Football club may get rebuilt 2012 Games stadium

September 5, 2008

LONDON (AFP) - A top football club could end up with a rebuilt version of the London 2012 Games Olympic stadium, media reports said on Thursday.

Officials overseeing the organisation of the event are considering demolishing the 525 million pounds (950 million dollars) stadium and rebuilding one which could be used by a Premier League football team.

Planners believe that may be a more attractive financial proposition than subsidising future use as an athletics venue.

West Ham would be a club ideally placed to move in and would be interested if they could be given the kind of deal which enabled Manchester City to move into the Commonwealth Games stadium used at those games in 2002, the Press Association (PA) reported.

PA said one top official mulling the stadium’s future is Tom Russell, the director of Olympic legacy at the London Development Agency (LDA). He helped push the Man City deal when he worked at Manchester City Council.

Given that several former Olympic host cities have found themselves lumbered with little used but expensively built “white elephant” venues years after the Games much will depend on the conclusions which London major Boris Johnson’s Olympic legacy advisory board make in the coming months.

Under the existing plans the Olympic Stadium will have an 80,000-seat capacity and it is supposedly to retain a capability to host major athletics events beyond 2012.

But the likelihood that that would require long-term subsidy is a source of concern for the city authorities.

At the same time, construction of a new post-Games stadium would require major private investment.

London Games officials say the issue of retaining an athletics facility after the event is non-negotiable following a commitment made to the International Olympic Committee to that effect.

The budget for the Games was originally set at 3.4 billion pounds but the projected cost has since almost tripled.

Written by: AFP

Share and Enjoy: