So we may lose athletics use of the Olympic stadium

[treadwater1]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/west-ham-athletics-london-stadium-26892105

Mirror version of the Telegraph article

[Chafford1]

Looking more optimistic today that athletics may be able to stay at the London Stadium if conversion costs are paid by Major League Baseball, according to Ben Bloom in the Telegraph.

[Laps]

Good news if you want Athletics to continue at London Stadium. Bad news if you prefer UK Athletics get signicant compensation for giving up their contract. If all the work of setting back the football seating is paid for by someone else (MLB) LDDC will have less incentive to pay up to get rid of Athletics.

[Ladyloz]

I notice that Crystal Palace is being used for The Games on ITV this week. Not sure what work has been done in preparation for this, looks OK on the TV.

[philipo]

Looking more optimistic today that athletics may be able to stay at the London Stadium if conversion costs are paid by Major League Baseball, according to Ben Bloom in the Telegraph.

We all need baseball like a hole in the head. Wonder if this country will stop playing major sports in the future so the USA can control all our sports.
So refreshing some nice rich yanks can take control of Chelsea..not.!!

[stirling]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletic...rystal-palace/ (paywall)

"The London Stadium has been a total flop,” said double Olympic long jump finalist Jade Johnson. “The whole premise of getting the Olympics was legacy, but how many British athletes have been able to even run there? It only hosts one or two competitions a year."

[Chafford1]

Strong support from DAS today in the press for retaining the London Stadium as an athletics venue.

[philipo]

Ladyloz
The total seats both permanent and temporary for the WC is 17221!!!So much for the 30,000 plus needed for a WC. So the stadium at Birmingham for the CG is more than sufficient.for a WC. Go Brum!!. Eugene's permanent seats at Eugene 12650. Wow!!!

[Ladyloz]

Already responded to a similar post you made....see post 24 in this thread.

[Ladyloz]

Seb Coe wades in - wants to keep athletics at the Olympic Stadium unsurprisingly.


Lord Coe expresses importance of keeping athletics at London Stadium - BBC Sport

[Chafford1]

Looks like good news at least in the short to medium term. If there's no prospect of Crystal Palace being refurbished, then athletics should remain at Stratford.

[Ursus]

I think it’s important that London can host major meets but that doesn’t have to be the Olympic Stadium. Realistically a stadium of that size is only for the most elite of events, of which any country only has very few. And unless they decide to make the WC and OG annual then we’re not seeing another global on these shores any time soon by which time the whole debate will have moved on.

Strike the deals that need to be struck and say thanks for the memories.

[Chafford1]

I think it’s important that London can host major meets but that doesn’t have to be the Olympic Stadium. Realistically a stadium of that size is only for the most elite of events, of which any country only has very few. And unless they decide to make the WC and OG annual then we’re not seeing another global on these shores any time soon by which time the whole debate will have moved on.

Strike the deals that need to be struck and say thanks for the memories.

Unless funding for restoring Crystal Palace can be found, the London Stadium is the only option for hosting major athletics meetings in the Capital.

[Ursus]

Well if UKA has the right to use it for 50 years and it’s £3m a time to reconfigure, maybe some of that could be redirected as a starter. A redeveloped Palace that could be extended for. a WC would be perfect!

[PotterHoppo96]

I think they should look to redevelop Palace, if they can find the money (a very big if).

There aren't many events that justify keeping the Olympic Stadium as a one-month-per-year athletics venue. Earliest we could host the worlds again is 2027, but there's a lot of places to take the event first. Africa, Australia, South America, Japan, South East Asia, North America (not US), Poland, Italy for example. Earliest we'll host another olympics is 2036. Maybe a 2030 Commonwealth Games.

it doesn't sound a brilliant legacy giving it to a mid table premier league football team, but then again said team attracts 60k off fans 20 odd times a year.

[stirling]

The Mayor of London has already approved a regeneration of the Crystal Palace NSC - on 17 Dec 2021

The funding for main hall and pools has been secured, that has always been lion's share of NSC costs.

https://www.london.gov.uk/decisions/md2910-crystal-palace-national-sports-centre

[treadwater1]

I think it’s important that London can host major meets but that doesn’t have to be the Olympic Stadium. Realistically a stadium of that size is only for the most elite of events, of which any country only has very few. And unless they decide to make the WC and OG annual then we’re not seeing another global on these shores any time soon by which time the whole debate will have moved on.

Strike the deals that need to be struck and say thanks for the memories.

You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone. The fact that every session of the commonwealth games has sold out says there is still a demand to watch top class athletics in this country. Sure the Birmingham stadium could host the European championships but it wouldn’t have the same wow factor

[Ladyloz]

We should definitely look at hosting the Europeans - if 2026 has already been decided what about 2030. As that would be the Multi Sport Europeans you could have some others events in London and other sports elsewhere.

[Ursus]

You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone. The fact that every session of the commonwealth games has sold out says there is still a demand to watch top class athletics in this country. Sure the Birmingham stadium could host the European championships but it wouldn’t have the same wow factor

I don’t disagree, but champs are once in a blue moon and I’m sure they could reach agreement over those. Just seems pointless converting for what is essentially one DL meeting in a normal year. Somewhere like the Palace can be a dedicated athletics facility that can be trained at all year round and used for lower level comps too. As a kid I both competed and trained there and there was a real wow factor about being at the obvious home of GB athletics…..you don’t get that from a multi purpose stadium no matter how impressive it is.

Agree though that Birmingham is unlikely to be attractive for anything above Commonwealth level.