West Ham have teamed up with Newham Council in a bid to become tenants of the Olympic Stadium after 2012.
The Barclays Premier League club were among those to make their interest known today as the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) began accepting proposals for the £537million venue.
In a joint statement, the football club and council said they were working together on plans for the stadium, aiming to ensure ‘it provides a viable and lasting legacy’ after the Olympic Games.
West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady said: ‘We are very excited to be working with Newham and are already bursting with some fantastic and innovative ideas.
‘West Ham United is a people's club at the heart of its community and, like the Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales and the council, we want to grab this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a real, life-changing legacy - not just for this part of London, but for the wider area as well.
‘It's about realising the full potential of the Olympic Park. As well-established local organisations, Newham Council and West Ham United are best placed to make it happen.
‘If achievable it is the ideal answer for those who, rightly, demand a sustainable legacy from the 2012 Games and not a white elephant.
‘We acknowledge the need for the stadium to host world-class athletics and so it should. But it can accommodate football, too - and a whole lot more. There has to be a way of achieving that.’
West Ham's new co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan took over the cash-strapped club this year and immediately confirmed their interest in relocating to the 80,000-capacity Olympic Stadium as they try to improve the club finances.
The OPLC has given bidders eight weeks to finalise their proposals, which can be anything from sporting, community, education, visitor attraction and commercial uses - for the site in Stratford, east London.
This period of ‘soft market testing’, to filter out the viable and realistic bids, could be extended by four weeks depending on whether any of the proposals need further investigation, the OPLC said.
The future use of the stadium will be settled by March 2011.
Andrew Altman, chief executive of the OPLC which is in charge of planning, developing and managing the Olympic Park, said: ‘The Olympic Stadium is a truly iconic structure that should be a focal point for sport and community-led events including schools, clubs and creative and social enterprises.
‘A successful stadium legacy is vital to the company's long-term aspirations for the Olympic Park.
‘We want to provide local people with significant improvements in health and well-being, education, skills and training, job opportunities, cultural entitlements, housing, social integration and environment.’
After the Games the stadium is due to be reduced to a 25,000-seat venue with an athletics track.
Football would need the capacity to range from 25,000 to 60,000 depending on the size of the club fan base.
The Olympic Stadium has also been named as a possible venue for inclusion in England's 2018 World Cup bid.
The Football Association will make a final decision on whether the stadium is to be formally included in the bid by May of this year. FIFA will take a final decision on who hosts the 2018 World Cup in December.
The OPLC confirmed that interest has come from UK Athletics (UKA) whose long-standing aim is for the stadium to become the national venue for track and field, hosting events such as the IAAF Diamond League and various national championships.
UKA also wants to host international events such as the World Championships and European Championships there.
Parts of the Olympic Stadium have already been earmarked as a possible place to base a high-performance strength and conditioning suite with physiotherapy and rehabilitation areas.
There have been ‘high-level discussions’ with both the Rugby Football Union and cricket organisers who are interested in the stadium.
The 2015 Rugby World Cup has been discussed with rugby officials while cricket has raised the prospect of Twenty20 matches, the document confirms.
Talks have also been held with US sports organisers on using the stadium for American football and baseball games.
Organisers of mass participation road running races have also said ‘there would be strong demand’ to use the stadium.
Having a Grand Prix athletics track at the stadium was one of the pledges made to the International Olympic Committee when London won the right to host the Games. It is a promise that must be kept, London 2012 chair Lord Coe, OPLC chair Baroness Ford and Olympics minister Tessa Jowell have all said.
Baroness Ford has said the door is not closed on it being a multi-purpose venue, saying there seems to be no reason why football and athletics could not exist together in the stadium.
The OPLC said today: ‘The legacy company has been reviewing all legacy plans as part of its set-up. This includes the optimum capacity and use of the Olympic Stadium, as well as the further development of the legacy masterplan framework - an overarching spatial plan for the Olympic Park site.’
Considering that the showpiece venue sits inside the Olympic Park, which is designed to drive regeneration in a deprived east London region, it must be more than an ‘occasionally open sports facility’, the OPLC said.
After the 2012 Games, the park is being designed to include waterways, a legacy of Olympic sports and family neighbourhoods.
