London Press on Despite Rogge's Blessing to Lose Athletics Legacy

The organizers of the London Olympics yesterday insisted they intend to keep an athletics track in the main stadium after 2012 despite a statement from Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, that it could be removed to prevent the facility becoming a "white elephant".

In an apparent change of IOC policy, Rogge indicated that the stadium could become a football ground with no athletics track.

"If the best solution is to transform the track into something else then we would be in favor of that," he said in Brussels. "We had the same situation in Atlanta where the Olympic stadium was changed into a baseball stadium which kept an interest for sport. We don't want to leave white elephants."

Games organizers in London said it was late to "go back to the drawing board" and redesign the stadium so the track could be easily replaced with seats, allowing it to be converted into a football stadium.

"We said in our bid submission that we would provide a stadium legacy 'with athletics at its heart'," a spokeswoman said. "That was our bid commitment and that is what we are delivering." She added that the organizers were as determined as Rogge to avoid the east London stadium becoming a white elephant.

Maintaining a permanent top-flight track and field facility is an ambition for Lord Coe, the chairman of the London Organizing Committee of the Olympics, but a use has yet to be found for the stadium after 2012. One of the most financially attractive could be leasing or selling the arena to a Premier League football club. Talks took place with West Ham and Tottenham but no agreement could be reached, partly because of the existence of the athletics track. The London Development Agency, charged with finding a legacy use for the arena, is understood to be searching for an athletics tenant, such as UK Athletics or sports clubs.

Rogge said the IOC would not mind if the London organizers wanted to sidestep their commitment to the Olympic movement that athletics will form part of the legacy of the £496m stadium.

The shift in policy comes amid growing financial pressures on the London 2012 games and could open the door to a redesign for the stadium to allow seats to be built over the running track, making it more attractive to football clubs, who want their fans to be close to the pitch.

Selling or leasing the stadium to a football club would recoup funds at a time when the government is facing a bill to bail out the Olympic village, which could run into hundreds of millions of pounds.