By Steven Downes
January 28 – John Armitt (pictured left), the chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), tonight gave a green light to the possibility of Premiership football club West Ham United moving in to London’s Olympic Stadium after the 2012 Games, while fulfilling the venue’s brief to deliver a lasting legacy as a national athletics stadium.
“There would be some alterations needed to meet the requirements of a Premiership football club,” Armitt said.
“Personally, I see no reason why it can’t do both, which is be a Premiership ground as well as cater for international athletics.”
It had been planned to reduce the stadium from its 80,000 seats configuration at Games time, down to 25,000 capacity as an athletics venue from 2013.
When future big events are staged at the £540 million stadium, such as the 2015 Rugby World Cup, or, if England’s bid is successful, matches in the 2018 World Cup, extra seats would be built around the main bowl.
Last week, West Ham’s new owners, David Gold and David Sullivan, re-opened the possibility of having a football club as the stadium’s permanent “anchor tenant”, offering a more viable financial future for the venue.
The football club would want to lease a 50-60,000-seat stadium from the Olympic Park Legacy Company, and architects and engineers working for Armitt’s ODA are already examining ways of installing retractable seating that can roll out over the athletics track when the stadium is being used for football.
The Olympic Stadium’s design is such that seats in the upper tier are actually closer to the sports arena than equivalent seats at Wembley Stadium.
“Even standing up here,” Armitt said, talking to BBC London local television from the top tier of the stadium, “I feel really close to where the action will be.”
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