1 temporary venue, which demonstrates the commitment of long term investment into winter sports development.

Organizing Committee Expenditures for Venues (in million U$)
	Munich		PyeongChang		Annecy
Capital Investment – Venues	$                  –		$                 –		$                 –
Rent & Temporary Overlay – Sport Venues	$         132,10	9,0%	$       107,40	5,5%	$       140,00	7,6%
Running Costs – Sport Venues	$             8,40	1,0%	$          35,70	2,0%	$          13,70	0,7%
Rent & Temporary Overlay – Olympic Villages	$         176,20	12,0%	$          90,30	4,7%	$       116,90	6,3%
Running Costs – Olympic Villages	$             8,50	1,0%	$          34,00	1,8%	$            6,30	0,3%
Rent & Temporary Overlay – MMC	$           32,00	3,0%	$          33,70	1,8%	$          63,50	3,4%
Running Costs – MMC	$             6,10	0,8%	$          73,00	3,8%	$            6,20	0,3%
Rent & Temporary Overlay – Other Venues	$             5,30	0,6%	$          12,50	0,6%	$          60,60	3,3%
Running Costs – Other Venues	$             1,00	0,1%	$            7,00	0,4%	$            1,70	0,1%
Total Rent & Temporary Overlay	$         345,60	24,6%	$       243,90	12,6%	$       381,00	20,6%
Total Operations	$           24,00	2,9%	$       149,70	8,0%	$          27,90	1,4%

Source: 2018 Candidate City bid Documents

The IOC understandably prefers for the Organising Committee to spend its budget on the staging of the Games and not the permanent construction of venues. The construction of venues should be the responsibility of private or public investors, as this infrastructure has a legacy for the host city that goes well beyond the Olympic Games. Under this light, not surprisingly all three candidates report no capital investment for venues by the Organising Committee.

Both European candidate cities, Munich and Annecy report very similar costs for venue rent, temporary overlay and running costs for the Olympic Games. PyeongChang indicates venue rental and overlay costs an approx. 30% lower than the European candidate cities. On the other hand the running costs are 5 times higher. The reason for this difference could only be analyzed, if more detailed information was available. As all 3 candidate cities state that public venue owners will provide the venues free of charge (and in all cases most venues are owned by the public hand) the difference could have its reason in a different interpretation of the cost categories.

In general OCOG expenditures are approx U$ 370-400 million in venues, with less than 10% of the total budget dedicated to sport venues. The Main Media Center, Olympic Villages and other venues of all 3 candidate cities cost approximately twice as much as its sport venues. This is an indicator of the complexity and impact of an Olympic Games beyond sport.

In short, it can be said that the 3 bids are very similar in terms of the financials for venue development. If any, the only major differentiating factor is Munich expending about half of the amount of the other two bids on venue development. And it shows that a bid in an established sports region still can require as much investment as in a new destination.

 

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One day to go – Predict 2018 Olympic Winter Games Host and win a prize!

Fox Sports, in preparation on broadcasting its first USGA golf events in 2015, have revealed they will air this year’s Franklin Templeton Shootout, a 25-year-old unofficial stop hosted by Greg Norman in December at Tiburon G.C. in Naples, Fla.

Earlier this month, Fox said Norman would work as its lead analyst along side play-by-play man Joe Buck at four of the 15 USGA championships next year when the 12-year, $1.1 billion contract kicks in. 

“From my perspective, this is a dynamic move for us,” Norman said in making the announcement. “This is the most exciting announcement we have had in the 26 years I have been running this event.”

Fox also showed its willingness to innovate, moving the finish of the shootout from Sunday to Saturday, away from its NFL programming.

“They say good things come in bunches,” said Fox Sports Co-COO Eric Shanks. “We were able to further out relationship with Greg Norman and will have the Franklin Templeton Shootout on Fox Sports1 and on Fox for three years. It will be Joe and Greg’s first tournament together on FOX.”

The Shootout, a 54-hole team event, has been around since 1989 with Harris English and Matt Kuchar (above) claiming last year’s title. The first round is modified alternate shot; the second 18 holes is better ball and thefinal round is played as a scramble. Over the years, the tournament has been broadcast by CBS, USA Network and, most recently, Golf Channel and NBC.

Aside from the Franklin Templeton Shootout, Fox will get its game in shape for the USGA’s flagship event, the U.S. Open, by first televising the Four-Ball and then the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball at Bandon Dunes Resort May 9-13.