Should London host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, baseball would be played at The Oval cricket ground, beach volleyball in Regents Park, hockey at The Valley and gymnastics at the Dome.
The Financial Times has seen a copy of the Arup report that was commissioned by the government the mayor of London and the British Olympic Association. The newspaper reports that the main item of expenditure would be a new athletics stadium at Hackney Wick, which in 2002 prices would be between 263.2 million pounds and 283.2 million pounds.
The newspaper reports an aquatic centre for swimming and diving would be located at Temple Mills and rowing/canoeing facilities at Enfield.
Following the Games, the centrepiece stadium would be converted to either an elite centre for UK athletics or a Premiership football stadium.
The report warns that a football stadium is less attractive than an athletics centre as a catalyst for regeneration “because of the negative associations it brings as a neighbour”.
Also in the report is the fact that the bid could be doomed to failure without the Crossrail link being built. The report warns that Crossrail “may be an essential element of a winning bid in order to convince the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of the quality of the transport proposal and of the merits of Stratford (east London) as an Olympic location”.
“Without Crossrail and without event rescheduling, the network cannot cope with the expected levels of demand”. Allowing for rescheduling of events to reduce peak-period demand “could result in a situation where that demand can be accommodated, although a high level of enhancement of other services (such as the Channel tunnel rail link, domestic, coach and river services) would be required”, said the report.
