91Èȱ¬

Sometimes the most significant developments pass many of us by because we are busy doing other things.

It is striking that the resignation of Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) chief executive David Higgins only got a couple of paragraphs today in a national newspaper which has told us for years it is the voice of the Olympics. Hmmm.

I think the fuss over the and over the stopped people seeing what is a big moment in 2012's history.

Higgins, an Australian with a reputation for straight talking, has been, without doubt, the man who has driven the building of the Olympic facilities.

The politicians take the credit but Higgins is the reason the project is on time.

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I trusted the well-informed person who told me 'off the record' but I didn't run the story straight away for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, nobody would confirm this on the record and I needed that to make the story credible on the 91Èȱ¬.

Secondly, and more importantly, I thought it might just be what they call a kite-flying exercise. Throwing a wacky idea out there and waiting for a reaction.

Surely wouldn't be stupid enough to insult east Londoners in such a way, the people whose lives are being disrupted the most by the Games?

For many of them from less privileged backgrounds, having the marathon on their streets may be the only connection they can afford with the Games.

Well, I admit, I called it all wrong. I should have run the story because it has turned out to be true. 2012 really are that daft.

They won't finish the races in the olympic stadium like most of the six summer games I have attended. The Athens races finished in the 1896 Olympic Stadium.

The 2012 marathons will include three circuits around central London, starting and finishing on the Mall. I understand their logic. They want to show off London's great landmarks to the world and the big TV executives from America and Asia will love it, like they always do. Parts of east London, where the route would have gone, are scruffy but what an opportunity to tidy them up?

2012 still won't confirm all this and they haven't got all the approval yet from the athletics authorities. East London councils are trying to get them to change their minds but the races will stay in central London, I'm sure.

I just had a belief from all their talk that London 2012 wanted to put on a different sort of Games which highlighted all aspects of London and British life.

It was naïve, of course. 2012 won't be different. They are doing what every Games does - playing to the international TV cameras and not to the locals.

Caborn admits that the 2012 board "missed an opportunity" in not striking a deal because it was determined to provide an athletics legacy, one of the key pledges of 2012 chairman Lord Coe during the bid.

Officials from the are currently trying to find a tenant for the stadium and West Ham are still interested in a move there. But rebuilding the arena for top-class football now could cost up to £100 million.

Caborn says West Ham were ready to help change the design of the stadium before it was even built. They made their offer in January 2007, ten months before the design was unveiled.

"West Ham made a very strong offer backed by the Newham Mayor. It was between April 2006 and January 2007," Caborn said. "They wanted to get into negotiations and they did and there was money on the table. They wanted also to honour the athletics legacy.

"Many of us were concerned that that we could end up with a white elephant. I argued very strongly for it but the bid document said there had to be a legacy for athletics, so the negotiations ran into the sand. I don't believe there is a will for a multi-use stadium.

"It was a missed opportunity."

West Ham and are still trying to convince the Legacy Company that they should lease the stadium after reducing its capacity from 80,000 to 60,000 seats. The club would want to move in from the start of the 2014-15 season.

But in addition to adding key hospitality areas, I understand that the roof and the floodlights will have to be scrapped and rebuilt because they only cover a third of the seats.

It is still unclear who would pay for all of these expensive conversions although West Ham are ready to pay towards them.

The 2007 offer, made in a five-page document sent to the 2012 Olympic Board, is said to have been similar to that made by Manchester City when it took over the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

In that agreement, the club agreed to pay cash from ticket sales to fund grass roots sports facilities in Manchester, including the maintenance of an athletics track next to the stadium.

I've always said that the volunteers I have met at past Olympics have been some of the most interesting people you could ever talk to.

They often do rather boring and tiring jobs just to be part of the Games. And they do it with a smile.

I know thousands and thousands of people have already said they are interested in being what they are calling . From today, thousands more will be signing up.

But I'm worried that the scheme is not really going to be for the less privileged in our society, some of whom would benefit the most from such a rewarding role. And I also don't think it is going to be for the whole country.

91Èȱ¬ London interviewed youngsters in Derby the other day. They are keen volunteers already but they haven't got the money to pay for accommodation during the Games. There's no free accommodation for volunteers during 2012 so how are they going to be able to be part of the scheme?

Not everybody has a friend or relative in London with a bed free in the summer of 2012.

I know when I was growing up in Coventry in the 1970s that I wouldn't have known anybody who could have helped me in London if the Games hadn't been then. And neither would many of my friends.

2012 are doing nothing about this. I'm not saying taxpayers' cash should be spent on accommodation. But I do believe the Olympic sponsors should step up to the mark and pay for some student rooms for volunteers from outside of London.

How about sponsoring volunteers from the North East of England? Lloyds Bank paying for youngsters from Wales? (I know, that would be a bit of public cash!) BT backing volunteers from the Midlands?

Surely this would be great publicity? And it would also mean the London Olympics are for the whole of the UK, not just London and the south-east.

2012 keep telling us they want a Games for Britain. Now is the time to prove it.

I've learned that a report by the London Assembly will attack the and London 2012 for building venues which will be great for the Games but not much use afterwards.

The planning of the main stadium and of the £308 million will come under fire.

One senior Assembly member, Conservative Andrew Boff, has even suggested the option of knocking the Media Centre down if it can't be used for anything. I've heard similar suggestions made before about the .

The report is expected to say that there is danger of more taxpayers' money being needed to secure the legacy of the buildings.

The criticism of the main stadium is interesting since its future looks more secure at the moment than ever before.

I understand that it is increasingly likely that a deal will be struck with who are hoping to rent the stadium after 2014 together with an entertainment group which would use it for concerts in the summer.

The stadium would also be available for major athletics events outside of the football season.

But the future of the Media Centre is controversial. It was hoped that a major media company would move into the centre after the Games but no deal has been done yet.

The report, expected to be published on Friday, will say that the centre will have few permanent facilities when the Games are over.

I've been in Basildon working on a row which is at the heart of 2012's Olympic promise - how do you encourage young people to take up sport?

The , east of London, is building a £38 million "" which includes an Olympic-size swimming pool and sports hall.

It is hoped that some international teams will want to use the facilities as a training camp in the run-up to 2012.

There's no doubt that people in Basildon are going to benefit from the top-class facilities in the long term.

But there's a big problem...

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Mexican wave at Twickenham. Getty Images

Olympic organisers have a big lesson to learn from some some chaotic crowd scenes which I experienced at at the weekend.

Having stopped people from taking drink cans into the stadium, presumably because they could be used as missiles, the bars still sold plastic bottles of coke and cider to spectators.

Sounds harmless? Well, far from it when the bottles are flying into your face and landing on your children from a great height.

In the second half of the Wasps-Harlequins game, the crowd got carried away with a and starting throwing anything they could find into the air; bottles, cups and cardboard beer glass holders.

My friends and I were forced to get our children (all junior rugby players) out of the stadium in the middle of the half because the rubbish being thrown down on us was dangerous. One cider bottle hit me in the face. Stewards and police were powerless to stop it.

It was hardly a great advert for Aviva's new sponsorship of Premiership rugby and I won't be heading back to Twickenham in a hurry.

In fact, I plan to return the tickets I have for the forthcoming autumn internationals to my rugby club because I can't risk taking my son to the game and getting injured. I also prefer to watch matches until the end, rather than having to leave early because it is too dangerous to stay.

The have to learn from this. Given that Coca-Cola is an Olympic sponsor and its products will be sold in the Olympic Park, it is crucial that bottles are not sold at all to spectators. Just pour the drinks into a plastic cup. It's hardly rocket science.

There is nothing wrong with a Mexican wave (even though I hate them) and spectators can, of course, get excited if they want, as we all hope they will during the Games. But stadium organisers have to think seriously about what they sell to spectators because a bit of fun can soon turn nasty.