The big day has finally arrived - at 9pm the London 2012 Olympics officially gets underway. And while the clocks counting down to the Games across London are now running in hours and minutes rather than days, only the clock at the London Legacy Development Corporation is different. Its countdown runs to the end of the Paralympics in September when the LLDC takes over the park from LOCOG.
While the world's press focuses on the Games themselves, this blog will continue to focus on legacy - just as it has over the last three years.
And, perhaps uniquely, over the next fortnight I'll be looking at the venues, rather than the athletes.
To mark the start of the Games I'll start today with a look at the showpiece arena of the Games - the main stadium.
Official Name: London's Olympic Stadium
Capacity: 80,000
Cost: £496m
* The venue will host the £27m opening ceremony tonight in front of an estimated global TV audience 4 billion.
* The venue is now the official home of UK Athletics.
* After the Games it will undergo a £100m conversion into a 60,000-seat multi use stadium.
* It will host the 2017 World Athletics Championships.
The London Legacy Development Corporation has shortlisted 4 bids to become legacy occupiers of the stadium - West Ham United, Leyton Orient, Intelligent Transport Services in association with Formula One and UCFB College of Football Business.
West Ham United is the frontrunner but as with any Olympic event victory for the favourite is never assured.
Leave a comment
What a user pic? Get a Gravatar!