Olympic Stadium decision this year 05/03/2010 |
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A decision will be made on the long-term future of the Olympic Stadium this year, it has been announced.
West Ham United’s new owners David Gold and David Sullivan want to move into the stadium after the 2012 Games, but the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) said that the east London club was "not the only show in town".
And the OPLC reiterated that any football club taking over the venue would have to keep the athletics track – an idea Gold and Sullivan are not keen on.
Margaret Ford, chairman of the OPLC said: "We need to get this settled once and for all this year. The planning status quo is for the stadium to be taken down and rebuilt into a 25,000-seat athletics stadium – the new Crystal Palace. If that happens, I don't think we should apologise for that. We have Wembley, we have Twickenham, we would have a new athletics stadium.
"If, alongside that or complementary to that, other things can happen in the stadium that make it more viable, more animated, that give loads of access and involve the community, then absolutely fantastic. I am confident we will get to a good decision on the stadium but we must do it this year.”
Ford continued: "Technically, the pitch within the track is absolutely Fifa-compliant in terms of the size of the pitch, the sightlines and so on. It is IAAF-compliant, obviously. These things were built to co-exist – it's whether they want to coexist. Ed Warner [UK Athletics chairman] is quite happy to share with football and it's for football now to tell us how they would keep their part of the bargain.
"West Ham are not the only show in town – there are plenty of other people who are interested in other uses for the stadium. West Ham have gone public but we are in lots of discussions with many other people."
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