The 2012 Aquatics Centre will cater for community and competitive events
sections of the community, including chil- dren.” GLL gyms will be 800 – 1,200sq m, with online sign-up only, self-admission and what Sesnan calls “lightly staffed”.
WINNING OLYMPIC GOLD With legacy at the core of the Olympic mission, Sesnan is justly proud to have won the bid, which he spent most of 2011 spearheading, to operate two Ol- ympic Park venues – the Aquatics Centre and the Multi-Use Arena (better known as the Copper Box). “We bid for both”, he says, “as we believe you need one to subsidise the other.” After the Paralympic Games, when the
London Legacy Development Corpora- tion (LLDC) got the keys to the park, builders began to transform the venues. If it all goes to Sesnan’s plans, the arena will open on 27 July 2013 – a year to the day after the Olympics opening ceremo- ny. The Aquatics centre, where seating will be reduced from 17,500 to 2,500, is scheduled to open at Easter in 2014. Sesnan is naturally enthusiastic about
Issue 4 2012 © cybertrek 2012
“To have these venues is coming of age for us and changes us from local to national. It ups the ante and increases the challenge”
winning Olympic gold. The Aquatics Centre boasts not one, but two, 50m pools – the one that saw the likes of Michael Phelps make Olympic history and the hidden practice pool. Both, along with the 25m diving pool, were designed with moveable floors to en- able the depth to be reconfigured at the touch of a button. “The legacy brief for the Aquatics Cen-
tre was to provide community use and cater for schools, clubs and people with kids at the weekends, as well as to be a tourist attraction and a site for inter- national sporting events,” says Sesnan. “This way, we can make the dive pool 2ft deep and use it for swimming lessons and have an international event going on in the main pools. “We’ll be working with British Swim-
ming and the synchro-swimming, diving and water-polo bodies.”
The Multi-Use Arena is the size of
three sports halls and will be home to the British Basketball League’s London Lions. “It can be used to host rock concerts, community sport and corporate events,” Sesnan explains. “The bleachers are elec- tric-powered and can be moved back and forth to adjust spectator capacity. “Originally we were looking to part-
ner with AEG [US-based owner of the O2 Arena] for this venue,” he says. “But they got involved in the stadium bidding and things got confused. We want to work closely with AEG because a 7,000-seat rock venue seems to fit their family. And it’s newer, shinier and easier to get to than Wembley Arena.” As operator of the Crystal Palace Na-
tional Sports Centre, Sesnan is interested in the outcome of the Olympic stadium wrangle. “We have a 20,000-seat athlet- ics stadium at Crystal Palace, which we
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