Olypic Stadium back on the market

London's Olympic Stadium Goes Back On Market

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The Olympic Park Legacy Company has decided to keep the stadium in public ownership





1:35am UK, Tuesday December 20, 2011



Orla Chennaoui, Olympics correspondent






The Olympic Stadium is back on the market after its owners
re-opened the bidding process in an attempt to find tenants for the
venue after 2012.


Initial
negotiations to sell the stadium to West Ham United and Newham Council
collapsed amid ongoing legal challenges and continued uncertainty in
October this year.


As a result, the Olympic Park Legacy Company will now keep the
stadium in public ownership and is seeking a combination of tenants to
share the venue with UK Athletics when it reopens in 2014.


Andrew Altman, chief executive of the OPLC, said: "We think it's a great offer.

We obviously welcome all bids. We welcome football but it's not solely dependent on football.

Andrew Altman, OPLC chief executive











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"The OPLC publicly owns this and we believe that it offers a whole
variety of potential uses, from sport to culture to entertainment.


"We're really looking for the broadest diversity of interests to make this as multi-sport and as multi-purpose as we can."


Prospective tenants have until March to submit their bid for the 60,000 seat venue, with the winners appointed in May.


The plan is to have several ventures share the stadium, with the
possibility of one main winter use, such as football, alongside
athletics in the summer, with concerts and community events staged
throughout the year.










West Ham are thought to be the only club still interested in the venue





The OPLC says its aim is for the stadium to be entirely self-sufficient, with no ongoing cost to the public purse.


However, doubts have been raised over whether that will be possible
if they do not attract a major football club to take over primary
tenancy.


West Ham United are thought to be the only club still interested, after Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient mounted legal challenges over the original decision.


However, it is believed that several rugby clubs have expressed
interest in the venue, with other potential offers coming from cricket
and the NFL.


Questioned on whether the stadium could be financially viable without
a football tenant, Mr Altman said: "We believe there are ways to do
that, we believe there are other combinations.


"We obviously welcome all bids. We welcome football but it's not
solely dependent on football. I think the fact that we won 2017 (World
Athletics Championships) validated that strategy."








Will this prove a White elephant like the Millenium Dome?