West Ham won't buy Olympic Stadium

Lord Coe, chairman of London's 2012 Olympic Committee, told BBC Five Live Sport that any club that wants to take over Olympic stadium after the games would have to pay GBP 100 million, which would rule out English West Ham from moving into the stadium.

"At the current moment, none of the clubs taking a look at this are remotely in the same ballpark," said Coe.

Coe said the committee would honour its promise to provide a legacy for athletics but offers from inside and outside the sport would be considered.

"If football wants to play within the confines of a track and field configuration, are prepared to give track and field primary usage, and are coming to the table with GBP 100-million plus to make this a viable option of course we would look at it," said Coe.

"It could be Premiership rugby or some of the better-heeled non-League clubs in the area - and we are not closing our eyes to the potential as an entertainment venue as well."

Coe's comments came after Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said she had met Terence Brown, West Ham chairman, and managing director Paul Aldridge last summer to discuss a possible move.

Jowell told them the price would be GBP 100 million and stressed that they would have to keep the running track and meet the cost of building a dual-use stadium.

"They said they would obviously not be interested on that basis," Jowell told the Sunday Telegraph.

Sports Minister Richard Caborn indicated he would be in favour of a football club moving into the stadium after the Games, which is what English Manchester City did after the Commonwealth Games in 2002.

Caborn was quoted as saying West Ham and the Olympic committee were in serious talks about taking over the stadium.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone said he did not want the stadium handed over to a football club because London's bid to host the Games contained an agreement with the International Olympic Committee to provide a lasting legacy for athletics.

That would mean the stadium would keep its running track and its seating capacity would be reduced from 80,000 to 25,000.

Football clubs do not find that having a running track and less seating beneficial and that led West Ham's Premier League rivals, Tottenham, to rule out a move to the stadium.

Jowell said that Caborn had been misquoted and added that a dual-purpose stadium had been ruled out because of the cost.

"When we were going through the first stage of the cost review and looking at the various options on legacy costs, we discovered that football would actually be much more expensive because we are absolutely bound to provide an athletics legacy and running a parallel procurement is very, very expensive," said Jowell. "So football was really knocked out at that point."

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.