NBC still plans to negotiate its bid for the rights to televise the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games despite the U.S. Olympic Committee’s (USOC) decision to build a competing Olympic network. NBC spokesman Brian Walker said Sunday that nothing has changed. The International Olympic Committee sent a letter last week chastising the USOC for announcing its plans for a new network, saying it raised complex legal questions and also put the relationship with NBC in jeopardy, reports AP.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sunday preparations for the London 2012 Summer Games are ahead of schedule. He told BBC Five Live’s Sportsweek program, “they’re ahead on schedule on most of the building which is incredible at this stage and the preparations are going extremely well. If you take where most bids have got to at this stage they have done a remarkable job. The delivery of the infrastructure and the stadiums has been done superbly”. Blair said he believes London would still have bid for the Games even in the current economic downturn. He said, “when the Olympics happens, for those weeks and in the run-up it is the major event in the world. There is no doubt at all it is going to be worth London’s while to have hosted the Olympics which is why there is such strong competition now for any Olympic bid”.
London 2012 organizing committee chairman Sebastian Coe rejected any suggestions that public spending cuts could jeopardize funding for the 2012 Games. Despite the fact that the financial crisis has put the government under huge pressure to implement public sector cutbacks after billions of pounds were spent bailing out the troubled banking sector, AFP quotes Coe saying expenditure on the Games will not be reduced. He said, “the budgets are set, so stories that the Olympics might suffer from cuts in public spending are inaccurate. The budget for the infrastructure is set, remains in place and is resilient. The budget for staging has nothing to do with public spending. We have to raise every penny we spend from the private sector”. He added, “so far we’ve raised more money than any host city has ever raised – just over half a billion pounds”.
