LOCOG CEO Paul Deighton spoke with Bloomberg TV’s Louise Beale about London’s preparations leading up to the Olympic Games next month. Deighton said, “We did not expect ourselves really from 2008 onwards to be sinking into a credit crunch from which it’s been tough to emerge, but we’ve made it work. On the private side, we moved very quickly to put our sponsorship in place, and big British companies responded in a big way. They wanted to be part of the biggest thing happening in our city, in our country, in our lifetimes." Beale asked about event tickets and said, “Do you think it’s been the fairest system?” Deighton: “The principal issue around tickets is the extraordinarily high levels of demand around a finite supply. We’ve tried to prioritize people that have applied and who were unsuccessful. They’ve had a chance to have a go at the slightly less popular tickets.” Beale said transportation “is always an issue in London” and asked, “Are you worried about that?” Deighton: “It’s important that London is seen to be able to make this work. I mean, there will be queues. Going to at any big … sporting event, you expect to queue up.” Deighton said whether the Games are good for the country, “If you think in terms of the sheer economic injection from the Games, both in the construction and now providing goods and services, we’ve seen something like $7.5 billion pounds spent in the U.K. economy” (“Bloomberg Bottom Line,” Bloomberg TV, 6/8).
