Changes Coming to London Olympics Plan

(ATR) Changes, though minor, are ahead for the plan of the Olympic Park in east London to be built for the 2012 Games, says the man overseeing construction of the multi-billion dollar infrastructure planned for the Olympics.

"I don't expect a wholesale change in the park. I think there will be some venues moved around in the land, but we're still exploring that," said Jack Lemley, chair of the Olympic Delivery Authority, at a press conference with other London 2012 leaders to mark the first visit of the IOC Coordination Commission.

Lemley and the ODA have the job of handling infrastructure for the 2012 Olympics, such as the 500 acre Olympic Park in London's east. The park will host six sports, the Olympic Stadium and Olympic Village, the single biggest development for the Games.

Lemley says "minor adjustments" to the park plan will become known by the end of May as estimates are perfected, "estimates not only for the facilities themselves, but for the legacy issues that are connected with them."

One of those legacy issues involves the after use of the stadium. Speaking at Thursday's press conference, Coe said he has made a commitment to maintain the stadium in a smaller capacity but with a world-class track for athletics.

But one football club, West Ham, is said to be looking at the stadium as a possible home ground. Coe says no decision has been made that would rule out a premiership team from using the stadium but that the legacy for athletics must be maintained.

IOC Hears London 2012 Commitments

In the first meeting with the IOC Coordination Commission, London 2012 organizers say they pointed to a steady line of progress since the Games were awarded last July.

Coe called this meeting one of the milestones of the London Olympics.

"The arrival of the coordination commission in any host city really does signal the beginning of that relationship we have to have in place if we are to deliver on our vision and four key objectives", says Coe.

Coe says those objectives, include legacy, sustainability, regeneration and a commitment to rebuild the way sport is delivered in the U.K.

IOC Pleased So Far

Members of the IOC commission appear to be impressed so far with what they have seen and heard in London.

"They are far more advanced than any other organizing committee," one member tells Around the Rings following Thursday?s venue tour.

The commission member says London 2012 is ahead of other cities in its physical preparations as well as the people tapped to run the organizing committee and ODA.

The 15-member panel and staff from key IOC departments toured key venues in east London after briefings in the morning from London 2012 staff.

The commission stopped at the site where the first work is underway to bury the high voltage lines crossing the Olympic Park, followed by a view across the park from the top floor of a high-rise building where a viewing platform is installed.

The group ended the afternoon with a tour of the new Stratford International Station, the rail station that will serve as the transport hub for the Games.

Tonight the IOC commission will dine with London Mayor Ken Livingstone at the Greenwich Maritime Museum.

Commission chair Denis Oswald will lead a press conference Friday afternoon to wrap up the IOC visit.

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