Jowell calls for an end to uncertainty over Olympic stadium

By Holly Hamilton, Sportsbeat

OLYMPICS Minister Tessa Jowell has called for an end to the ongoing uncertainty over plans for the use of the Olympic Stadium after London 2012.

DECISION TIME: Olympics minister Tessa Jowell has called for a future decision on the Olympic Stadium to be made sooner rather than later (Getty Images)

The £500m stadium has become a focal point of organisers' legacy plans but a number of sports have expressed interest in tenancy, with recent high profile attention from new West Ham United owners David Gold and David Sullivan.

The 80,000-seater stadium, in keeping with the initial legacy plans, was expected to be reduced in size to have a more manageable 30,000 capacity but maintaining closer to its Games capacity means it could be utilised as part of England's 2018 World Cup bid.

Jowell has no preference for the use of the stadium in Stratford but she joins Locog chairman Sebastian Coe in being adamant that the venue must keep its capacity to stage track and field events.

And she follows chair of the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) Baroness Ford in speaking out in favour of a decision sooner rather than later.

"I support the OPLC in their processes because we need to get rid of the uncertainty especially when we have bids for the 2015 athletics and 2018 football,"  Jowell told the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games 2012 Legacy panel.

"This is why the bidding process will begin shortly because the whole thing will take time and we can't have uncertainty forever.

"The Olympic Park Legacy Company will be going out and soliciting bids for the stadium in the next few weeks.

"Bids will be solicited and some parties will be invited to bid. Then negotiations can take place.

 "They will consult with the local community because whoever uses it will have an effect in the area.

"Obviously it's not my decision who uses the stadium but it must have an athletics track because that was part of our bid.

"It's an athletics stadium so it needs to have a track and that is not negotiable.

"What will be negotiable is the capacity of the stadium but we have always had plans to stage athletics events there so that will have to be taken into account.

"It would be pretty pathetic to have a stadium after the Olympics and for it not be set up to cater for athletics events in the future."

At the beginning of March, Baroness Ford also made her feelings clear about bringing the wrangling to a conclusion.

"It seems the time is absolutely right now to go into a public process to get a set of settled uses for the stadium," she said.

"This is a £540 million public asset so it goes without saying that we are not just going to have some conversation off stage left and someone is going to take over the stadium.

"It has to be a publicly managed process to demonstrate value for money and that we are keeping the bid commitments that were there."

Jowell is hoping for a decision before the international athletics governing body, the IAAF, make up their mind in November on whether London has been successful in its bid for the 2015 World Athletics Championships.

And while Jowell is remaining neutral on who gets their hands on the stadium, Mayor of Newham and chair of the Host Boroughs Joint Committee Sir Robin Wales has made it very clear that he wants West Ham to use the venue.

"Getting West Ham in there would be a really big plus and I think that would be great for the area," said Sir Robin.

"It's important to have a sensible tenant in there so that the stadium can continue to function and leave a legacy.

"We don't want to see it being pulled down in 20 years time because it hasn't been looked after and has been forgotten about.

"It does seem strange that we didn't work through the different scenarios four years ago and have left it until 2010 to decide who will use it."