By Tom Degun

October 19 - Britain's top boxing promoter Frank Warren was today at Forman's Fish Island in Stratford - which overlooks the Olympic Stadium - to help launch a bid to host the hockey World Cup in London in 2014, as first revealed on insidethegames last week.


Warren (pictured) joined London Mayor Boris Johnson and England Hockey Board (EHB) chief executive Sally Monday to outline plans to stage both the men's and women's World Cups at the same time – at the Lee Valley Hockey Centre at Eton Manner – for only the second time in the sport's history.

The bid has been developed by the EHB with the support of Visit London's Events for London and UK Sport's major event teams.

Under plans announced by London 2012 during the bid, the main hockey stadium will be a temporary venue which will move to Eton Manor - in the north of the Olympic Park - after the Games.

It will have 3,000 permanent seats with the ability to increase to up to 15,000 for major events.

Together with the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and Frank Warren, the EHB is looking to maximise the opportunity afforded to sport by the Olympic Games and, with 630,000 spectators set to attend hockey matches at London 2012, the anticipated increased interest.

A successful bid would see Warren lead the promotion and ticketing for the World Cups as part of UK Sport's ambitious programme to bring major events to the UK after 2012.

If successful, it will be the first international event to be held at a legacy facility in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park following the 2012 Olympic Games.

"I've promoted many great championship events here in London and this is going to be one of the most exciting," said Warren.

"I confess that I don't know too much about hockey but I've always been a big armchair fan and from the outside looking in, I thought there were a number of ways to make a lot of money out of the sport.

"First of course we have to win the bid but we have a great team so let's go out and bring the World Cups to London."

England's main rivals for the tournament are Holland though some of London's biggest names are confident of the city's chances to host the event.



Johnson said: "Staging the Hockey World Cups at the new state-of-the-art Lee Valley Hockey Centre in 2014 would be a major boost to the great sporting legacy we are striving to achieve following the 2012 Games.

"I'm fully behind the England Hockey Board's bid and I'm certain it will inspire many more youngsters to become skilled players at our fantastic new facility in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park."

Munday added: "The EHB's desire to host the 2014 World Cups is part of a long term events strategy for hockey to help drive up the profile of our sport across the UK.

"Hosting the 2014 World Cups would provide another opportunity to engage with the 630,000 hockey ticket holders from London 2012 and we are working with the hockey community to prepare for a real increase in participation in our sport."

UK Sport and Events for London will ­inject £980,000 and £500,000 into the event respectively should London host the tournaments and if successful, it will be the first time the men's World Cup has been held in Britain since 1986 when it was hosted at Willesden, North London.

The successful bid will be announced on November 13.

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Exclusive - British boxing promoter behind Olympic Park hockey World Cup bid