Op Ed-- Hunting White Elephants in East London

From the moment Jacques Rogge uttered the words when discussing what he didn't want to see in London, there's been an elephant, a white one, in the room at the planning meetings of all the 2016 bidding cities. The cities are all under pressure to comply with the IOC President's reasonable objective that they should not burden future generations with the maintenance costs of massive - and under-used - stadiums.

But if bidders for future Olympic Games believe that London's plans for an $800 million disposable stadium is the model to follow, they may need to think again. For it might just be that, come 2014, when 55,000 seats have been dismantled from the London Olympic Stadium, what remains could still be a smaller white elephant venue at 25,000 seats.

You cannot blame Seb Coe. As a senior figure in the International Association of Athletics Federations long before he rescued London's Olympic bid, you could see him squirm with embarrassment as, first in 2003 and again in 2005, his nation failed to deliver the track and field stadium it had promised the IAAF to stage the athletics world championships.

And next week, if you get stuck in the traffic jam trying to squeeze into the inadequate car park at 50-year-old Crystal Palace for the annual Grand Prix track meet, you will agree with Coe that the city, and country, is in need of a new national athletics stadium.

From the best of intentions, Coe and his team at LOCOG, with strong backing from U.K. Olympic minister Tessa Jowell, are determined to deliver in "legacy mode" a 25,000-seater stadium (suitable, Jowell said last week, "for Grand Prix athletics").

But, following reports in ATR last month, other 2012 delivery partners have discovered such a venue will be "not fit for purpose" when it comes to staging even international track championships, never mind matches in rugby or soccer World Cups if England wins its bids for those events.

Given the pandering that London has done to placate the IAAF to provide for track's "legacy", LOCOG should be very concerned about some murmurs coming now from officials at the IAAF headquarters in Monte Carlo over the stadium's future.

Margaret Ford, the chairman of London's Olympic Legacy Commission, and a Labour peer in the House of Lords, has formed an unlikely alliance with the city's Tory mayor, Boris Johnson, on this issue.

Ford has had some success hunting white elephant venues. She helped to transform the costly, unwanted and virtually abandoned Millennium Dome into the O2 Arena, now a boon to south-east London as operated by U.S. promoters AEG.

Looking at her new challenge, it has struck Ford as extraordinary that so many millions should be spent on a prestigious stadium which, after the Olympics, will be incapable of staging world and European championships - both of which require at least 50,000 seat venues.

And there's no guarantee the events will come. When Barcelona stages next year's European track championships, it will be only the second time since the 1992 Olympics that the stadium will have hosted an international championship or cup event. Stll, that is two major events more than London's Olympic Stadium could ever host as a 25,000 seat arena.

Jowell wants a school on the site and a high performance sports center, while the stadium would host possibly no more than half a dozen days of internationals or national championships each year.

Fast Track, which from next year will promote the London leg of the IAAF's Diamond League, will benefit hugely from having use of such a new facility. A spokeswoman for LOCOG strongly denied that the stadium would only advantage Fast Track, the company founded by Alan Pascoe, the 1972 Olympic silver medalist and former London 2012 deputy chairman.

But Ford is determined to re-examine the stadium's future use, from its role in drawing visitors to the Olympic Park, even to re-opening discussions with Premier League soccer clubs Tottenham and West Ham about joint use of the stadium. Neither club is flush with cash and both desire a new stadium with a 50,000 capacity.

City Hall politicians have already started looking into the details of the deal which gave Manchester City its new stadium after the 2002 Commonwealth Games had been staged there.

"Nothing's ruled in and nothing's ruled out at this stage," Ford said last week in her first interview since taking on her legacy job. "We could revisit the football idea.

"Between now and Christmas we'll be looking at some exciting alternative uses, but also how we make it pay." If Ford delivers a busy track stadium which brings major events to the capital post-2012, while paying off its running costs, it will be something that will serve well Coe and athletics.

Written by Steven Downes

Op Ed is a weekly column of opinion and ideas from Around the Rings. Comments, as well as guest columns are welcomed: comment@aroundtherings.com