Taxpayers face £2m bill to upgrade Olympic Stadium pitch after London 2012 Games

[richard]

Taxpayers are to face a £2m bill after it was discovered that the pitch inside London's Olympic Stadium is not up to Premier League standards and will have to be ripped up after the 2012 Games at a cost to public funds to allow West Ham or any other club to use the venue in the top flight.

The £486million stadium has been built without the undersoil heating required to stage Premier League matches.

West Ham would have footed the bill of up to £2m to install a new pitch with undersoil heating, but its long-term tenancy agreement was ripped up last year due to legal challenges.

Instead, the Olympic Park Legacy Company has admitted that it will have to pay after the 2012 Games for the transformation of the stadium, which West Ham could end up just renting.

Barry Hearn, the chairman of League One Leyton Orient, has waged a long campaign for his club to play there after the Olympics, but said last week he believes the stadium, with a running track in place, will not be suitable for football.


Source
www.dailymail.co.uk

[1m155 ewe]

£9 bill spent so whats another £2m more

[richard]

Hi 1m155 ewe and welcome to our UNOFFICIAL London 2012 forum.

I agree with you, £2million is chicken feed to our overfed, under-worked politicians, bankers & CEO's of the major corporations, yet I don't see them digging deep into their pockets to pay out this money.

Once again, the sucker taxpayer will be landed with the bill of upgrading the stadium, and why should we be paying out this money when LOCOG is registered as a private company!

It's simply NOT good enough!

[danisking]

£2 million is nothing . Our olympics is going to go down in history!

[richard]

danisking, if £2million (£2,000,000) is nothing, then why don't you pay it?

I thought not.

So why should the UK taxpayer pick up the bill for another £2,000,000 when LOCOG isn't even publicly owned?

This is the problem with UK politics, the numbers are so great. Hey, 1 million, 2 billion, 4 trillion. But the thing is the UK taxpayer is landed with the politicians ego trip. Perhaps if the politicians were forced to pay some of the overseas warmongering, EU, or charity aid bills they might actually cut back on their lavish spending.

Can just see Cameron or Anthony crying their eyes out when presented with a few million pound bills for illegal warmongering and overseas aid - but that's my money they cried. Blaiir, blaiir, blaiir!!!

Quite right, so pay up politicians or shut up. China and Russia have you well sussed.