The Olympic Games organisers' determination to keep an athletics track at the main London 2012 stadium risks jeopardising its long-term use and turning it into something "nobody wants", a leading football club chairman has said.
Barry Hearn, whose League One side Leyton Orient FC bid for the stadium last year, said: "It beggars belief that such expense is being lavished on a stadium where grass will grow out of the seats by 2014".
Led by the former 1500m athletics gold medallist Lord Coe, the organising committee has consistently re-affirmed the centrality of an "athletics legacy", designing the stadium around that aim. But the determination to host athletics events in the stadium after the Games are over has jeopardised its long-term use.
The presence of an athletics track, which keeps spectators far away from the sidelines of the central pitch, has made it an unattractive venue for football and rugby clubs who had at one time expressed an interest, such as West Ham United FC, Saracens RFC, and Wasps RFC.
Current plans for the stadium envisage its hosting a sports academy and, according to the London 2012 website, "a variety of sporting, educational, cultural and community events". It is being built as a permanent 25,000-seat stadium with 55,000 temporary seats which will be dismantled after the Games.
Mr Hearn said: "They are pushing through with a design that has almost no commercial value and which nobody wants. The design they've got at the moment would destroy the atmosphere of football and rugby games. Nobody will attend the odd athletics meeting.
"It may be too late because the construction is already pushing forward. But if they can get over the athletics legacy we'll be there instantly, tomorrow. I've said to them that my club and Saracens, two huge brands, can make them a fantastic offer as part of a joint venture, but they say no. A football or rugby club is the only way to fill it regularly – and we know that's what they think because they're keen for offers."
In October Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, reopened the debate on the future of the stadium by saying that athletics was not the sole or even leading priority.
"If the best solution is to transform the track into something else then we would be in favour of that," he said. "We had the same situation in Atlanta where the Olympic stadium was changed into a baseball stadium, which kept an interest for sport. We don't have problems with that. I don't want to enter into specifics but we don't want to leave white elephants."
Reports have suggested that Mayor of London Boris Johnson is concerned about the prospect of the stadium, whose price has inflated to £496m, being used only sporadically after the Games. Last night the London organising committee insisted that permanent tenants would be found in the near future.
"We are very clear that the stadium will be a multi-sport venue in legacy, both for elite and community use – so used by potentially a number of sports but with athletics at its core", a spokesman said.
But Professor Simon Chadwick, professor of sport business strategy and marketing at Coventry University, said: "This asset will be an under-utilised white elephant unless we work out a long-term, national strategy for athletics soon".
The stadium: Thinking small, spending big
* Total cost: £496m.
* The original 2004 budget set the cost at £280m, but VAT and inflation have caused this to swell.
* 83,000 seats, reduced to 25,000 after the Games.
* Will host all athletics events in Olympics and Paralympics, plus opening and closing ceremonies.
* Situated at the southern tip of the Olympic Park.
* Designed by architects Sir Peter Cook and HOK Sport.
* A 20-metre tall steel "wrap" frame will encircle the 900 metre circumference.
* 10,000 tonnes of tubular steel will make it the lightest Olympic stadium.
* 800,000 tonnes of soil were removed to create the construction platform.
(Source: Independent.co.uk)
