3. The 5 main areas of Olympic Logistics
1) Warehouses
2) Freight
3) Transportation Infrastructure
4) Venue Infrastructure
5) Athlete Transportation
4. Definitions
1) Warehouses - Encompasses all the varied, complex factors – organization,
movements, and management – involved in warehousing
2) Freight - The overseeing and management of a cost effective operation and the
delivery of goods
3) Transportation Infrastructure - Logistics of how the city builds up
infrastructure to transport spectators around the city and to the games
4) Venue Infrastructure - Logistics of how the city builds the venue to hold the
games
5) Athlete Transportation - Logistics of how countries transport their athletes to
the games
5. Warehouse Logistics
London 2012
● Named UPS the “Official Logistics
Partner of the Olympics”
● Moved over 30 million items during the
games
Process
● Inbound: Processed, x-rayed and sorted
● Outbound: Planned, loaded and sent to
one of the 37 venues
6. Warehouse Logistics
London 2012
Stores or Malls within the security checkpoints had
trouble getting their goods in
Quickly adapted and began using consolidation
Westford Stratford City Shopping Center
● very close to the Olympic Park
● Worked with DHL to set up a consolidation center 8
miles away which fell outside the security zone
● Cut the number of trucks serving the center by 82%
7. Freight
London 2012
● Increased Congestion
● Restricted Road
Activity
● Higher Security
Rio de Janeiro 2016
● Underdeveloped
expressway system
● Mountain areas make it
hard to build rails
● Limited transportation
Major problems faced before the Olympics
8. Freight
London 2012
Key adjustments they made
● Heavier use of trains, barge, pedal bikes
● Started sending runners with drivers to deliver the package on foot the last mile
or so
● Roads could be closed at a moments notice so driver’s given daily briefings and
twitter feeds were set up with the most up to date information
9. Freight
Rio de Janeiro 2016
Changes made
● Different zones in Brazil being connected such as South Zone to Barra
● The metro and Light Vehicle Rail system (VLT) developed for Olympic Games
● Extended rails over 16 km, 125 new stations
● Over 700,000 more transport journeys made every day
● First Brazilian city for its airport and city center to be connected by rail
● Railways are now used by citizens daily
10. Transportation Infrastructure
London 2012
“Olympic Route Network”
● A designated stretch along roads reserved for members of the “Olympic Family”
● Idea first introduced at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia
● London has over 9k miles of road network
○ Turned 103 miles (about 1%) into the Olympic route
○ 30 miles of that into “game lanes“ designated for athletes and officials
11. Transportation Infrastructure
Rio de Janeiro 2016
● Transportation modes did not pass through
impoverished areas
● Going from the athlete’s village to the stadium
often took over an hour
● Athletes often forced to walk back to the village
● Problem with bus transportation and security
● A bus of journalists got attacked during the
games
● A newly raised Rio bike path collapsed, killing
two people
12. Athlete Transportation - Tokyo 2021
Sent athletes on a ship that normally
transports seafood and express mail
Were forced to send athletes on a
connecting flight through Deha, Qatar
Had to fly from Kingston to Miami
to London to Tokyo
Had to scramble to get flights on Deutsche
Lufthansa Ag after their flight to Toronto
via Air Canada was canceled last minute
13. Athlete Transportation
Tokyo 2021
325 Horses (247 Showrunners, even terms, and dressage horses + 78 horses for
Paralympic games)
Flew on a Emirates Sky Cargo Boeing 777F
● 59 Grooms, 20 tons of horse feed and water, 100 tons of special equipment
14. The Horses’ Flight
2 Hours on Ground
Liege, Belgium Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tokyo, Japan
6 hours 9 Hours 11 Minutes
15. Venue Infrastructure
Rio de Janeiro
Building the Stadiums
● 14 newly built venues
● 32 total venues set for athletes to compete at
● Spent over $12 billion constructing all venues
● 77,200 residents from neighboring towns forcibly
displaced
● Rio decided to destroy impoverished towns
● Rio worried about tourists seeing impoverished zones
● So focused on
16. Venue Infrastructure
Olympic Village - Rio 2016
● Built on 185 acres
● The Olympic Village had instances of
leaky pipes, flooding, and no electricity
● Some Australian athletes refused to
move in
● Had to clean out lagoons for water
sports, being highly polluted
● Posed safety hazard to athletes
competing
17.
18. Transport is the lifeblood of the FIFA World Cup. It has
always been identified as one of the key areas of the
tournament”
CEO of the 2010 organizing committee & current president of the
South African Football Association, Dr. Daniel Jordaan
20. 7 R’s of Logistics
1. Right Product
2. Right Quantity
3. Right Condition
4. Right Place
5. Right Time
6. Right Customer
7. Right Price
21. The Day Before…
- A day before the opening match, France v South Korea, fans received an email asking fans to
download their e-tickets
- Causing confusion, as tickets had been available for download since the previous month
- Fans who disregarded the email, were not able to scan their previous tickets.
- Required stadium staff help, outside staff did not know where to send patrons.
22. Match Day
- Security: Understaffed & not enough female security guards
- Stadium required that F patrons see F security, and M see M security
- Severe lack of female security, especially considering this is a women’s sporting event
- Seat allocation separating families / friends
“This was a family trip and we can’t even sit together. What a disappointment. Not a
happy customer” - Mike Swanson, a fan with his 3 children at the tournament
25. Merch
- No pins available; popular keepsake
- Merch stands in hidden corners of the stadiums
- Only one shirt available for little kids, with the official bird mascot
- Le Havre Stade Oceane; merch at the back side of the stadium
- Parc de Princes in Paris; 45 minute wait
26. Food and Beverages
Food and beverage repeatedly ran out by the half
A fan noted his ‘98 experience to France for the men’s World Cup, noting how amazing the
fan village and entire country was set up for visitors. He could not say the same for the 2019
WWC
“Lines for concessions in the stadiums were just as long as those for
merchandise, and many had to miss a lot of gametime just to get something to
eat. The lack of alcoholic drinks in stadiums added to the list of shortcomings,”
27. No Changes Made
“Even after Stade Océane ran out of food during USA v. Sweden, when a sold-out
crowd filled the same stadium five days later for France v. Brazil, they ran out
again, just before halftime.”
28. The Stats
263.62 million unique viewers:
USA vs Netherlands Final (2019)
Average live match audience over the 52
games of 17.27 million viewers, crushing
the 2015 live audience viewership of 8.39
million
The growth from the 2011 WWC to the 2015
WWC was also immense, leaving people
confused at the lack of preparation.
2011 Viewership: 63m
2015 Viewership: 86m
Where was the forecasting?
- Focus Groups
- Past WWCs
29. These oversights are solvable, which begs the question:
Why weren’t they addressed during the planning stages of the tournament?
- Sexism
- First WWC in ‘91, first men’s game in ‘30
- Underestimating the audience at hand and growth within the women’s game
Every World Cup is a new opportunity to showcase the world’s best and bring people
together with something that transcends language and time— football. Creating a positive
experience for visitors can turn casual fans into consistent fans.
31. A complex logistical challenge
● Qatar is a country smaller than the state of Connecticut
● 1.5 million fans are expected to descend on the country
● That is about half of Qatar population
● Because of this the country had to figure out
○ Where will all of these people stay?
○ How will all of these people travel within the country?
○ What stadiums will these people go to?
○ How will we get all of the materials we need?
“The main problem is congestion. We have spoken about 1.2
million people coming to Qatar”-Matthew Phelps, GWC logistics
32. Infrastructure Preparedness
● Has built 7 new stadiums
● Set to build 6,000 km of roads on top of the previously existing 2,500 km of
roads
● Is set to more than double the amount of hotel rooms from 21,000 to 60,000
○ To maximize space, officials have chartered two MSC cruise ships, which will provide 3,898
cabins during the games
33. But will the Infrastructure really be ready?
● As of right now there are only around 33,000-34,000 hotel rooms in Qatar
○ A few people may also have the option to camp in the desert if rooms are unavailable
“We have always viewed the ability to camp as an offering of traditional Qatari hospitality, not as a
solution to accommodate shortages- Supreme Council of Qatar
○ Qatari people do not want to welcome people into their homes
○ They are trying to plan on people commuting to Qatar but that is difficult
34. Supplies
● They have hired a logistics provider called GWC
● Supplies will need to get transported
○ 3,240 soccer balls will be transported
○ 36 truckloads of camera equipment
○ 3.1 million food and beverages
● 19 logistics centers with 4 million square meters
of warehousing space
“Looking at the geography of Qatar we are well
positioned between the industrial areas and the
business clusters making it easy for the logistics
to happen”- Syed Maaz Chief Business
Development Officer at GWC
36. Built upon pre-existing transportation infrastructure
● Improved the public transportation system
○ The DB added 370 long distance trains
● Added to an already extensive road network
○ Added 370 km of roadways around host cities
● Had people arrive by different transportation
○ Signaling on ticket would tell you how to arrive to the
stadium
37. Solving other logistical issues
● Utilized 25,000 volunteers
○ Mainly helped with ticketing and getting people to the stadium
● Increased the proportion of water reserves derived by rain
● Spectators were given reusable cups to try and resolve trash issues
