West Ham Olympic stadium bid collapses
Wednesday, 07 Feb 2007 17:27
The Olympic Stadium will not play host to Premiership football
West Ham's bid to play Premiership football at London's proposed Olympic Stadium has been ended by the 2012 Games' board.
In its regular meeting, the 2012 Olympics board unanimously decided that any top-level football team moving into the stadium would lead to increased costs and lengthy delays.
Construction of the 80,000-capacity stadium is due to begin in Stratford later this year and be completed in mid-2011.
And the Olympic board today insisted that its priority was to deliver a stadium "on time and on budget".
"The board unanimously decided today, therefore, that it would not be possible to deliver this in collaboration with West Ham, or indeed any other Premier League football club, due to the number of design changes and associated time delays that the West Ham proposal would incur," a statement said.
Instead the board favours a 'living stadium' concept that would see sport facilities combined with commercial, school and community access.
But raising hopes of a future move away from Upton Park for the east London club, mayor of London Ken Livingstone told the Olympic board that he was "anxious to assist and support West Ham's plans for developing and securing the future of the club".
One such location put forward for the Hammers is the former Parcelforce site owned by the London Development Agency, which is adjacent to West Ham underground station.