The Sunday Times claims that architects for the £500 million centrepiece of the Games plan to carve the track-and-field arena into the London clay, around which there will be seating for 25,000.

 

A steel structure will be built up from this “bowl” to accommodate a further 55,000 spectators. Plastic will be wrapped around its exterior on which artists will set to work.

 

The plastic “wrap” - 65ft high and encircling the 1,000-yard circumference of the stadium - will be visible from across London, according to the plans to be unveiled later this year.

 

Early designs show six-storey images of Olympic athletes including Cathy Freeman, the athlete who won the 400m for Australia in the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

 

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) hopes that it could be used to create a stadium that might be needed elsewhere in Britain or even sold to a future host city of the Olympics.

 

The “bowl” left behind will become a 25,000-seat stadium for athletics, rugby and lower-league football after the Olympics.

 

Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister, is due to approve the plans at next month’s meeting of the Olympics board with Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London 2012, Ken Livingstone, the London Mayor, and Sir Colin Moynihan, chairman of the British Olympic Association.

 

The newspaper claims that London Olympic stadium will have a roof that covers only two-thirds of the spectators, leaving about 26,000 exposed to any August downpours.

 

Olympic officials said a full roof would have added millions to the cost.

 

The Olympics organisers also realised that some cover is essential to prevent winds that could render world records invalid.

 

A six-month study found that a partial roof could reduce the chance of winds that can invalidate sprint and jump records from 50 to five per cent. 

 

There will also be no food outlets inside the 80,000-seat arena, which reduces the need for kitchens and higher levels of fire protection associated with cooking.

 

Instead, the architects at HOK Sport, which also designed Wembley and Arsenal’s Emirates stadium, have planned “party concourses” outside the stadium inspired by the successful “fan zones” at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where spectators gathered to eat and drink and watch the action on big screens.

 

The full article can be read at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/london_2012/article2558206.ece.