The report, from the Assembly’s Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism (EDCST) Committee, also gave a huge boost to West Ham United’s hopes of taking over the Olympic Stadium by concluding it is likely that only a major football or rugby club could provide the huge crowds and regular use that would allow the venue to pay for itself and provide significant local employment.

While the Committee acknowledged that Baroness Margret Ford’s Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) was now actively looking at a wider range of tenants, they slammed the Olympic Board’s original insistence on a solely athletics-led future for the stadium saying it was a "missed opportunity" to deliver the most sustainable and beneficial legacy for the local community.

The Committee added that the 2007 decision demanding that the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) build a stadium designed to shrink to 25,000 after 2012 deliberately put the interests of elite athletes ahead of local regeneration while abandoning talks with major football clubs that year only to take them up again in early 2010 was a wasted three-year period that is likely to lead to extra costs in converting the stadium.

Len Duvall, chairman of the EDCST Committee said: "With the right tenants, the Olympic Stadium and media centre have the potential to bring thousands of new jobs to the East End.

"The only sustainable future for the Stadium is regular, high capacity events and realistically that means football or rugby.

"Only then will we see a stadium that pays for itself and delivers a significant amount of local jobs.

"The Olympic Board made the wrong decision when opting for an athletics legacy and that decision could have serious consequences for the OPLC and for whoever ultimately takes over the stadium.

"Put simply, an elite 25,000 seat athletics stadium is not, and was never going to be, in the long term interests of the East End or of the taxpayer.

"It was a mistake to design and build the stadium on the basis that it would be reduced dramatically in size after 2012."



The report also looked at the future of the 90,000 square metre media centre for 2012 which will be home to the world’s press during the Games as both the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and Main Press Centre (MBC).

The media centre is planned to house a "creative industry hub" after the Games but the report concluded that extra funding is needed to convert the buildings and upgrade transport links to attract would be tenants after London 2012.

The report continued that the significant down-grading of the scope of the buildings in 2008 may also have hurt their legacy potential as does the fact that buildings are in the western end of the park are around a 25 minute walk from Stratford station.

While the Committee was supportive of the creative hub proposals, it recommended that no potential tenants should be ruled out if they can provide a similar number of skilled jobs.

Duvall said: "The Olympic Park media centre has the potential to deliver a fantastic legacy of bringing thousands of jobs to East London, particularly if the vision of a creative industries hub can be achieved.

"This will not be accomplished overnight, and we must see this as a long-term project.

"But the media centre’s legacy does depend on the Mayor, government and OPLC making firm commitments now.

"There needs to be investment in adapting the facility and improving public transport."

In relation to both venues, the report recommended that: community access should be guaranteed via arrangements with the venue operators, long term targets for operators to recruit local people, accompanied by training programmes to give people the skills to apply and that operators should ensure that their procurement processes give opportunities for local businesses to win contracts and additional support for small firms.

Commenting on the OPLC, the report dealt another harsh blow saying that "two years after the establishment of the legacy company, its future, remit and long-term funding remain unclear."

Decisions, it said, needed to be made about whether the company will simply act as a landlord seeking to maximise income or a major regeneration agency for East London.

The OPLC is currently in negotiation with a number of potential tenants for the stadium, including favourites West Ham and entertainment giant AEG, with an announcement expected early next year.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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