£500 million London Olympic Stadium to be demolished?

[Gromit]

Tottenham Hotspur have confirmed they would knock down most of the 80,000-seater athletics arena and replace it with a 60,000-capacity purpose-built football venue if they won the bid to take over the Stratford site.

Critics said it meant the stadium, estimated to cost the taxpayer £496million, would be used for athletics for only 29 days during the Olympics and Paralympics next summer.
That works out at almost £17million a day before most of it is hauled down, MP David Lammy said.

http://www.metro.co.u...-down-olympic-stadium

Surely this is madness?

[Count-A-Strong]

Madness could never fill an 80,000 seater stadium. Even their hay-day (around 1981) they would have struggled.

[Whickerman]

now that made me laugh - thanks Count

[Whickerman]

Yes it's crazy talk.

[DTCwordfan]

Precedent was unfortunately set by Man City who took over the Commonwealth stadium post the Manchester Games.

I think we should preserve the legacy of the stadium and we dont really have a world class athletics stadium (though Tottenham are pledging some money for Crystal Palace) - so I hope West Ham take it.......... And on the site, we will have another super Velodrome and a world class swimming pool, so make it a holy trinity for the benefit of future UK athletes.

[Gromit]

To defend the Manchester City and the Commonwealth Games Stadium, it was not demolished, in fact its capacity was increased and the cost of building it has been recouped and it is making money for Manchester Council. (Hope they are not forced to sell it to City's rich owners).

The track at that was always temporary.

[Andyvon]

The whole thing is utter madness Gromit.

I asked something similar recently when I posted a thread saying I couldn't see how the UK could afford to spend billions on the Olympics when the country is in such a mess. Quite a few posters thought the Olympics were a good idea 'showcasing Britain' etc. Quite what they thought there is to showcase I'm still trying to figure out. There's also the fact that whatever facilities remain after the games will only effectively be available to the local community - provided they can afford the membership and entry fees!

[flip_flop]

I don't understand why Spurs can't adapt the stadium and install seats where the running track is. Isn't this what Manchester City did?

Certainly it can't stay as an athletics stadium - athletics is a minority sport in the UK when it comes to numbers of spectators so something needed to be done and a premiership club taking it over does seem sensible, but knocknig it down is completely bananas.

Personally I feel the Olympics is an utter waste of money anyway (do we really need a velodrome in the East End?) but to demolish a brand new ground so quickly after it was built - built with our money - just defies belief.

[boxtops]

It's ridiculous - we paid for that, you don't pull down a new build just to build something else. Someone from the Olympic Committee said the other day that part of the reason we won the bid was because there was a promise of future permanent athletics facilities.

[R1Geezer]

perhaps but if they are buying it they can do what they like with it.

[MrJabezClegg]

When Gromit says the council have got their money back after building Bradford stadium , I wonder, for a number of years they bought land in the area often at a cost of losing well paid jobs , These figures would push up the price of the council stadium so are not included in the costing not to mention putting local people out of work.
The other thing to remember is people like Gromit are happy for anything new in that area to be called Eastlands this or Eastlands that when it is in fact Bradford.

Wonder if Gromit knows who burnt out Charlie Roberts ?

[andy-hughes]

As I understand it, the construction used makes the stadium a temporary structure anyway - but it was a cornerstone of the UK bid that it would be an athletics venue for the nation in years to come - something which is patently under serious threat now.

I never understood why the UK would bid for the Games - except of course the vaultless vanity pf politicians who learned nothing from the Dome fiasco. We lack the infrastructure, the transport system, the sports teams, and the national interest which we patently don't have, even if the BBC and the government try to convince us otherwise.

[weecalf]

Say Britain wins one gold thats £496 per gold .How much is that for none .

[rov1100]

Anyone who has been to the old Wembley stadium to watch football know how Tottenham must feel. If standing behind the goal you need binoculars to see the other end as the old greyhound track made the distance that much greater. I believe Tottenham want to pull down their current stadium so doing the same to the Olympic stadium would be handled quite easily.

If you take the O2 stadium this is used for a number of different events. The structure is left and only the seating and floor arrangements are changed to suit the venue.