London 2012 Basketball Arena May Be Sold to Rio for 2016 Games

The arena for the London 2012 Olympic basketball and handball competitions may be sold for use at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, the Olympic Delivery Authority said today.

The white cube-shaped stadium in the Olympic Park may be sold for less than the 30 million pounds ($47 million) it cost to build the temporary venue, ODA Chairman John Armitt said in an interview today. The Authority may also sell some seating at the Aquatics Centre for the 2016 Games in Brazil.

The 12,000-seat stadium in London’s east end took 15 months to build and will be used for wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball after the Games. To save money, the city is constructing temporary venues or using existing ones, such as Horse Guards Parade for the beach volleyball competition.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Spillane in London at cspillane3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Blackman at ablackman@bloomberg.net.