Main Olympic stadium could be temporary structure

London 2012's main stadium could be an entirely temporary structure, Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) chief executive David Higgins revealed last week.

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Speaking at NCE's Games Briefing conference in London last Thursday, Higgins also confirmed the decision on a shortlist of stadium builders had been delayed. 'An economic study of what is the best use of the venue post games is currently under way,' said Higgins. 'I don't think anything has been ruled out, and it may be that a completely temporary stadium is the most efficient way of doing it.' In London's bid to host the 2012 Olympics, the main stadium was proposed as an 80,000 seat arena, most of which would be temporary and reduced down to a 25,000 spectator capacity athletics ground after the games. A shortlist of teams bidding to win the design and build contract for the £280M venue was supposed to have been announced last Friday, but Higgins said that decision had been delayed by up to three weeks. One bidding consultant criticised Higgins' comments on the temporary nature of the venue. 'Higgins himself has said he wants a landmark stadium,' he said. 'Well that's not going to be something that is essentially a load of scaffolding.' At the conference Higgins also acknowledged the problems consultants had faced in finding contractors to team up with in bidding for the stadium (NCE 14 September). He said he suspected one of the main reasons putting contractors off bidding for the work was that the design brief had been left so wide open. 'Designing the stadium is a process over the next 12 months,' said Higgins. 'It is clear that it is difficult to tie down organisations when the brief is so much up for grabs.' The list of firms bidding to build London's Olympic City was cut down to two last week. Consortia led by Bouyges and Lend Lease are in the running to build Stratford City, which includes the 2012 Olympic Village, after a consortium lead by the Royal Bank of Scotland failed to make the final lap.