TEAM GB HOMECOMING
Team effort
TBI Media produced a concert at Wembley’s SSE Arena that celebrated Team GB’s achievements at Tokyo 2020
Team GB entered Wembley’s SSE W hen Arena on September 12, an 8,000-strong
crowd screamed and cheered. It was an emotional reception for Team GB’s triumphant athletes, who had competed at Tokyo 2020 without the support of friends, family, and sports fans. The Wembley event – a special Team GB Homecoming concert – gave the athletes an opportunity to celebrate, show off their medals and feel the heartfelt applause of the audience; a mix of key workers and 8,000 National Lottery players, the people who had “powered” Team GB and Paralympics GB to success since 1997.
All Images: © Getty Images
The Homecoming event, organised by The National Lottery, was produced and delivered by TBI Media and hosted by BBC Radio 1’s Clara Amfo and Greg James.
CELEBRATING ACHIEVEMENTS
Andrew Wyke, director of events at TBI Media, was the event’s executive producer, and TBI Media’s Sarah Greene was project director. TBI Media originally pitched for the project three years ago. Wyke explained: “I knew Scott Field at the British Olympic Association (BOA) [director of comms and marketing]. He had
previously worked at the FA when we had produced an event there. He had joined the BOA and he wanted to do something for the athletes, to celebrate their achievements.” TBI Media put together a proposal in early 2019, thinking that the Homecoming event would take place in 2020. COVID-19 hit. Tokyo 2020 was cancelled, and the Olympics and subsequent celebratory event were pushed back a year. Greene said: “I worked on the project for one day and then the Olympics was cancelled, and we were all sent home.” That decision – to delay Tokyo 2020 – made the Homecoming event even more important. “It became bigger because of the circumstances,” Greene added. The project was put to one side for some months and was picked up again in November 2020. “When things looked bleak at Christmas, we did look at whether we could have the event outside,” Wyke commented further. “But we wanted to have thousands of people in an arena.” Wembley’s SSE Arena was the venue of choice.
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