Olympic's Impact on Sports Management in London - Essay Example

Olympics impact on Sports management in London Gradually sport starts to play more significant role in people’s life compared to the previous centuries. On the modern stage there is a goal to transfer mass sports movement into nationwide matter based on scientifically well-grounded system of physical education, which embraces all social layers of society. Apart from national systems of estimating norms and requirements to physical development of miscellaneous age groups of population, there is also obligatory sport activities provided in all types of educational establishments. Moreover, all the time countries organize various championships, tournaments, competitions, which emphasize the importance and necessity of sports nowadays. Hence, Tennis Wimbledon Tournament or Football League Championship is mega-event known all over the world, which attracts millions of viewers. Also today there is no grown-up person who is not aware what the word “Olympics” means and who has not watched the greatest international complex sport competitions on television at least once. It is well-known that the famous symbol of Olympics, five colorful rings, can be identified by more than ninety per cent of planet’s population. This exceeds the recognition of such extremely popularized brands as Nike, Coca-Cola and McDonalds (Vigor, Mean, Tims 2004, pp. 4). Even in a far antiquity Olympic Games were the main sport event of all the times and nations. During the period of Olympics peace and consent were proclaimed on the Earth. The wars stopped and all dignified athletes competed in a fair fight for the top ranking. Olympic movement managed to overcome a lot of impediments, among which were: interruptions by World Wars, attacks of terrorists, including bombing, kidnapping of sportsmen, murders, boycotts, and various diplomatic incidents. However, the Great Games have survived and currently take place every forth year, with interchange of summer and winter games with a difference of two years. Nowadays Olympics are spread on a large scale, being equipped with the latest techniques and recorded by numerous computers and cameras for defining the final results of the sportsmen with a high accuracy. Lately the cities that organize Olympics become the capitals of the world for the period of games holding. The place of the consecutive Games is announced beforehand for giving at least seven years to the country to get itself ready. Hence, London has been officially chosen for the Olympics 2012 on the sixth of July 2005, leaving behind such serious rivals as Paris, Moscow, New-York and Madrid. Since that time authorities try to make all possible efforts for providing dignified organization of the event with world significant. Olympic Games are not only the most popular sport event, but also strategic activity that plays considerable role in economic, politic and social life of the country. Despite all benefits that can be achieved with a help of mentioned games, there are also some threats which may affect state’s decision to bid for mega-event’s hosting. The most influential factor is security risk that can be disrupted with terrorist attacks. Hence, London transport system faced several suicide bombers in subway that managed to take away people’s lives and arouse government concerns about future security of denizens. In this respect it has been decided that the games will be policed by around 20,000 police offices and private security staff. In addition, according to preliminary evaluation the big number of spectators, which will come to watch the Games, can increase the level of crime in the country, ensuring thefts, sales of fake food products and other goods, drug dealing, distribution of fake tickets and even prostitution (Jennings 2009, pp. 9). The second important hindrance is financial risk that may cause essential obstacles in hosting games on high level of quality organization, because it has been concluded that all staging costs can be at least five per cent higher than predicted, so the summarized costs will up to fifty per cent overreach initial evaluation. However, about sixty five per cent of British population believes that Olympics worth such risk, therefore London will be able to gain considerable benefits. And finally the last essential factor that influences the whole country is pollution of the environment. Hence, all activities surrounding sport event increases carbon emissions that can be eliminated with the use of renewable energy. Also the problem of waste raises immediately taking into account what enormous number of people is intend to visit London during sixteen days of the Olympic period. In this respect, authorities have found a rescue in promotion of the reuse and recycling of materials (Cleverly, Bacon and O’Connell 2010, pp. 15). According to official reports, the operational budget of Olympics in London is to be 1.5 billions of pounds (Berman 2009, pp. 12). The main expense items are sports venues, Olympic Village and alternative accommodation, games workforce, telecommunications and information systems, opening/closing/medal award ceremonies, torch relay, catering, transport, security, advertising and promotion, administration and Paralympic Games. The funds of National Lottery that total about 2.2 billions of pounds and which are predicted to be returned with a help of future land and property sales assist in providing required facilities to arrange Olympics (London 2012). Typically Olympic Games include such impact areas as economic, political, environmental, social and cultural impacts along with physical infrastructure (The Higher Education Academy 2007, pp. 2). All responsibilities for the process of preparation and hosting mega-sport event are divided between two main central organizations. The first one is The London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), which initial obligation is planning and staging the Games with a help of merchandise, broadcasting and sponsorship incomes. The second organization is The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), which has been established for ensuring required physical infrastructure for the Games. It is obvious that Olympic Games will attract millions of tourist that need to be accepted duly. Such sport event is a strategic action which increases level of tourism in the country drastically, that is why it is essential to create proper reputation of the country for being able to leave favorable representation afterwards. Besides sport venues, such as stadiums, swimming pools and other sports grounds that have to be constructed according to the international standards and norms, the ODA needs to provide quality railways, roads, sewers, power lines, urban transport, additional accommodations, leisure and sports facilities, ecological issues, including parks and water, hotels, restaurants, snack bars and others. Both mentioned organizations constantly deal with other structures, such as The Government Olympic Executive, such stakeholders as The Minister of the Olympics, The Mayor of London and The British Olympic Association, such partners as The London Development Agency, the Olympic Park Legacy Company, Transport for London, The British Paralympic Association and the five Host Boroughs – Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest, such sponsors as Coca-Cola, Acer, McDonalds, Samsung, Panasonic, Adidas, Visa, Cadbury and others (Sustainability Plan 2009, pp. 7). Due to the predictions of different specialists, economic and social benefits of Olympic Games in London will be the following: the renewal of entire physical infrastructure, provision of additional working places, the decrease of city’s unemployment level, the increase of volunteer ethos, the development of knowledge base and skills of the labour, the raising the rate of production, the enhance of revenues, the decline of poverty level, which influences on various social problems, such as dipsomania, prostitution and drug addiction, the strengthening the existent business base, the development of diversification of business base, the creation of national pride, the increase of sports participation and healthy living (Communities and Local Government 2009, pp. 48). It is clearly that impending Olympics affect sport and physical activity of the British people. Hence, the main expenditures that have been spent on sport in the country have risen by 138 per cent in 2008 compared to 1985 and “the number of people with sport-related jobs has also grown, reaching 441,000 – that’s 1.8% of all employment in England” (Sport England 2010). The London Organizing Committee has set several directions of the development of sport life in the country. The first one is elite achievement, which is supposed to put the Great Britain on the forth place in Olympic Medal Table (Sustainable Plan 2009, pp. 62). To achieve this authorities try to provide athletes with required training opportunities and the most quality sport facilities. The second direction is community sport, which includes methods to inspire people to be engaged in physical activity. Hence, all children with an age from 5 to 16 years are offered with five hours of sport per week and youngsters from 16 to 19 years old are provided with three hours of sport every week (Sustainable Plan 2009, pp. 62). London aims at increase of sport clubs ensuring accreditations and licenses, making sport facilities more available to the citizen. Also the number of coaches has risen drastically with a help of five million of pounds investment into the Recruit into Coaching Scheme, which will keep busy 10.000 volunteer coaches. In April 2009 a multi-million pound free sport program has been launched, which offers free swimming to the people under 16 and over 60 years old (Sustainable Plan 2009, pp. 54). Furthermore, authorities provide about 650 high quality training facilities across the United Kingdom. International teams are able to use South East facilities as preparation camps (South East of England Development Agency 2006, 63). In addition, for the first time some Paralympic kinds of sports have received investment of the British government. Consequently, analyzing all mentioned achievements, it is fair to say that British organizations do everything to get London ready for impending mega-event. And according to the significant changes, implemented methods, preparation of workforce and rates of construction, it can be predicted that Olympics 2012 will be arranged with a high quality and sufficient dignity. Bibliography Berman, G., 2009. Financing the London 2012 Olympic Games. [Online] Available at [Accessed at 6 December, 2011]. Cleverly, J., Bacon, G. and O’Connell, S., 2010. The Environmental Sustainability of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. [Online] Available at [Accessed at 8 December, 2011]. Communities and the Local Government, 2009. London 2012 Olympic Games: scoping the analytical and legacy issues for Communities and Local Government. [Online] Available at [Accessed at 8 December, 2011]. Jennings, W., 2009. Governing mega-events: tools of security risk management for the London 2012 Olympic Games and FIFA 2006 World Cup in Germany. [Online] Available at [Accessed at 7 December, 2011]. London 2012. Funding the Games. [online] Available at: [Accessed 8 December 2011]. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, 2009. London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Impacts and Legacy Evaluation Framework. [Online] Available at [Accessed at 8 December, 2011]. Sport England, 2010. Economic Value of Sport in England. [online] Available at: [Accessed 7 December 2011 ]. South East of England Development Agency, 2006. Review of the Impacts of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games on the South East Region. [Online] Available at [Accessed at 7 December, 2011]. Sustainable Plan, 2009. Towards a one planet 2012. [Online] Available at [Accessed at 6 December, 2011]. The Higher Education Academy, 2007. Resource guide the impact of events. [Online] Available at [Accessed at 6 December, 2011]. Vigor, A., Mean, M. and Tims, C., 2004. After the gold rush: a sustainable Olympics for London. London: Institute for Public Policy Research & Demos. Read More