London Olympics 2012: Blancmange All Round
DISAPPOINTMENT for we versed in sporting ceremonies that Seb Coe chose to unveil the London 2012 Olympic Stadium without holding the hand of a small child or wearing stilts.
Not even a dinner of roast beef and three types of vegetables, as Lord Coe, chairman of the Olympic committee, forwent the chance to host the unveiling ceremony at a gala night out in London’s Dorchester Hotel.
Instead, Coe stood in a tent on the spot where the 100 metres will be run and showed us the $500million stadium, with its 80,000 seats.
“It’s a bowl of blancmange,” says the Times Marcus Binney. It’s not. It’s four bowls of blancmange, or tiers, interlaced with the cream of international sport. It is the Telegraph’s “flat-pack” vision for 2012.
The Sun notes that the perimeter of this edifice to sporting glory is 941 yards – “the length of 72 London buses parked nose to tail”. It’s like Oxford Street, only in the round.
And it is reusable. There are 55,000 temporary seats, which will be sold off after the event to anyone who wants some plastic furniture.
The entire venue will be enshrined in a mosaic fabric “wrap”, depicting athletes and flags. The Times says the mesh “could be cut up and made into memorabilia bags after the event”.
And after 17 days, the stadium will be used by someone else. Who? The Times says options include a school, a “skills academy”, a football or rugby club in winter and an athletics club in the summer.
Or a new home for the Millennium Dome…
Pic: Beau Bo D’Or
Posted: 8th, November 2007 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
