By Andrew Warshaw
January 13 – British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman Colin Moynihan says it is still preferable that football plays a vital part in the use of the Olympic Stadium after the London 2012 Games to prevent it becoming a white elephant.
A new tender process for the Stratford site has since been opened by the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) following the collapse of West Ham United’s original funding deal with the local council.
Formal bids to become a tenant of the Stadium for a maximum of 99 years are due back in March, with the winner to be announced by May, two months before the Opening Ceremony.
So far there have been no firm bidders but Moynihan says the situation needs resolving as the weeks tick by.
“We have to ensure a strong sports legacy for that stadium and whatever decision is made has to benefit both high-performance athletes, the community at large and has the opportunity to host major sports including football,” Moynihan told insideworldfootball.
Tottenham Hotspur announced in October that it had withdrawn its bid for a judicial review into the handing of the stadium to West Ham by the OPLC and will definitely not be rekindling their interest – not least because of the insistence that a running track must be maintained.
West Ham, pushing for promotion, are still favourites to take over the Stadium.
The OPLC need to make the venue pay but the risk for them is that without at least two clubs competing, West Ham go in with a take-it-or-leave-it low bid because they believe they are the only game in town.
Andrew Altman, chief executive of the OPLC, has claimed that the stadium’s future is not dependent on a football club moving in after the Games.
But Moynihan said: “My view is the work needs to continue to encourage a major football club to use the stadium as a host tenant and I believe that’s still possible.”
Moynihan says there is still one obvious solution to the running track issue.
“Retractable seating is an issue that needs to be looked at,” he said.
“I would ideally like to see it as a multisport facility and that involves a football or major spectator sport club.”
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