17/07/2012
NEWS STORY
An ambitious plan to host a Formula One race in and around the Olympic Stadium is one of several bids being considered by the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC).
The LLDC, which is charged with the task of finding a suitable use for the venue after the Olympics, has revealed that an F1 race is one of several uses being considered, along with bids from the football clubs West Ham and Leyton Orient, as well as University College of Football Business, an affiliate of Bucks New University.
An LLDC statement read: "Following an extension to the bidding period, the Legacy Corporation can today reveal it has received four bids for the venue.
"Bids from West Ham United, Intelligent Transport Services in association with Formula One, UCFB College of Football Business and Leyton Orient will now be assessed to ensure they are compliant before being evaluated ahead of negotiations."
While Bernie Ecclestone has made no secret of his desire to see F1 cars on the streets of London, albeit with some of the capital city's most iconic landmarks as a backdrop as opposed to the featureless, soulless wasteland that is Stratford, he told Reuters that were the necessary permissions and funding in place he would consider it.
"If they were to get permission to do it, then we would be more than happy to do something with them," he said. "But we have nothing to do with putting in a bid."
The people behind the Olympic Stadium bid are the mysterious Intelligent Transport Solutions Ltd, which, as Pitpass recently revealed, has only been trading for just over a year and none of its directors appear to have been previously involved with sports-related businesses.
"This is a firm that happened to be bidding for use of the stadium, not to own it," Ecclestone told Pitpass business editor Chris Sylt at the time. "They came up with a scheme whereby Formula One would race around the stadium, inside it, outside it. They wanted to make sure I would be interested."
With the Olympics already making the headlines for all the wrong reasons, there are widespread fears that the stadium will become a White Elephant, a previous plan to sell the facility to Tottenham Hotspur failing and West Ham's previous bid falling apart.