The OPLC has launched a formal tender process for the £486 million centrepiece of this summer’s Games, along with the Aquatics Centre and the multi-use Copper Box which will host the handball tournament in July and August. The Olympic Stadium will host the 2017 World Athletics Championships and the OPLC last week confirmed that it had received 16 registrations from parties interested in bidding to use the venue after the Games. The Aquatics Centre and the Copper Box are expected to serve over a million visitors a year when they re-open after the Games.

The venues and the Olympic Park will begin to re-open in 2013 after they have been converted to their legacy configuration. Olympic organisers have outlined that they expect the Park to attract 9.3 million visitors a year from 2016. Parties have until March 2 to register their interest in the sponsorship rights, before being invited to submit a proposal. The Legacy Company aims to appoint sponsors in May. “This is a rare opportunity to become part of one of the most exciting new places in the world,” said Andrew Altman, chief executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company.

“Billions of people will see these venues during the Games, and millions more will visit every year,” he added. “We are looking for sponsors who share our vision to create an inclusive Park that promotes healthy living and offers sporting, training and employment opportunities to our local communities. The fact that we aim to appoint sponsors before the Games even start is another example of how London is further ahead in planning legacy than any previous host Olympic city.” In other news, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, confirmed that OPLC chief Baroness Ford would step down after the Games, when a Mayoral Development Corporation assumes responsibility for the legacy of various venues.

In a separate development, Dow has maintained it is fully committed to providing the decorative wrap for the Olympic Stadium despite the ongoing furore surrounding its involvement. The chemicals giant, a TOP partner of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has paid for the wrap but the Indian Olympic Association has demanded that London 2012 terminates the deal because of the company’s links to the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster. Last month Meredith Alexander, a member of the body that oversees the sustainability of the London Olympics, quit in protest at Dow’s involvement, insisting people should be able to enjoy the Games without “a toxic legacy on their conscience”. Dow has consistently denied any responsibility for the disaster that killed up to 25,000 people following a leak at a pesticides factory then owned by Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), a subsidiary of Union Carbide, which has since been bought by Dow.

“It would be great to be controversy free, but as I talk to other sponsors and other parts of the Olympic organisation you realise that over the years the Olympics has been a free platform for organisations and individuals to make their points,” George Hamilton, vice-president for Dow Olympic Operations, told Reuters. “It’s a free country and people are allowed to state their case and then take actions, they are allowed to do that. I can’t speak for what people’s motivations are but it is what it is...this is not going to deter us, we are committed to our Olympic partnership, both in London and future Games and we are committed to delivering technology that makes it the most successful Games in the history of the Olympics.”