London’s Olympic Park has taken on the air of a construction site again, with work under way on a 292 million pound transformation before Britons can use facilities like the swimming pool and cycle trails. Builders in hard hats were on Tuesday dismantling temporary seats towering above the pool where American Michael Phelps won a record 18th Olympic gold in August. However, the failure to settle on a tenant for the centrepiece Olympic Stadium, built at a cost of some 430 million pounds, has taken some of the gloss of a successful Games that silenced the sceptics. Premier League club West Ham United remain the most likely tenant but wrangling over the division of the costs of turning the stadium into one also suited for top-flight football has slowed the process. The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), the public body responsible for the site, is scheduled to discuss the stadium issue again next week and there are hopes that a decision will be announced before the end of the year. However, the LLDC has warned the stadium will not open before 2015, prompting a frustrated UK Athletics Chairman Ed Warner to denounce the delay as a farce. The Olympic Stadium will hold the 2017 World athletics Championships and is on the list of potential venues to host matches during the 2015 rugby World Cup but that deadline is beginning to look tight. The Games cost the British public around 9 billion pounds and spending during the Olympics helped to give a one-off boost to Britain’s struggling economy.
