An op-ed article by Simon Hainsworth, founder of sporting event logistics and management firm, Corporate and Sporting Events.
As Los Angeles prepares to host the next summer Olympics in 2028, conversation over the pond in the UK is very much focused on a future Games: the 2040 Olympics.
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Rumours have begun surfacing that London will once again put in a bid, hoping to replicate and build on the success of 2012. Mayor Sadiq Khan then publicly put his weight behind the idea, and now it’s become a real possibility that a bid will be entered.
If successful, the UK may well be competing against Saudi Arabia, although it is thought the country will wait until after they have hosted the FIFA World Cup and the Asian Games, both happening in 2034. Poland’s Prime Minister has also announced the country will bid to host the Olympics in either 2040 or 2044.
But when it comes to London putting itself forward, just 28 years after its last turn, there are mixed opinions. It would be the first time in a century that a city has been given a second chance to host in such a short amount of time (the last time this happened was in 1924, when Paris was the location for the Games after previously hosting in 1900) and it would make London the only city to ever host four summer Games.
While the question of whether London 2012 truly proved its value and delivered on organisers’ promises of a long-term legacy hangs in the air, there are many who absolutely benefitted from the Games: the logistics companies who handled the hotels and transport for many hundreds of athletes from all around the world; the hospitality businesses who hosted participants and tourists alike; and the contractors who were involved in the building work to prepare the city.
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By GlobalDataIs it worth another bid?
Considering all the benefits of London 2012, hosting the Olympics again in 2040 would be a fantastic opportunity. Aside from the estimated £14 billion ($x billion) boost to the economy, we also saw urban regeneration and increased trade and investment.
One of the undeniable legacies of 2012, which stands in stark contrast to some of the other former host cities where arenas lie dormant, has been the continued use of many of the venues which were either built or adapted for the Games.
The Olympic Stadium, now known as the London Stadium, houses West Ham Football Club as well as being the venue for sporting events such as the Rugby World Cup, motorsports’ Race of Champions, Major League Baseball and other events such as music concerts.
The Aquatics Centre continues to be a well-used leisure and fitness facility, attracting around a million visitors annually; and the Velodrome now stands at the centre of the Lee Valley VeloPark – offering track, BMX, road and mountain biking – and according to Sports Pro became the first ever venue to host Olympic, Paralympic, World Championship and Commonwealth Games competitions in the same sport.
Thousands of Londoners live in the former Athletes’ Village, now called the East Village, and a further 13,000 homes (of which 1,000 are ‘affordable’) were built as part of the Olympic bid promise. Unfortunately, this has attracted widespread complaints including media reports in the likes of the Guardian, as the initial bid promised between 30,000 and 40,000 of which most would be affordable.
It would be remiss to say that every promise was delivered on, or that London 2012 fundamentally changed the UK or even the sports scene. But there absolutely were positives to come out of it – and let’s remember how much brightness those four weeks brought into what was an exceptionally rainy year.
The moments of triumph on Super Saturday when our rowing and cycling teams picked up three golds, followed by the Stadium triumphs of Jessica Ennis-Hill, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford. Watching James Bond and the late Queen Elizabeth II ‘parachute’ into the opening ceremony. Sir Chris Hoy becoming the most decorated Olympic cyclist of all time, as well as the most successful Scottish Olympian.
And we can’t forget the Paralympics. Once considered by the public as an ‘add on’ to the Olympics, they became an integral part of London 2012 – and quite rightly so.
2012 created a new mould when it came to Paralympic sports: signing every worldwide Olympic partner up as a Paralympic sponsor too; featuring Paralympics in television and billboard advertising; a multi-award winning Superhumans commercial from Channel 4; and two thirds of the UK population tuning in to watch.
Not only were records broken in terms of athlete attendance, and world and Paralympic performances (251 and 314 record breakers respectively), there was also a lasting legacy: according to Paralympic.org, a third of UK adults changed their perceptions of people with an impairment, and 65% said the Paralympics had ‘delivered a breakthrough’ in terms of the way disability was viewed.
What should the bid look like?
With the initial boost in sports participation as a result of the 2012 Games proving short-lived (an analysis of research undertaken at Sheffield Hallam University stated some academic concluded the Games had not developed a sports participation legacy, while other researchers found positive regional or sport-specific impacts), it would be great to have the opportunity to develop on this and create a more long-lasting legacy for our children and future generations.
While it’s not possible without the benefit of hindsight to predict exactly how a repeat hosting in such a short space of time would contribute to the ‘Olympic legacy’, putting in another bid certainly represents a chance for organisers – and wider sporting organisations – to analyse what could be done differently this time.
When it comes to the bid itself, the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games model should be foremost in our minds with a more defined and efficient cost model. Existing infrastructure such as the velodrome, swimming pool, multi-use Copper Box arena and London Stadium can be utilised to reduce the level of investment needed.
The creation of a new Athletes’ Village would again provide opportunities to ensure social housing provision met with promised targets – and involving all areas of London in the plans submitted as part of the bid would prove an opportunity to genuinely improve housing, leisure facilities and infrastructure across a wider area.
Indeed, the positive effects could be spread even further by hosting a selection of sports in a second city such as Birmingham, Manchester or Glasgow.
Of course, it’s not just the sports industry itself which benefits from hosting an Olympic Games, we also see adjacent sectors such as hospitality, logistics and construction playing key roles before and during the event.
Sustainability was a core priority at Paris 2024 and this should be continued at future games: all-electric fleets and use of existing transport services can support with this, alongside environmentally-conscious design for any new buildings.
It’s clear reluctant detractors will need to be convinced that a second games just 28 years after the last could and would prove more impactful long-term, and work must be undertaken to generate the sort of frenzy that London 2012 attracted.
But with such an opportunity to boost not only the sporting sector, but also building, sustainable travel, logistics and hospitality businesses – at a time when many companies could really do with that sort of lift – it seems a shame to let it pass and write London 2012 off as a legacy failure, rather than learning its lessons and making it even bigger and better next time.
