Birmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]

Lord Coe Excerpts

Tuesday 25th June 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Coe (Con)]

My Lords, I guess it is quintessentially the human condition to permanently ponder the passage of time, probably more so as the years roll by. It seems barely credible that it is now 14 years since London snuck across the line in Singapore and secured the right to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2012. Only eight days after that momentous decision I witnessed First Reading of the Olympic Bill in the other place. Rather like today’s Commonwealth Games Bill, it created the crucial framework, foundations, provisions and protections that provided for their seamless delivery. A modern multisports event or Games demands project management of inordinate complexity. No city or its agencies is ever so tested under normal circumstances. So today’s Bill is not a “nice to have” or à la carte menu: it enshrines the essential safeguards needed to underpin the success of the event. If it is not successful, be under no illusion that it will severely dent local, national and international reputations in the aftermath. If I may digress momentarily, we seem to be doing that quite well enough of late without further fragilities.

A successful Games is the prerequisite platform for securing a lasting economic, social and cultural legacy once the athletes have left town. If the Games are a damp squib, there will be little or no appetite to leverage from the sporting celebration. As the Minister observed, the Commonwealth Games were not originally destined for Britain’s second city: Durban was the original host. Two and a half years after winning that right, it concluded that it could not deliver the project, so Birmingham has the additional challenge of a curtailed timeline, which makes the need for bipartisan support across Parliament even more critical. This approach served us well in London and is a crucial ingredient: I am delighted that there are so many noble Lords in the Chamber today who contributed to that bipartisan approach.

The provisions of the Bill, as in that for London, bring forward a small number of temporary measures to ensure the successful delivery of Birmingham 2022. They are necessary and proportionate. For instance, no sporting event of such scale can be delivered without commercial partners. Those businesses that commit sizeable discretionary spend and risk their brand reputation need to know that neither will be put at risk by rogue advertising, rogue trading or ambush marketing. The Bill will also ensure that spectators are not ripped off by ticket touts and that there are adequate transport arrangements to fulfil the needs of the athletes—the most important client group in the delivery of any Games—and of course the fans, many of whom will have come from overseas. This particular provision allows for the Secretary of State to prepare a transport plan that can be delivered locally and with relevant consultation before implementation Games time.

Measures such as these are essential in themselves, but not a prerequisite for a successful Games. You need to support and produce a conducive atmosphere for their delivery. My experience in London is clear. The most demanding stakeholder any organising committee has is not the Secretary of State or the mayor, the federation president or the member federations and associations. No, its most demanding stakeholder is, as it should be, the people for whom these Games are being delivered and in whose neighbourhoods they are being located. They will ask demanding questions, often far more penetrating and perceptive than those of the media and with far greater proprietorial interest: an emotional connection, if you like. That needs to be tapped into.

My humble advice to the Birmingham Organising Committee, again from the London years, is that it should be as assiduous about articulating why these Games will be such a powerful vehicle for change as it is on how they will come together. If they are seen by local people as only a discussion about ducting, tunnelling and construction timelines, they will at best zero out and at worst chip away from the sidelines. They need to see vision, purpose and shared values. They need to know how, through sport, the Games can change the lives of their children and grandchildren. This needs to be communicated liberally and often.

They themselves can become life changers by offering to volunteer. As we know from London, our Games makers, as they were known, made the difference between a good and a great Games. Their sheer competence and friendliness set the tone and style in London and other cities throughout the UK. Many of them continue to this day to volunteer for myriad events and good causes. I am sure that many will want to offer Birmingham that generosity of spirit.

For the organising committee—here I speak from seared experience—the herculean hard work of getting the Games across the line can sometimes feel a little life-shortening. Not long after London won the bid, I invited Sandy Hollway, the former chief executive of the Sydney Games, to share his insights with our newly formed organising committee when we took our first tentative steps. Hollway captured the challenge in five immutable phases. The first was the euphoria of winning a tough global battle. The second was blind panic at the realisation of the scale of the undertaking—and that is just the organising committee. Then came the “persecution of the innocent” phase; every calamity that befalls the nation will be blamed on the Games. Then you head into the Games before yours—in our case, Beijing—and, if the athletes underperform, the media concludes not only that they are costing too much but that you do not have any athletes capable of stealing the show at your own party in four years’ time. That tends to be the low point in the delivery cycle. Then the volunteers and sponsors come on board, and the plans for the torch relay—or baton relay for the Commonwealth Games—and Cultural Olympiad that touch cities and hamlets alike are unveiled. Slowly but surely, the public begin to get behind the Games. The Games are then successful, as they will be in Birmingham.

After his scene setter, I thanked him. He then said, “No, there’s a final phase. It’s the one that always comes once the Games have left town”. I asked him to expand. “The final phase”, he explained, was the “glorification of the uninvolved”. I am sure that in Birmingham, in a little over three years’ time, the people of that great sporting city will want to do more than sit out the dance. I know they will want to be truly involved. That is why today’s Bill is so important.