LONDON, Nov 7: Detailed plans for the main stadium of the London 2012 Olympics were unveiled on Wednesday, an 80,000-seat showcase arena which will be at the heart of the Games in five years’ time.

The 496 million pound (710 million euro, 1.04 billion US dollar) structure, which will dominate the centre of the Olympic Park in east London, is being billed as a stadium for a new Olympic age.

“In unveiling today’s images I want that to be the unveiling of a journey for the next five years,” said former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe, head of the London 2012 organising committee, at a press conference. “The stadium is a stadium for a completely new era.”

After the Games are over the stadium’s design allows for it to be reduced to a 25,000-seat arena, to be used by the local community and others for years afterwards.

English Premier League football side West Ham United were mooted as possible future tenants for the new stadium but many teams dislike playing in an athletics stadium because the track distances them from spectators.

The upper parts of the structure are designed to be removed, including a roof which will provide protection from the weather for two-thirds of the seats during the London Games.

The London Olympics are helping to revive a deprived part of the city, and the permanent stadium will be a key part of that.

“It’s a stadium that will be inspiring, it will be a stadium that will have a lasting legacy,” said Coe.

Critics have highlighted the ballooning budget since London won with its bid for the 2012 Olympics in Singapore in July 2005. The stadium price tag was put at 280 million pounds at that time.

But Coe said: “It’s a stadium that delivers on everything that we said we would deliver on in Singapore... a stadium that will be reduced from 80,000 seats in Olympic mode to a 25,000-seater community based arena. It has to go on delivering,” he said.—AFP