This is a single post from deeden.co.uk made during the period May 2002 to April 2009. During a previous grand redesign I decided to make a break with the past and consign the old entries to history. This entry is from July 2005 and lives here forevermore.

So you're going to host the Olympics...

What’s that you say? You’ve won the right to host the Olympics? Well done London. Enjoy the adulation you’ll receive for your fine victory. Have a drink. Be interviewed badly by Sue Barker. Be magnanimous towards the French. Do these things now for you will have many things to worry about over the next few years. A few words of advice might help…

  1. Get your main stadium built. I can’t state this strongly enough. It may seem like an obvious enough point, but you’d be surprised. Cities have been caught out on this one before. Some city somewhere, who knows where, isn’t hosting an athletics events this year after failing on this fundamental issue. Therefore I say to you, get the ball moving now. Don’t leave it three months, six months or a year. Do it now. Get the plans approved, get the site prepared, get building underway so that you can deal with the inevitable delays that are coming your way. Don’t forget the other important facilites, but whatever you do build the stadium.

  2. Get someone else to prepare your opening ceremony. Don’t do it yourself. Keep a dodgy King George on horseback well away from it. We remember the embarrassment of the Euro 96 opening ceremony and I wouldn’t want us to go through that again. Ask the French for advice. Sure they have strange bubble people in their ceremonies but this doesn’t take away from the fact that they stage a memorable show. Don’t be embarrassed to ask them. You’re hosting the games for the world, let the world help. While you’re on the phone ask the Australians to do the fireworks for you, you know they’re better at it; need I mention the “River of Fire”? Let them worry about those set pieces, you’ve got an Olympic Games to host.

The hard work is not over now, it’s just beginning. Get it right and you’ll be remembered fondly like Sydney. Get it wrong and we’ll snicker at you and compare you to Atlanta. The choice is yours, the world is waiting.