With the sheer amount of media coverage and the influx of spectators during the games, pursuing hosting the Olympics is often a goal for major cities around the world. However, the road to becoming an Olympic city is often a long and expensive one. World-class athletes, after all, need world class venues in which to compete, and the Olympic’s prestige means that competition for attracting the games is always tight. And for the 2012 Games, London certainly did pull out all the stops in creating a stunning venue for arguably one of the greatest games on Earth. But after the games are over and the spectators and cameras have gone home, what happens to these massive structures?
Sporting Bids
It’s clear that no matter what happens to the Olympics facilities, sporting events stand to continue being a large part of the stadium’s future. Due to its state of the art facilities, the stadium saw quite a number of bids from athletic organisations. The bidders included a handful of cricket clubs, the London Wasps and London Skolars rugby teams, West Ham United and Leyton Orient F. C. and even the FIFA World Cup for 2022. Two of the stranger bids came from Major League Baseball and the National Football League of America, both of which were looking to establish a base for games in Europe.
Change of Plans
In the end, on 11 February 2011, the OPLC finally selected the West Ham United and Newham Council bid to take over the stadium, despite Leyton Orient putting in a formal complaint that the stadium was too close to their own grounds, making it against regulation. However, this victory was short lived as the deal would collapse 11 October 2012 and the stadium would once again be up for bidding. At the moment, West Ham are back in the running, and Live Nation has stepped up to the plate, proposing music concerts to help the OPLC take financial advantage of the stadium. The close proximity of numerous hotels in London, as well as other facilities catering to the Olympics crowd, have clearly made it extremely attractive to a wide number of organisations.
However, the bidders are far from the only parties interested in using the stadium again. London ended up hosting the most successful Paralympics to date, including sold-out crowds of 80,000 for every session, which makes the venues attractive to other sports organisations. In fact, the International Paralympics Committee is planning to use the venue again in 2017 for the IPC Athletics World Championships. The International Association of Athletics Federations is also on board for using the stadium for its track and field trials.