2012 Olympic Park Venues Reshuffled

The International Olympic Committee has approved a reshuffle of some of the venues planned for the London 2012 Olympic Park – a restructure seen by some as a move to reduce spiralling costs.

LOCOG, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, has announced that the IOC Executive Board has approved four design changes to the Olympic Park to enhance legacy usage after 2012 – in essence avoiding the creation of ‘white elephants’.

Fencing, which was to be held in a temporary venue on the Olympic Park, will move into ExCeL London  – already an Olympic venue for Boxing, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Weightlifting and Wrestling, and for Paralympic Boccia, Table Tennis, Power-Lifting and Wheelchair Basketball.

The temporary venue for basketball will also now move from the southern end of the park to the northern end of the park.

The BMX venue will move a small distance and now be adjacent to the Velodrome, putting the venue in its final legacy position, with no need to take it down and rebuild it after the Games.

Finally the Handball Arena will be re-oriented to make sure it leaves a strong post-Games legacy. Extensive research has shown the need for flexible sports space in order to leave a good legacy facility for multiple sports to use.

The Handball finals will now take place in the 12,000 seat basketball venue on the Olympic Park – increasing the number of seats available for spectators to watch the handball finals.

Media speculation has cited that the structural changes have come amid fears that the construction costs of the Olympic Park have risen too steeply and that the Games’ £2.7bn contingency fund will be eaten into as a result.

The initial budget for the 500-acre Olympic Park in Stratford had been set at £1.07bn with the bulk of the costs attributed to the construction of the Olympic Stadium, the Aquatics Centre and the Velodrome.