What a very English way to look at the Olympic Games. In China, it's an opportunity to showcase their new position in the world order. In Greece it's an opportunity to catalyse development. Only in England could the prospect of having the Olympics be 'the kiss of death' or 'a total waste of money'. I hope I'm not alone in having a true sense of excitement for what 2012 will bring. I don't care how much it costs, or what the Stadium will look like - we must make the most of the opportunity to create an lasting experience, and generate a lasting legacy to Sport in our country.

Dale Bilson, Repton, Derbyshire

The design lacks imagination. Yet this is claimed to adhere to the criteria that it must be a legacy for the future. Turning the Olympic Stadium into Leyton Orients' home is most certainly not a legacy, but a complete waste of time.
The cost is rising out of hand. There are very few companies tendering for the builds due to government intervention - all I can think about is the Dome - that waste of money was a disgrace. But at least Blair got a ring side seat to a sham of a British performance. Compare the Dome to the display Sydney put on - at a fraction of the cost.
I was ecstatic when we won the vote . . . now all I feel is worry. We will be embarrassed beyond belief.
And as for a show for the UK - only if you live in Lonon and work for the Labour party . . .

john, preston, uk

Remember the DOME ?

Bernard Parke, GUILDFORD,

An unfunny comedy of errors; flawed concept, flawed location, flawed sport and now a flawed design. London was the kiss of death; ridiculous expense to produce another mothballed legacy for the nation.

Mike Collins, ECCLES, UK

I think the whole Olympic games is a total waste of money,if at the end of it we do not have better sport facillities all around the country,and as no one seems to want the stadium after the games,why not build something that can be knocked down afterwards.

C Roberts, London,

I just think that with so many needs in the world, to waste a load of money on these kind of events is "colective irresponsability"! First of all!!!
Second, and last, if there is NO WAY of avoiding this needless expenditure, it should be at least something special and not just one more massive structure waiting to age so it can be demolished... The design & tecnology to serve the purpose it's built for should the first concern on the conception of it. And the second concern should be the use after-olympics(...) A project that satisfies these two points would be much better...

Helder Esteves, Liverpool, ENGLAND

It looks like a stadium to me, which is what it is supposed to be.

Carl Teper, Jerusalem, ISRAEL

I love sport but this is just yet another waste of money ! while they are closing hospitals etc and services are being cut,
also what a perfect time for the terrorists to create havoc

Andy, pulborough, sussex

The only sports on BBC are; ping pong, bowls, show jumping, athletics, cross country etc , and all have the same thing in common. No other TV company can be bothered to bid for them because the general public have have no interest in these sports. There is not an athletic meeting in the country that attracts any spectators apart from the contestants parents, boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses or children. Every stadium is nearly always empty. Staging the Olympics is a complete waste of public money. It is just an ego trip for the great and the good and an opportunity to jump on the gravy train.

sid greenstreet, london,

So what's going to happen to the stadium once the games are over? Seems like a bit of a waste of money to me!

Jen, Bournemouth,

i reckon the uk olympics will cost us £20bn in the end. a waste of good money if you ask me.

billsmith, congleton, uk

Whatever it looks like, let' just get it built and functioning efficiently in time for the Games. The fat cats aren't building for the future - how many of the olympic structures do you think will be standing and in use a couple of years after the games are over?

Serena Allen, Bristol, UK

How can anybody say that this isnt the best stadium in the planet? They would have to be off their rockers! This has everything ... loads of seats, it's got catering, and floodlights so that it can be used at nighttime too. People are just saying it should look lovely and stuff like that, but that's just cos they never won the olympics like we did.

paul, waterloo,

Its actually a very clever design... the spectators perspective from inside the stadium will be astonishing... the roof supports will be unseen as it is cantilevered over the bowl... plus it looks quite a low level scheme so all onlookers will be closer to the action..
this isn't the guggenheim!

dan, london,

As long as it is not too costly and the environment is not largely affected by the huge amount of energy it takes constructing it and the amount of electricity used for lighting it then go ahead with it. I wonder, was the environment taken into consideration???

The design itself is not original by any means. I think someone made a good sales pitch.

SM, Vancouver,

I don't care what it looks like. Does it function in the manner that the designers intended? That's the point. - Peter Day, Doncaster, UK/ Yorkshire

Why don't you care about beauty Peter? Do you not care about the effect of the built environment on people? Why function only? Why can't you consider one can have form and function together?

Laura Roberts, London, UK

Absolulety brilliant

C. Donaghy, Toronto, Canada

I don't care what it looks like. Does it function in the manner that the designers intended? That's the point.

Peter Day, Doncaster, UK/ Yorkshire

It's nothing more than a prefab which isgoing to be dismantled ater the games and, with a fabric exterior, it has millenium dome undertones. How embarassing; why are we being implored to show our pride in a building that, so far, reminds me of litte more than the flimsy little sheds in my first school?

D B, Southampton, UK

HOK? Well what on earth did you expect? Arrogance (they surely are the most arrogant-with-no-reason-to-be architects on this planet), ignorance, no design talent whatsoever, and a frightening ability to churn out the same old same old. They and Peter Cook - as someone else pointed out who gets PAID by HOK to be one of their consultants anyway so he was hardly going to criticise or change anything they do - have succeeded in embarassing the UK profoundly by this load of architectural tripe.

NB, London, UK

Its just a pale imitation of a coliseum.........how much will remain in that run down area after the Games that is not bio degradeable....due for dismanteling.....or up for redevelopment? Logo was no go and this....tsk

lisaxian, london, england

The problem with this stadium starts and ends with the two main characters behind its design, Rod Sheard and Peter Cook.

The former is an arrogant Australian philistine convinced of his own greatness yet so bereft of culture or design flair that it beggers belief he was entrusted with such an important commissionin the first place.

The later is an old has been who did some interesting drawings in the 60's but has spent the last 40 odd years in academia as he couldn't cut it in the real world of architecture. His only building to date is the appalling glass blob in Austria which boggles the mind in its inappropriateness and poor design.

Beijing's stadium is likely to leave an indelible imprint on the worlds memory following the 2008 Olympics, it is a magnificent expression of a countrys pride, ambition and culture. Picked as the winning design from an international competition, its authors weren't lazy in its conception like the default winning consortium lead by HOK.

Peter Phile, London, UK

It is a lifeless soup bowl and nothing to be proud of. The UK has some of the most creative design talent in the world and needs to use this opportunity to showcase it. With all the experience in building stadia-Millennium Stadium, Wembly, Emirates etc., we have the experience to keep costs down so we should challenge are architects. There is nothing about this bowl that will leave a lasting image in the collective memories of the world, they do not care that we can remove the top sections after the event. Come on UK, you can do better that that.

Manda, New York, NY

You'd think the debacle over the logo would have taught the organisers that revealing what bits of the Olympics will look like in the manner of unveiling the Holy Grail just encourages everyone to point out it's all a bit crap. Who cares what it looks like from the outside? It's the atmosphere that matters.

More pertinent is why we are spending half a billion quid, at least, on a 25,000-capacity athletics arena that isn't good enough for West Ham?

Liam McMonagle, St Monans, Fife

You would have thought they had learned the lesson of the dome fiasco. Buildings on the whole are erected to provide the client with a bespoke environment for specific purposes.
It should be renamed Dome MK2.

philip, Ipswich,

I've never heard of such a farce to be brutally honest! Why was the new wembley not prepared to stage such an event? Why must the government throw taxpayer's money at a venue that will be properly used once, then be trodden when fallen rock bands want to stage a comeback tour?! Spend the money on the NHS or on putting real mechanisms in place for renewable energy to reduce our carbon footprint. A bit of sense PLEASE!

Kenny Jones, Edinburgh,

It would look far better if it was in Paris with France footing the bill for what will end up as yet another white elephant.

Philip Moore, Birmingham, UK

What elation.

I was totally depressed. I was positive it would cost us a fortune well beyond the quoted figure, not improve sport throughout the country and make cronies rich.

Bad Bad Bad

And who cares what other countries think about the Olympics? As a nation our behaviour in practically every other facit of the world stage is deplorable, I am worried about that!

Rex, Christchurch, Dorset

We never win any medals because our athletes cant afford to train, no young athletes are up and coming because the Govt is selling all the school playing fields, and as for benefitting from the stadium in the future, we heard the same thing about the dome, what a farce that was. We all know the script, corruption, peerages, 3 times the original cost, pockets lined, same old same old, but pity the people who live in the area, their poll (oops) council tax will surely rise and rise over the next few years to pay for yet another monumental waste of time

chris, hereford, uk

It looks pretty good to me. London is awash with large stadia, we can't have another massive one empty all the time. Twickenham and Wembley will take all the big occassions. The only shame is that West Ham doesn't want it, presumably because of the loss of atmos with the running track. Have they not seen the Rome derby?!
As for the snipers - Canada you made a complete pig's ear of your chance. Wales and New Zealand - your only claim to fame was rugby and now you're both useless at that.

Mark, Liverpool,

Very boring image.

Urgently requires some flair!

An indictment on the UK

Garry Treleaven, Waikanae, New Zealand

surely we could have come up with something iconic

Dave , West Byfleet,

Surely we have something better to spend our money on?
This island is becoming far too overcrowded.or am I the only person who can see this???

David pope, Chertsey, England

It's just plain ugly.

JOHN CHUCKMAN, TORONTO, Canada

No doubt it will be unwanted after the farce. We only got the Olympics because Blair lied better than the French. Think how much all this wasted money could have been used to encourage sport in the UK. What a waste. Still it is making some of Blair's mates rich.

Rex, Christchurch, Dorset

What the hell is that? It's a trifle, it's a gas container, it's a complete monstrosity! It's like a prison, it's so inward-looking, it doesn't reach out to the wider Olympic Park, or community if we're talking legacy architecture, at all. What happened to the other design that I thought we were getting? I look at this and just want to run some Toilet Duck round the rim.

HG, London, UK

What does it matter what I think!
In this country only the politicians decide things.
And they dont care what the people who elected them think.

Kevin, coventry, england

If they ever have an Olympics event for moaning the English/British will win it every time. It stunning that anybody with an ounce of self drive would ever want to do anything in Britain, why should they, they get nothing but flak.

Ian, Toronto, Canada

If you WANT london to have stadium that is so large and fantastic that it is never filled then go ahead and rant! Personally I am so glad that the first thing they talk about is legacy, the olympics is around for 2 weeks, the lea valley development will be going on for years to come and will benefit thousands of people. The beijing stadium is beautiful but at what a price! London has no need to prove to the western world how expensive and modern it can be, it has a more interest in the reality of what that staium will do for london in 2013. Surely that is a good thing!! I am so disappointed that people in britain are so qick to sneer at a projec that is elegant and sensible!!!

Laura, London,

this will make the dome look like a bargain...
yeah yeah good for uk image, gives young kids an very near impossibe chance while the rest of us wave the flag and pay through the nose.
they're so many desperate needs in the uk that, to me, this wasting of billions is sick...

Tim Blair, Peterborough, UK, CAMB'S

"What has happened to the British where has our pride gone"

Isn't that the point Marcus is making, we should expect better than this. This is an opportunity to showcase the best of British architecture and engineering, something to be truly proud of, this design patently fails. As for 'legacy' surely an 80,000 seat stadium with a host club be it football, rugby or cricket in place would be far preferable to demolishing a world class facility. What has gone wrong with the successful City of Manchester stadium model?

We already have a 25,000 seat athletic facility in this country, in a similar situation, it's called the Don Valley stadium in Sheffield. It offers a vision of the future of this project, a white elephant that is rarely used and hardly ever filled.

Hirsty, Doncaster,

' Ken Livingstone proclaimed: “This will be the best stadium ever constructed anywhere on the planet." '

As I often wonder, what planet is this twit living on?

A completely uninspirational design. No context except a complete lack of of design intelligence from the ODA and HOK Sport. Huge failure.

Laura Roberts, London, UK

One more success for the Taffia!
Completely confusing the English into arguing over a daft design that will never come in on budget and probably some time in 2050.
There will be only one option. To come begging to the WRU to use the millenium stadium in Cardiff.
And you sensible prople think I'm joking don't you?
Those that don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it's mistakes. I seem to remember something about a football stadium with unavoidable delays not so long ago......

J D S, Cardiff, Wales UK

What has happened to the British where has our pride gone why must we alway always critisize - it started with the logo and now its the stadium............. what happened to the elation of winning the 2012 Olympics!

What does this attitude give to other countries who love to critisize us as a nation.

As for the 'drama of the torch' descending or entering it is important but a minor aspect of 'the games' its the games themselves which will be the feature and I am sure this stadium with prove to be magnificent as will the athletes.

Joan Mitford, Oakham,