News Archive
Grandeur creeps back into London stadium plans
Released on 26/06/2009
With one eye on the 2018 World Cup, Olympic bosses are now rethinking their firm plan to shrink the main stadium after the Games.
A key part – perhaps the defining part – of the London Olympic bid was that the whole effort would not be a waste of public money.
Organisers used the phrase “legacy” at every opportunity, promising that the costly new facilities would be worthwhile to Londoners for a long time. They were steadfastly determined to avoid white elephants: expensive, monumental structures doomed to crumble with neglect and disuse after the Games.
Now, however, Olympic bosses are ready to overturn the decision to reduce the US$900 million, 80,000-seater Olympic stadium to a 25,000-capacity athletics venue after the 2012 Games.
A senior London Development Agency (LDA) source told the UK’s Building magazine it wanted the stadium, under construction by UK contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, to be the “new Crystal Palace”.
Under the previous legacy boss Tom Russell, the stadium was to be converted into a 25,000-seat venue. Russell was replaced in April by a new team, which would keep a running track around the pitch and make it a centre-piece of the bid to host the 2018 Football World Cup. Plans also include an Olympic museum, a sports hall of fame and a sports-themed Madam Tussauds.
The LDA source told Building: “We want it to be a living stadium. We will need to scope out whether the final capacity is 50,000 or 80,000, but there’s no way we’re reducing it to 25,000 – it’s just a waste.”
The source claimed the plans had the provisional support of London mayor Boris Johnson.
