When asked which stadium might form the centrepiece of any northern Olympic bid, Nandy said, “the study will look at identifying all of the potential sites that we’re going to need…there are particular challenges around some of the athletics facilities, but actually these are things that any government should be addressing anyway, and an Olympic bid gives us the opportunity to do that.”
“The reality of the current financial context is that we want to work with what infrastructure already exists”, said Nandy. “There is good infrastructure across the north of England, but it needs to be upgraded…You only need to look at some of the amazing infrastructure that we’re building, like the new Everton stadium, to see exactly what we can do here.”
In an effort to reduce costs and the need for spending on new infrastructure, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is known to be more open to multi-city or regional bids.
“We’ve got to prove to them that we can do this in the north of England” said Nandy. “I believe that we can, though, and we’re deadly serious about making it happen.”
The government also announced the launch of the ‘Stadium Regeneration Accelerator’. The project will see it working with sports bodies like the Premier League and English Football League on infrastructure development projects, such as stadiums, “that have the potential to regenerate their surrounding areas.”
