Sport Industry Group

Johnson wants 2012 stadium to retain capacity- 2 Jul 2009 00:00:00

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has refused to rule out the London 2012 Olympic Stadium retaining its full capacity of 80,000 after the Games has concluded, despite existing plans to significantly downsize the venue.

The Mayor has stated there is now a hope that the venue will stage World Cup football matches if England's bid for the 2018 tournament is successful, meaning it would need to remain a 80,000 seater stadium as opposed to the capacity being reduced to 25,000 as planned.

Commented Johnson: ‘I'd be very foolish to rule it out now. It adds hugely to the attractions of London. London already boasts fantastic, incomparable sporting facilities. We are already a leading contender to have the 2018 World Cup and I think the stadium in the Olympic Park is well worth considering as an additional venue.

‘It's a very difficult technical subject, but anyone with any common sense looking at this wonderful venue we are constructing in Stratford will say, 'Why not?’.’

With Olympic organisers unable to find a football club to take residence in the stadium after 2012 it is estimated that the £547m development could cost £10m annually to maintain.

However with England bidding for the World Cup in 2018, Johnson hopes the Stratford site could become one of the 12 designated venues.

Similarly the Olympic Stadium could also stage matches if the International Rugby Board selects England as the host of the 2015 Rugby World Cup on 28th July.

Retaining the Stratford site as an 80,000-seat venue received key backing last week from Margaret Ford, who has become the head of the Olympic legacy board.

Members of the London Assembly plan to discuss with the Mayor how much it would cost to keep the stadium at 50,000 capacity, if not 80,000.

‘We have a very interesting passage of argument ahead of us and Margaret Ford, who has just taken over as the chairman of the Olympic Park legacy company, has been absolutely right to raise this issue up the agenda – to look at the possibility of keeping the stadium going beyond 2012, 2013,’ said Johnson.

‘I'm not going to say that's been decided because that would be wrong. But it's certainly something that people with common sense are going to look at.’

Earlier this year, the London Development Agency said the stadium cannot make money or break even after the Olympics and would be subsidised by the rest of east London's Olympic Park.

After the Olympics, the stadium will house a secondary school for about 500 students, the National Skills Academy for sports and leisure industries and the English Institute of Sport.