London reveals design for spectacular £496m 2012 Olympic Stadium

LONDON 2012 have unveiled the design for their £496 million (€711 million) Olympic stadium.

The 80,000-seat venue in Stratford, east London, will be scaled down to a 25,000-capacity venue after the Games and will be used for major athletics events after the Olympics.

In the three years since London launched their bid for the Games, the cost of the development has jumped in price from the estimated £280m quoted in 2004.

London mayor Ken Livingstone explained major football clubs such as West Ham would not be able to become tenants of the stadium.

He said: “We made a commitment that there would be a permanent athletics facility and we have honoured that commitment. For West Ham we have identified a site much better suited to their needs.”

The Olympic Stadium will stand at the heart of the Olympic Park. It is being billed as a design representing a new era for Olympic stadium design.

Building work on the facility is set to begin up to three months ahead of schedule in April or May, with completion in 2011 to allow for test events, the Olympic Delivery Authority said.

So far, 20 out of 33 buildings on the site have been demolished and 600,000 tonnes of soil taken away in preparing the ground for building.

The stadium will be the centrepiece for the 2012 Games and will host the opening and closing ceremonies and athletics events. The biggest difference to previous stadia is the 55,000 “demountable” or temporary seats.

The main features of the design are a sunken bowl built into the ground for the field of play and lower permanent seating, designed to bring spectators close to the action; 25,000 permanent seats, 55,000 demountable; a cable-supported roof that will stretch 28 metres the whole way around the stadium, providing cover for two-thirds of spectators.

London 2012 chairman Seb Coe said: “We talk a lot about milestones, but few will be more exciting than this, the unveiling of the Olympic Stadium, which will be the centrepiece of our Olympic Park. The stadium will stand for everything we talked about in the bid: it will be inspiring, innovative and sustainable.”