WMA

WMA Stadia Championships – London Bid 2015

Dear Fellow Athlete [I live in hope, but I do now have an EA Competition Licence]

SO THAT YOU ARE THE FIRST TO KNOW:
I have just submitted the paperwork to WMA for a prospective bid for the WMA Stadia Championships of 2015 in LONDON.

After my DREAM and efforts to bring the WMA Stadia Championships to London in 2011, in the proposed new London Olympic Stadium as a precursor to the Olympics, turned into a nightmare and failure, I withdrew to re-energise. I kept returning to the Third Way, this can work, we can make it work.

So, over the last couple of years, following Championships in one horse towns in the back end of beyond, with farcical [I am being kind] officiating, a few of us have continued to pursue the DREAM.

We have now elicited the approval of our exuberant Mayor of London and UK Athletics to support the BID, which gets us to the alleged Start Line. Ken Livingstone has also added his support today.

In reality, all that has happened, hopefully, is like you have all done, is filled in the Entry Form. In doing so, as I have done over more years than I would care to admit to, is that I assume I will find the time to do the training and go through the Call Room [you know that funny thing that some people still think is stupid] thinking I can win this – DREAM PART 2.

We [and not the Royal this time] now have 10 months to prove we are the best thing since sliced bread – which we know we are – you an’ me Bruv.

The downside is there are a couple of hurdles on the way, but our record in hurdles in previous Championships, shows we are simply the best, and we will overcome, with faith and the other two.

The hurdles are – UKA have to lose the vote for the IAAF World Athletics Championships in 2015 – sorry Ed and Cherry, I am not trying to put the mockers on things, just stating the fact – and the Stadium track and associated facilities are retained after the Olympics by the selected operating company.

We also have the small question of finding a few £100k’s from funding and sponsorship, which is where you come in [remember Teamwork in action].

A small team will be assembled to set out the parameters for Phase 1 of Project London Foremost 2015. Should we negotiate the hurdles, we need to hit the ground running [sorry throwers, it is just an expression, not a fact] in December/January when Phase 2 – funding and sponsorship becomes the priority. Strangely enough, the organisational side of the actual competitions appears to be the relatively easy bit – is it because we have seen how not to do it to many times for it to cause any fears, or is it that males are so crap at multi-tasking my brain will not let me get past the Presentation in Sacramento – so probably the latter.

So let’s get down to the nitty gritty – YOUR BIT.

Team Management are not going to be able to all of this on our own, not only are there not enough hours in the day, but we do not have all the expertise. So what we are looking for, is your speciality – be it legal, financial, linguistics or are you a web site designer, bona Blogger, Facebook fanatic or Twitter[ing] twit. A few hours of your input, from your home via e-mail etc., will make a difference. Like the relays without the fourth you cannot finish, so the 100th expert could be the difference between Winning and a DNF.

Sponsorship will be obtained if we can present OURSELVES as something worth selling – could it be numbers. Can we get thousands and thousands of Friends [Masters Athletes] on Facebook from around the World? A London Foremost 2015 Blog that people want to read, that they fully hook into and ultimately persuades them that London in 2015 will be the MUST place to be. Dialogue and the numbers will matter.

I need you to tell me. I am just a single tasking grumpy old man, prone to the odd rant, so humour me. What ideas or skills do you have, come back to me – between us we can make this work.

We need London to do for Masters Athletics, what Los Angeles did for the Olympics – MAKE IT SALEABLE – we must put Ageism to the sword, once and for all.

No more One Horse towns, in the back end of beyond – we have had our full of those – that is all you have to lose, not so hard a choice then. So volunteer your ideas and a little bit of your time.

Great Britain at the head of the Medal Table cannot happen without you, in more ways than one. The ULTIMATE DREAM – being chucked in the Water Jump Pit because we succeeded – bring it on.

Maurice Doogan