London Olympics - £3.3bn and counting. . .

London's initial euphoria over winning the right to host the 2012 Olympics has, inevitably, been toned down a bit as the serious planning gets under way. The estimated final cost is already up from £2.4bn to £3.3bn (+37% in two years, with five years to go) and the gloomy statistics for the Millennium Dome (now The Dome) are still fresh in the memory.

It's a sobering thought that the Scottish Parliament building was originally, in 1999, going to cost less than £40m. Five years on, 'Holyrood' finally opened after £430m had been spent, so figuring on a final cost for the London Olympics of at least £10bn might be advisable.


While we're waiting for the final bill - much of which will be paid by sponsors - we can already look forward to London being taken over by the Games (including the Paralympics). Some of the venues and sports to take place across the London region will be:


Olympic Park - the Lea Valley complex will contain the main Olympic Stadium for athletics, plus centres for cycling, water sports, hockey and indoor competitions such as fencing, handball, basketball, BMX.


ExCel - the existing exhibition centre at Royal Victoria Dock will be adapted into various arenas for watching boxing, table tennis, martial arts and weightlifting.


Greenwich - home to The Dome, which will host basketball and gymnastics (also the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships). Near the Dome will be the temporary Greenwich Arena (badminton, rhythmic gymnastics). Equestrian and modern pentathlon will be held outdoors in Greenwich Park, close to the National Maritime Museum. Near Greenwich, the Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich, will have the shooting events.


Other London venues - if all goes according to plan, there will be: football at Wembley Stadium; cycling through Regent's Park and Hampstead Heath; tennis at Wimbledon; triathlon in Hyde Park; volleyball in Earls Court; archery at Lord's; and beach volleyball in Horse Guards Parade.


Outside London, there will be boat sports to watch at Eton, Broxbourne and Portland Harbour, but the real regional spread will involve the stadiums hosting football matches in Glasgow (Hampden), Cardiff (Millennium Stadium), Manchester (Old Trafford), Newcastle (St James's Park) and Birmingham (Villa Park).
http://www.london2012.org/en

Research Tips (1): Published market research

The first thing to do in researching a leisure market is to find out if the work's already been done for you!

Published market research (MR) reports from UK companies like Key Note or Mintel will provide, at the bare minimum:

• Market sizes, growth trends, market segmentation

• Consumer statistics: penetration, profiles, attitudes (for original research)

• Supplier analysis: major companies, brands shares, distribution channels

• Strategic discussion and forecasts (including economic context)

Expect to pay at least £400 for a detailed report (eg Key Note's Betting & Gaming 2006 £420) although Snapdata has filled a gap with more basic reports, UK and international (eg Brazil Beer 2006, £150).

Any Web search for published MR will immediately highlight UK publishers. This isn't a "push" by the search engines, just a recognition of how highly developed MR publishing has been in the UK since the 1970s, particularly in a European context. Major publishers like Euromonitor and Datamonitor are leading international sources of business information.

All these well-established publishers pre-date the MR report portals like Marketresearch.com, where a Quick Search on the home page for "UK Beer" comes up with a dozen reports, mainly from the publishers mentioned above but also some drinks specialists (eg Canadean). Apart from the cost of these reports, the main problem is that you are lucky to find a report published within the last twelve months, so some updating (sales, mergers etc) is almost bound to be necessary.

Karen Blakeman's site (www.rba.co.uk/sources/mr.htm) is an excellent starting point for finding published reports.

Magners - the fashionable drink from Ireland

Magners has been the big drinks success of the last few years but its makers, Ireland's C&C Group, will be aware that fashion is a big element in drinking patterns among young adults across the British Isles.

For many UK drinkers, Magners filled the gaping hole in the market left by the end of the fashion for the alcopops, PPS (premium packaged spirits) or RTD (ready to drinks). In other words, Bacardi Breezer, Smirnoff Ice, WKD and the like. Remember Hooper's Hooch, the 'alcoholic lemonade' of the mid-1990s?

Brand fashion has even tweaked established markets like ale, where Caffrey's (also marketed as 'Irish', interestingly enough) had an extraordinary run of success in the 1990s.

Whether cider is back for good as a stronger category is debatable. The cider market has fluctuated over the decades. In their day, the designer ciders (Diamond White, K) were the 'brand in the hand' favourites. But drinks companies will have noticed the old-fashioned advertising for Magners. This has a quality message - "Magners Irish Cider: time, dedicated to you" - rather than the usual quirky, comic positioning for a beer or cider.

Where to next in fashion drinks? Apart from C&C, the biggest UK cider makers (Bulmers, owned by Scottish & Newcastle, and Constellation Brands) will do their best to keep the cider momentum going, but who is to say what comes next for a revival? Ginger wine, anyone?