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Thursday
18 february 2010
Editor © Muhammad Haque
COMMENTING on the London EVENING STANDARD news item about 2012 Hosting Park in East London and the 'plans ' of David Sullivan, publisher of several pornographic outlets:
Tessa Jowell slaps down West Ham duo over football at Olympic stadium
Matthew Beard, Sports News Correspondent17.02.10
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Tessa Jowell today dealt a blow toWest Ham's proposed move toLondon's Olympic Stadium by insisting that the venue's primary purpose will be to host grand prix athletics.
David Gold and David Sullivan completed a takeover of the Barclays Premier Leaguestrugglers last month and immediately set about looking at ways to improve the club's finances.
The main policy of their rescue bid for the Hammers was to leave Upton Park and move to the 80,000-capacity Olympic Stadium in Stratford.
Officials say the 2012 Games must leave a legacy to athletics in east London and insist that grand prix meetings will be held at the stadium.
Mr Sullivan and Mr Gold would prefer to host matches without having an athletics track around the pitch.
Olympics minister Ms Jowell told Press Association Sport today: “Let's be clear about this. It will be a grand prix athletics stadium because we need one.
"We have made that commitment, that was one of the reasons that we bid to win the Games and so that is a given.”
The Government has set up the Olympic Park Legacy Company to decide the stadium's purpose after 2012.
Ms Jowell criticised the new owners' decision to publicly state that the club was ready to relocate to Stratford, and insisted that any move would have to be sanctioned by the committee.
She said: “I don't think you can jump from a press conference where the new owners sit down and say we'd like to move to the Olympic Stadium to how it might work.
“In order to make sure we maximise the legacy of the park, we have set up the Olympic Park Legacy Company and they will shortly be inviting bids and business plans from any business that wants to apply for a commercial stake in the stadium and if West Ham want to made a bid at that time it will be considered alongside all the others.”
Ms Jowell is in Vancouver to see how it copes with hosting the Winter Olympics. The International Olympic Committee has been criticised for awarding the Games to the city.
Warm weather led to the postponement of some events and the opening day of competition was overshadowed by the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.
But Ms Jowell said: “I think that (Vancouver organising committee) VANOC have done a really wonderful job. Whatever carping there may have been in the British media, it is not reflected here.”
Canada has picked up five medals so far, and Ms Jowell hopes home advantage could bring similar success for Britain in 2012. “The home crowd effect has kicked in here,” she said.
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