4:15PM Hammers enter talks on taking over key venue after 2012

West Ham football club is understood to be in talks with the senior Olympic figures regarding taking over the main stadium after the Games. Hammers chairman Terry Brown is believed to have entered serious negotiations with authorities organising 2012.

Sports minister Richard Caborn has been supporting West Ham moving to the stadium but London Mayor Ken Livingston has been advocating downsizing the 80,000-seat venue to a 25,000-seat athletics ground after the Games.

The fate of the stadium after the the Olympics is high on the agenda of the Olympic Delivery Authority, which is focused on the legacy left by the event.

Earlier this week the team to build and design the stadium was named as a Sir Robert McAlpine-led consortium. Meanwhile, plans for 2012 suffered a blow with the resignation of ODA chair Jack Lemley this week.