Sport Industry Group

11 Sep 2008

Drew Barrand, head of media at the Sport Industry Group, debates why London 2012’s legacy is so much harder to achieve than it might seem…

Its funny how the more you hear certain words, the more confusing it gets to understand what they actually mean. When it comes to London 2012, legacy is one such word.

With the success of the Beijing Games having raised the bar of expectation on London, the organising committee has used the positive media spotlight of Team GB’s astounding medal haul to drum home its raison d’etre for hosting the Olympics.

There has rarely been a press conference or media call in recent weeks where Lord Coe hasn’t continually referenced the holy grail of legacy. But strip away the marketing jargon and what are we actually left with? What is the idea that the public can get behind?

Put simply, the legacy that London 2012 wants to leave is more people playing more sport more of the time. But in order for this to happen, the facilities need to be put in place.

For all the merits of the arguments dominating the headlines concerning the use of the 2012 Olympic Stadium once the Games are over – will it be athletics, football, a giant tiddlywinks arena? – the post-2012 remit for the Olympic venues cannot directly deliver the much-mooted legacy.

They can improve facilities for professional sport and help create more successful heroes for young people to aspire to follow but these have an incidental impact on participation levels rather than a direct one.

What is really needed is everyday facilities that the general public can use without trekking halfway across their borough to find them. The story of Olympic swimmer Becky Adlington travelling from Mansfield to Nottingham every day simply to find a pool longer than 25m is one that is mimicked across the country. And for those with no gold medal to aim for the desire to drive 50 miles to do a few lengths is going to stretch the dedication of even the biggest swimming nut.

Which is why it is so refreshing to see the move by adidas to create 5 adiZones in London boroughs – giant multi-sport outdoor venues that give the child on the street access to play sport. Ultimately legacy is not about the elite, it is about the everyman.

Speaking with Nick Craggs, adidas’ Marketing Director for Area North, it is clear that the brand sees the Olympics as the shop window to drive the general public to sport in the long-term.

‘We want these sites to have a guaranteed lifespan of well over 20 years and beyond,’ he enthuses.

‘It’s a start point but we’re committed to delivering these facilities to young Londoners. We have set a structure in place to ensure that the upkeep of the adiZones and the availability of coaches is there for the long-term. The Olympics creates the focus but the challenge is to deliver beyond 2012.’

The creation of the adiZones is a crucial element of the brand’s overall £100m investment in London 2012 and a number of campaigns will be put in place to ensure the public knows these facilities exist including Slam Vans – vehicles with basketball hoops erected on the back which will travel around London encouraging people to use the new venues.

However, like Barclays discovered in delivering its Spaces for Sports initiative, adidas has found that the biggest barrier to setting up these facilities is the red tape surrounding it.

With so many local authority bodies and government and non-government organisations who have a say in a community’s structure, the phrase ‘too many cooks’ springs readily to mind.

Perhaps that’s why very few organisations have been able to deliver on their good intentions and successfully follow through with the erection of such facilities. Maybe it takes an organisation with the clout of an adidas or a Barclays to follow the process through to a conclusion.

If this is the case then it makes the creation of legacy that much tougher. Craggs best sums up the situation when he states: ‘It took us six to nine months to get sign off from all the various stakeholders but we’re all learning. It will get quicker.’

Indeed. And it will have to. Having world class facilities for elite athletes is one thing but the real legacy happens in the much less glamorous surroundings of a local gym or basketball court.