sports event management - FIFA/CIES International University Network

OverlayCeltic Manor, Wales, becomes a fitting Ryder Cup venue with sophisticated overlay from Arena Groupstadium in Cape Town by 10,000 sothey would not be left with an arena theycould not fill after the event.“This was a new strategy forFIFA as in the past they have askedorganising committees to build fullypermanent stadiums.“I think now there is pressure onall organising bodies to be moresustainable.”One way in which Nussli hasattempted to improve the cost andsustainability of their projects is to recruitand resource locally, which they havefound not only to be an effective charmoffensive but also a good way to keepcosts down.“For example we worked on theCommonwealth Games in Delhi and hadas few as seven containers of materialsthat had to be shipped back from India,”said Helfenstein.“Everything else was sourced locally.Not only did that help us reducetransport costs but it allows us to bemore competitive locally.“If you are bringing in materialsfrom Switzerland or Germany itbecomes expensive.On the issue of whether the priorityshould be sustainability or legacy, Keasbelieves you can have both if youare smart.He describes the iceberg theory inrelation to construction and overlay- what you see above the water lineequates to the initial costs of building astadium or permanent structure.Subsequently all the mass belowthe water line represents the costs ofmaintenance after it is built.“So for us when we design a stadium itis about reducing that carbon footprint,”says Keas.“The bottom line is London does notneed a permanent 15,000 seat beachvolleyball stadium.“A piece of architecture can be builtand stick around for decades, or evencenturies, and it gets instilled in peoples’minds. But with a piece of overlay, itis only going to be up for a couple ofweeks before it is taken down again.“So in that respect we face a biggerchallenge in that we have to make animpression very quickly and that isdifficult using just scaffolding and tents.“The way we arrange and assembleour structures combines with the iconicelements of the host city and determinehow we are going to be remembered.”TEMPORARY CHALLENGESWhile London 2012 has nailed its flag tothe temporary structure mast, overlay isnot without its challenges.Timing of tenders, access to resourcesand extreme weather has a direct impacton how the leaders in this field operate.“Logistics are usually the biggestproblem with what we do,” saysHelfenstein.“Technically overlay can be relativelyeasy, but because of the late order andthe huge amount of work it is adifficult issue.“The problem of overlay work is it isnormally one of the last tenders to comeout. Then they put into the overlay tendereverything that is remaining. Often wedon’t have a contract until four, five or sixmonths before a Games starts. So it is alogistical problem at the end.Probably the main challenge liesin the difficulty to conciliate the largerequirements for resources, be it humanfrom project management down tolabour, or equipment, coming from majorinternational events and those comingfrom recurring business,” added Picolet.26 SPORTS EVENT MANAGEMENT