London 2012 chief executive Deighton vows to keep watching the pennies
Despite the multi-billion pound
budget, £9.28 billion from the public purse at the last time of counting, the
one-time investment banker insists no-one is watching the bottom line harder
than him.
"I think with this project from the
beginning - both the construction project and the Games organisation project -
we've maintained an extremely disciplined approach," he
said.
"In our case we've been very focused on
driving up revenues, whether that's through sponsorship or our first merchandise
shop which we launched this morning.
"We're now focused on tickets and we need
to focus on the delivery side to make sure the costs are under
control.
"So every day is about how can we push
revenues up and push costs down and that discipline has been a daily one over
the last five years. And it will remain so for the next two
years.
"It couldn't be any tighter at the
moment. The moment you let go of that one, you've got a
problem.
"If you think about it, our whole
delivery has been through a very difficult period economically. So that's meant
we've had to absolutely watch every penny both in terms of stuff coming in and
having stuff going out.
"And that mantra, I'm afraid, won't
change right through to Games time."
Deighton was in the Olympic Park to help
oversee a host of events aimed to celebrate two years to go until the Games
return to London for the first time since 1948.
Athletics legend Michael Johnson jogged
down a specially constructed track in the 80,000 seater stadium, Sir Chris Hoy
raced Boris Johnson around the velodrome and former NBA star John Amaechi and
Paralympian Adi Adepitan threw some hoops in the basketball
arena.
But the man who takes day-to-day
responsibility for the project believes there is no room for
complacency.
"I think it's a day that's brought to
life for everybody just how much progress has been made here in building the
venues and just how close we are to the Olympic Games now. It's the first time
we've actually had sport played in each of the venues," added
Deighton.
"So that tells you we've done a lot of
good work but with two years to go there is lots more to
do.
"So it's two years to go for the athletes. They need to be ready. And it's two years to go for the organisers. We need to get our operational plans fine tuned."
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