AEG In New Olympic Bids

It failed with soccer team Tottenham Hotspur in a joint bid to move into London’s new Olympic Stadium, but AEG is still interested in operating the handball arena and aquatics centre.

Both venues are on the same 500-acre park as the stadium and AEG reportedly sees the 6,000-capacity handball venue as the main revenue earner.

It would become London’s third-largest indoor arena and the Olympic Park Legacy Company is already touting it as a “mini O2 Arena,” which could have uses varying from badminton and boxing to concerts and large Asian weddings.

It would help subsidise the aquatics centre, which would probably be run at a loss by a subcontractor appointed by AEG.

The OPLC has packaged the potentially lucrative handball arena with the aquatics centre. The pool complex, which cost £300 million and is to be finished next month, will be reduced in capacity from 17,500 to 2,500 seats with two pools and a diving pool.

But cost-cutting changes to the Zaha Hadid-designed complex mean there will be little room for leisure facilities that would help the venue pay its own way.

Slides and flumes cannot fit under the undulating roof and gymnasium space is minimal.

The OPLC has pledged to divide use of the pool between elite swimmers and the local community.

AEG and Tottenham lost out to West Ham United partnered by Live Nation in the battle for the stadium, although the decision is still subject to a legal challenge.