Margaret Ford was giving evidence at the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee at Westminster this morning, where she made it clear that commitments to the £540 million venue’s athletics legacy would be honoured, and it was for other sports, including football, to show that they can co-exist with a running track around the playing pitch.

Importantly, though, Ford the door wide open for the possibility of a multi-used stadium that could host matches in the rugby of football World Cups as well as future athletics world championships.

Asked by Adrian Sanders MP, a member of the committee, about reports that West Ham’s new owners, David Gold and David Sullivan, were keen to move in to the Olympic Stadium , Ford denied that any formal discussions had yet taken place with the football club.

"We have had talks with Ed Warner at UK Athletics, and he is clear that athletics could co-exist with other sports.

"The track is obviously compliant with IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) requirements, that’s what it is being built for, but the pitch area is also fully compliant with FIFA requirements for football.

"So it is a matter of whether football is prepared to co-exist with athletics."

She conceded that leaving a 25,000-seater stadium “primarily” for athletics might not be ideal.

"I’m not sure I’d use the word ‘primarily’," she said.

"Premier athletics must be part of the mix, because that was the commitment, but we all know that athletics use would be just three or four times a year."

Ford, who masterminded the transformation of the moribund Millennium Dome into the modern venue which the Government was ultimately able to sell off to become the O2 Arena, took up her post at the head of the OPLC, appointed by London Mayor Boris Johnson, last autumn.

Since then, she and her chief executive, Andrew Altman, have been conducting a thorough review of the masterplan for the uses of the Olympic Park after the Games are over.

They will be responsible for establishing the management structure of the Park - the largest new open space to be created in Europe since the 19th century – and for the sale or leasing out of its various assets, including apartments in the Olympic Village, the Velodrome, Aquatics Centre and Stadium.

Ford outlined that the Legacy Company is about to enter into a three-month public consultation process over the Stadium’s future, to be followed by a six-month public procurement process, when potential anchor tenants such as West Ham will be invited to come forward with financial offers.

"We hope that at the end of the year, we will be able to say these are the uses of the stadium in legacy," she said.

"Lots of people have been expressing all sorts of interest to the LDA [London Development Agency, the body which had responsibility for the park previously] and the ODA [Olympic Delivery Authority] and so on, and we clearly have a number of commitments, not least the commitment to athletics.

"Let’s make no mistake here, this is a £540 million public asset, so we are not going to have a conversation stage left, and then someone goes off with the stadium. This is going to be a public process."

Ford added that, at the end of the consultation, if the decision reached is to go ahead with a 25,000 seat national athletics stadium, what she called "a new Crystal Palace", then "we should not apologise for that".

She said: "What we need to determine now is whether football can co-exist with athletics.

"These things can co-exist. it’s a matter now of whether people want them to co-exist.

"There’s plenty of other people who would be interested in uses of the stadium.

"There’s been lots of discussions with many other people.

"West Ham’s not the only show in town."

Altman explained how the design of the stadium had made a range of post-Games options possible, from the 80,000-seat Olympic mode that is presently in an advance stage of construction, through to the 25,000-seater athletics format.

"Much depends on the component parts... it depends on how you want to use it for," he said.

West Ham have made it known that they would require around 50,000 seats –- on a par with London rivals Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium or the proposed new Tottenham stadium - together with the money-spinning corporate hospitality boxes.

The flexibility of the stadium means it can be retrofitted for various uses," Altman said.

"We’ve been looking at what the range of options could be.

"There’s a different set of costs associated with all of them, but the stadium does allow for the optionality."

It is understood that the Olympic budget allows for around £38 million to be spent on reconfiguring the stadium to athletics mode after 2012; the Legacy Company’s own estimates suggest that to retrofit the stadium as a 50,000 seater stadium would cost closer to £100 million.

The Legacy Company is keen to resolve the stadium’s future before the final documents are submitted in the autumn as part of England’s bid to stage the 2018 World Cup, when the Olympic Stadium could be one of the venues in London.


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