Baseball comes to the Oval in London's bid to host Olympics
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Your support makes all the difference.Beach volleyball would be played in Regent's Park and baseball in the Oval cricket ground under new plans for a London bid for the 2012 Olympics, to be unveiled today.
A feasibility study will propose the building of an 80,000 seat stadium in Stratford, east London, to be used afterwards as the home of one of the capital's leading football clubs.
The report, which will be published jointly by the Government, the British Olympic Association (BOA), the London Development Agency and the London Mayor, will offer the first detailed plans for the bid.
Compiled by the engineering consultants Arup, it will suggest that profits of £100m could be made by staging the first British Olympics since the 1948 games. The cost of the event would be about £2bn, but Arup predicts that tourism, job creation and urban regeneration would recoup most of the government investment.
The plans would use Excel, a convention centre in the Docklands, for some events, and could even include use of the Millennium Dome in Greenwich for gymnastics and basketball. Rowing and the triathlon would take place in the former docks near City airport, while tennis would be at Wimbledon. Wembley stadium would also have a role.
Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, will today hail the plans in a joint launch with the BOA, claiming it could speed up plans to introduce better transport links that would help the city in the long term. Crossrail, the scheme to connect the City and Docklands with Heathrow and Paddington with a fast, direct route will be a main part of the proposals.
Some ministers, including Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, have been said to be reluctant to spend government cash on a bid, but others are convinced that it could repeat the success of the Manchester Commonwealth Games this year.
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