2012 stadium to stage athletics after Games

The main stadium at the 2012 London Olympics will continue to stage athletics events once the Games are over, it was confirmed here Tuesday.

The announcement regarding the future use of the venue in Stratford, east London, made by Britain’s Olympics minister Tessa Jowell, appeared to end speculation about the site being taken over by one of the Premier League football clubs in the British capital.

However, London mayor Boris Johnson did not rule out the possibility of a lower division London side becoming a tenant.

Many observers felt this was the only way the site could continue to pay for itself once the Games were over and avoid, as has happened to many previous Olympic venues, falling into a state of disrepair.

Among the plans unveiled for the 9.3 billion pounds project were schemes to use the full Olympic site to house a school, a sports academy, an elite sports training centre and housing.

But a key plan of the plans is that the stadium will continue to host major athletics championships.

“We could not have proceeded with a Premiership (football) club because it would have cost a lot more,” Jowell said.

Premier League West Ham, whose current home of Upton Park is near to the stadium site in east London had been linked with a move to the stadium, which cost as much as 550 million pounds.

But Johnson said: “In the end there were insuperable obstacles to do that.

“With the shape of the stadium it would have cost far more to have created a stadium suitable for Premiership football even if there had been a Premiership club willing to come to the table.

“It will be a wonderful stadium for athletics. It will cohere with everything we are planning in the Olympic Park.

“We could have spent twice the money and not have got anything better.”

However, he left the door open for a rugby club to play at the stadium by saying: “If a club tenant comes forward with a sensible and coherent offer which makes sense for us and other people of course we will consider it.”

Earlier, Dame Kelly Holmes said it would be wrong if athletics did not benefit as part of the legacy of the London 2012 stadium.

Holmes, who won gold in both the 800 metres and 1500m at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, said: “We have to be a nation with a national stadium.

“Crystal Palace (in south London) has been our national stadium for many years and that is in need of complete refurbishment.”

She added: “Of course we have to have a track and field stadium. In Europe, football and athletics are all played in these national stadiums so why can’t we do that kind of thing?

“Olympic stadiums get cut down in size (after the Games).

“There is no reason why it cannot be used for other needs as well. Schools will be able to use these facilities. An athletics track has a field in the middle of it so it can be used for many things.”