Final Few Days :(

Thursday was another long day. We all went to Loughborough University. It was about a 90-minute train ride away. Loughborough University is one of the three schools that Sport Management majors are able to study abroad at. We had two meetings while there and a tour of the campus.

We met with Ben Aherne, Business Development Manager. Ben gave an overview of the facilities at Loughborough and their part in the Olympics, and took us on a tour.  Loughborough University is hosting Great Britain and Japan's Olympic teams for training during the Olympics.  We then met with Dr. Ian Henry, Professor of Leisure Policy and Management, and Director of the Centre for Olympic Studies and Research.

Friday, the last day :(. I can’t believe it’s already been the two weeks, it went by so fast. Friday started off with a few meetings. We went back to the BOA and met with Darryl Seibel. Darryl is an American and a huge Michigan fan (+1 for that). He works at the BOA as a part of their communications. An interesting thing I thought was that the BOA is not just focusing on the upcoming Olympics, but the next three…they have a lot on there plates. He discussed the struggle that the Olympics has with connecting with the youth and some ways that the BOA tries to generate a connection.

An awesome story that Darryl told us about his time working with the Olympics was when he worked with the United States Olympic Committee (the equivalent of the BOA in the US). In 2008, after Michael Phelps had won his 8 gold medals, the President wished to call Michael to congratulate him. Michael didn’t have a phone, so Darryl had to give his phone number to the President to be called. A little bit later, Darryl received a call from President Obama to talk to Michael...I can’t even imagine how cool that would be.

We then meet with Dave Gordon, Head of Major Events at BBC. This is Dave’s 10^th Summer Olympics, and 18^th Olympic Games overall.  While the NBC has coverage of the games in the US, the BBC has coverage of the games in the UK. The BBC will be using internet, radio, and television to allow their audience to receive as much coverage as possible. The BBC is also airing the Games commercial-free, and I’m quite jealous of that. Another nice aspect of BBC, they are airing all coverage live. NBC will have lots of delays to put certain parts of the Games in primetime to get better ratings; the BBC does not do this.

Things I miss: my family, friends, my big comfy bed, and being able to text without being charged up the wazoo

Things I’ll miss: my whole entire London family here and the friends I made, British accents, being of legal drinking age, the architecture, seeing Tom and Bruce every day, and being in a big city 

Overall, an amazing trip. Better than I could have ever imagined. Big thanks to Tom and Bruce, they were great the whole trip and set up so many cool opportunities for us. Hope you all enjoyed reading my blog. Cheers!

Wednesday, May 9

Finally catching up on the blog. Today was a very full day. We started by going back to the BOA to meet with Joanna Manning Cooper. Joanna is the Head of Public Relations and Media for LOCOG (London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games). She talked to us about the communications strategy for the 2012 games and what LOCOG was hoping to accomplish through the games. A lot of focus on the London 2012 Olympics has been to increase participation in sport with a big emphasis on youth. Apparently, youth sport is not at all in the UK how it is in the US. In the US, there is an incredible amount of opportunities for kids to participate in sport. However, in the UK, kids don't have as many opportunities. 

With only an hour to spare and a tube ride to our next meeting, we really didn't have much time. But, for those who don't know, today is the day that the Queen opens Parliament. We couldn't pass up this opportunity to see the Queen. We rushed over to Buckingham Palace just in time to watch the procession and the Queen leave in her chariot. Funny thing, there's actually one chariot for just the Queen's crown and another for the Queen. Definitely a cool experience. 

The Queen! (and I think some Prince but I'm not sure which one)

Our next meeting was with Jacquelin Magnay, Olympic Editor for Telegraph Media Group. This will be the ninth Olympics she's covered, so no big deal or anything. She talked all about the experiences she's had with the Olympics and some of the situations that have come up with the Olympics.

Our final meeting of the day was with Octagon Worldwide. Octagon Worldwide is a similar company to IMG but on a smaller basis. Octagon works with clients such as Mastercard, Michael Phelps, and Usain Bolt.  Octagon Worldwide discussed the deals they've created with their clients and the return on investment question of if a sponsorship is really worth it. 

We have a really early morning tomorrow so it's time for me to relax. We are off to Loughborough to see the University there and to see Team Great Britain's main training site.




 

Tuesday, May 8

Tuesday started with a meeting with Deloitte, a professional service firm that is a sponsor for the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games. We met with Craig James and Annabel Pritchard, London 2012 Sponsorship Directors. They talked all about their goals as being sponsors for the games and what they hope to get out of their partnership with the Olympics. They also showed us their advertising campaign for the 2012 games. 


After meeting with Deloitte, a few of us headed down to Wimbledon. I've been watching Wimbledon every year since I can remember and it was unreal to be at the real place. I thought I knew just about everything possible with Wimbledon, but I learned quite a bit on the tour. One of the most interesting things I learned was about membership for Wimbledon.  Membership is capped at 500 people and these 500 people only pay 100 pounds a year for membership. Not 1,000, not 10,000, but just 100 pounds a year. I was just skyping with my mom and asked her how much she thought yearly membership was and she guessed 100,000 pounds a year, which is about what I would've guessed too before the tour. After lots of pictures and lots of shopping in the Wimbledon gift shop, we headed back home to relax. 

Centre Court

Scoreboard left from the finals of last year's Wimbledon finals

 

 

Monday, May 7

I've been a little bit behind on my blogs, so I will try my best to catch up. Like I said previously, Monday was a free day which means lots of touristy things were done. Each student received a "London Pass" that can get you into many museums, galleries, etc. at no cost. My group started by going to St. Paul's Cathedral. We had been here before during the trip but didn't have the chance to go inside. I wasn't sure if it would be worth it, but it DEFINITELY was. St. Paul's was absolutely gorgeous. We came during a service time too which was really cool to see. We climbed all the way to the top of St. Paul's (530 steps!) and saw a beautiful view of the city. This church, originally built in 640 AD, has been well-known for many reasons but among them are Charles and Diana's wedding, Winston Churchill's funeral, and many Jubilee celebrations. Another interesting fact about St. Paul's Cathedral is that during World War II, Winston Churchill had volunteers standing on the roof of this cathedral to protect it by kicking off all the bombs. Don't know who would volunteer for that, but I'm happy for it.

I would post a view from the top, but I've posted too many scenic views, so here's a sneaky peak I took inside St. Paul's

Next, the group headed off to Tower of London. We wandered for a while, but we mainly went there to see the Crown Jewels.

Tower of London with the London Bridge in the background

Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take any pictures of the actual Crown Jewels, but here's a little teaser of what I saw

Our next stop was to Westminster Abbey. The location of Prince William and Kate Middleton's infamous wedding. This church was also gorgeous and a lot of fun to walk around in.

Westminster Abbey

Another sneaky inside shot

Our final step was to the London Eye. We were able to get the best view and a 360-degree view of the city. We could see every landmark of the city, from East London to West London. We could see the Olympic Park, St. Paul's, Parliament, and just about anything else you can think of. 

View from the London Eye

Monday was so much fun, and I tried fish and chips for the first time! True London experience

Sunday, May 6

We had a free day today and were able to explore the city of London on our own. We all split up into different groups based on what we wanted to do. My group went to the National Gallery of Art and wandered there for a bit. We also saw an Olympic countdown clock in Trafalgar Square. Our next stop was to Oxford Circus for a delicious Italian lunch and shopping. Bought lots of cute things for myself and friends/family. 


Tomorrow is Bank Holiday and another free day, probably full of museums and tours.

National Gallery

Olympic Countdown!

Football Saturday!

Today was football Saturday! Usually for me this consists of the Big House with 114,000 fans, but today was my first professional football (soccer) match. Professional sports in Europe and in the US are organized completely different. The US uses a league structure for their four main professional sports (Hockey-NHL, basketball-NBA, football-NFL, and baseball-MLB), while European professional team sports typically use the club structure. Out  of the many soccer teams in the UK, I believe only two generate profits. This is drastically different than the US where every team generates enormous profits regardless of their talent. Another big difference is the promotion and relegation of soccer teams in the UK. For soccer, there are four main divisions a team can be in: Premiere League, Football League Championship, Football League One, and Football League Two. The best of the best is in the Premiere League (well known teams such as Liverpool, Manchester United, and Chelsea are in this division). In each division the best few are promoted to the next best division, while the worst few are relegated to the next division down. Soccer teams therefore have a lot more reason to do well and succeed than US teams that will make a large amount of money and always be in the professional league no matter how poorly they do.  


We started off the day by meeting with Steve Dawson, the Finance Director of Leyton Orient Football Club. This soccer team is in the Football League One division, but was in serious danger of being relegated to Football League Two (luckily they just found out that they are safe for this year). He told us about a current stadium issue that has come up due to the Olympics and how it can harm the strength of their company. The Olympic Park is located just about a half mile from Leyton Orient's stadium. After the Olympics, West Ham was hoping to take over that venue and had the government's support (West Ham is a rival team but in the Football Championship League--the division above Leyton Orient). The problem is that West Ham, due to the large size of the venue, would have to drastically reduce their ticket prices in order to sell enough tickets and this will steal many fans from Leyton Orient. Why would people pay more to see a Football League One match when they could pay less for a Football Championship League match? West Ham was given the rights to buy the Olympic stadium by the government, but Leyton Orient has taken this to court since the Olympics had previously decided in contract to not sell the stadium to a team that would financially hurt another organization (and Leyton Orient would clearly be hurt by this). I believe the decision on this will be May 23rd, so we'll have to see what happens.

Leyton Orient (red) vs. Rochdale (blue)

We then met with Neil Taylor, Chief Executive of the Leyton Orient Community Sports Program. This organization is a charity that has the goal of strengthening a community through sport with a lot of emphasis on youth sport. Neil also showed us their training center that some US teams have rented out to practice in during the Olympics. 

After this, we all went to this amazing Portuguese restaurant (recommended by Neil) that Tom paid for (Thanks, Tom!).  And then it was time to see Leyton Orient take on Rochdale. The atmosphere was so much fun, there are some very die-hard fans. Leyton Orient ended up winning 2-1 too, so that was really exciting too. I also met a London guy at the game who was talking to me about the Olympics and how they're a "pain in the arse" because no one can get tickets. While I would think it would be so exciting and cool to have the Olympics in my hometown, everyone that I have talked to about it really doesn't like it. 

Leyton Orient goaaaalllllllll!

Leyton Orient's dragon mascot

Off to a Mexican restaurant now in honor of Cinco de Mayo! Free day tomorrow and hoping to get a lot of sightseeing done :)



 

Friday, May 4

Today, my 27 best friends and I started the day off with a trip to Lord's Cricket Ground. We saw the Ashes Cup which goes to the winner of Australia and England (England currently has possession). After seeing the Ashes Cup and learning of all the necessary equipment needed for cricket, we headed over to a real tennis court. And by real, I don't mean opposite of fake. But real tennis is a sport that preceded the tennis we know and love today. (Click here for more info on real tennis). After this, we were able to watch a live cricket match for a little bit from the stands and from the press box. The match was Middlesex versus Worcestershire in the LV County Championships.

After Lord's Cricket Ground, we headed to the British Olympic Association (BOA). The BOA is the National Organizing Committee for Great Britain. The BOA's job is to represent the Olympic movement and organize the participation of Olympic athletes in Great Britain. The BOA is one of 204 National Organizing Committee (NOCs). (Hope this doesn't get to confusing with all the abbreviations). Each NOC must by recognized by the International Organizing Committee (IOC) in order to participate in the Olympic Games. 

At the BOA, Jose Riera spoke with us. Jose is the Senior Press Officer for the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS). He spoke with us about the British government's rule in hosting the London Games, about the money spent, and how party changes in office affect the running of the Olympics (which it doesn't really affect them at all, actually). I find it strange that party changes didn't have any affect on the operation of the Olympic Games, because in the US I think there would be a great difference in the parties take on the Olympics, especially in regards to amount of money spent. 

We will be at the BOA a few more times this week, and I can't wait! They have such a cool building and really nice employees. 

I'm off to watch a football (soccer) match now. The finals of the FA cup are also today which is absolutely huge here. Tickets are probably near impossible to get, but to be in the surrounding area of Wembley Stadium where Liverpool and Chelsea will play would be incredible!