President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, has told the BBC that London 2012's main stadium does not need an athletics legacy.
According to the broadcaster, Rogge said the main concern for London 2012's organisers should be to avoid leaving behind ‘white elephants’. "If the best solution is to transform the track into something else then we would be in favour of that," he said.
"We had the same situation in Atlanta where the Olympic Stadium was changed into a baseball stadium, which kept an interest for sport," Rogge continued, who also confirmed he would be standing for a second term as IOC president next year.
Rogge’s announcement would appear to mark a shift in IOC policy and open the door for a football club moving to the Stratford venue. It had previously been believed the Lausanne-based organisation wanted London 2012's organising committee (LOCOG) to keep its bid promise about having athletics at the heart of its post-Games plans for the stadium.
However, concerns about the implications of such a promise have grown since 2005 and negotiations with potential "anchor tenants" - professional teams who would make the venue financially viable - have failed to find a solution.
Talks with a number of different London-based football and rugby clubs have been dragging on for some time and the BBC reports that it understands the issue of keeping an athletics presence at the stadium continues to deter potential tenants.
Printer-friendly version