Demolition is underway; Olympic Stadium construction is scheduled to begin by the middle of next year. (Getty Images)Olympic Stadium Gets a Wrap
London 2012’s Olympic Stadium is to feature a fabric wrap that will enclose the seating bowl and display artwork.
“We are looking at creating some sort of fabric wrap that will go around the seating and enclose the stadium,” an Olympic Delivery Authority source told Around the Rings.
The design of the $1 billion showpiece venue due next month will reveal further details on plans to use the exterior wrap as a canvas for sponsorship and Olympic images.
“We are working very hard on how we can create a good atmosphere around the stadium so it doesn’t look like a temporary structure,” the ODA official said.
Concerns over whether the stadium roof should provide full cover for spectators appear to have been addressed. To reduce costs, the design is expected to feature a roof covering only two-thirds of the venue’s 80,000 capacity.
Wind modeling studies found that a partial roof will reduce the chance of winds rendering sprint and jump world records invalid.
Team McAlpine, the design consortium comprising architects HOK Sport structural engineer Buro Happold and contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, are currently finalizing the stadium plans.
After the Games, the venue will be downsized to 25,000 seats to fulfill athletics legacy ambitions.
The Olympic Board is due to approve the design at a meeting later this month. It will be signed off by the four board members who include Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, London mayor Ken Livingstone, British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moynihan and LOCOG chair Sebastian Coe.
The design is expected to go public in the first weeks of November.
Planning permission for the Olympic Park was granted this week, allowing the ODA to push ahead with the construction of Games venues.
Work on the Olympic Stadium site is accelerating with nearly half the buildings demolished, temporary bridges being installed and the removal of around 600,000 tons of soil from the site underway.
New Sponsors Tipped for 2012
British Airways and BT could become the next major sponsors for London 2012.
Reports in the British media say the national carrier is close to inking a multimillion dollar deal, joining Lloyds TSB, EDF Energy and Adidas as a top tier partner for the Games. The partnerships may be worth as much as $160 million.
A report in the London Evening Standard newspaper said that Virgin and Emirates had dropped out of the running for the sponsorship, leaving BA as the most likely candidate to fill the airline category.
Meanwhile, BT is tipped to fill the vacant telecommunications slot. Like BA, the telecoms company was a premier partner of the London 2012bid and played a prominent role in the campaign.
During the 2012 bid race a huge ‘Back the Bid’ message was projected onto the 580-foot BT Tower in London’s West End.
A BT spokesman declined to comment on whether sponsorship negotiations were taking place with Olympic organizers, but told ATR: “It is the type of thing we would be interested in.”
After securing Adidas for sportswear last month, LOCOG wants to fill the other tier one sponsorship categories before Beijing 2008. Deals are expected for oil and gas, automotive, telecommunications, airline, and clothing and homeware.
A LOCOG spokesman would not comment on sponsor speculation. “The sponsorship categories are still open but the aim is to have at least one more partner The Aquatics Centre will be one of the showplace venues in the Olympic Park. (BOCOG)by the end of the year,” he said.
Builder for Pool Project
The Olympic Delivery Authority has confirmed that Balfour Beatty will build the Aquatics Centre for the London Games.
German builder Hochtief pulled out of the tender process Wednesday, saying it was unable to commit the building resources to the Zaha Hadid-designed project after taking on substantial new work in the Middle East.
Hochtief’s withdrawal comes just a week after French contractor Eiffel dropped out of the competition due to a contract dispute with the ODA.
Balfour Beatty, the company responsible for the new Heathrow Terminal 5, will start construction work next year.
Ohuruogu Possible for Ambassador Role
A decision on whether Britain’s 400m world champion Christine Ohuruogu will become a London 2012 ambassador is not expected until after the Beijing Games. Christine Ohuruogu at the Golden Grand Prix in Shanghai in September. (Getty Images)
Speaking on BBC radio this week, LOCOG chair Sebastian Coe did not rule out the possibility of Ohuruogu becoming one of London’s ambassadors.
Ohuruogu struck gold in Osaka but she is currently appealing a lifetime ban from the Olympics handed down by the British Olympic Association for missing three out-of-competition drugs tests.
The 23-year-old is hoping the BOA will remove the ban at an appeals panel later this month, which will allow her to participate at the Beijing Olympics.
Ohuruogu was billed as London 2012’s ‘poster girl’ before her one-year suspension from track competition by UK Athletics and the automatic Olympics ban that came with it.
A London 2012 official told ATR that the ambassador program would not be launched until after next year’s Games.
With reporting from the UK by Mark Bisson
mark@aroundtherings.com
Homepage photo by Getty Images
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