There weren’t supposed to be any events until redevelopment is finished, but now it seems there will be some major concerts before works even start. Stadium managers are a step away from signing lucrative contracts, BBC reports.

No signatures are there yet, but London Legacy Development Company admits talks are ongoing for a series of summer concerts to be held at the Olympic Stadium by July 2013. It turns out promoters are very keen on staging their events at the new venue and LLDC doesn’t want to pass on that opportunity.

Initially it was planned that no events will be held until the redevelopment works are done somewhere in 2015, possibly (tender winners are to need 32 months), but since contractor selection will take a few more months, the planned events will precede any reconstruction work.

Effectively, Olympic Stadium may prove to become serious competition to most popular concert venues in London – Wembley and the O2 Arena. But most of all, it should take some events from Hyde Park that has been host to concerts for decades. In recent years number of events in the park has been cut from 13 to 9 and their scale downsized by even 30,000 people due to rising number of noise complaints. Relocating east may prove a way out for promoters.

The content for summer events at the stadium is to be revealed in upcoming weeks, but the plan is said not to impede talks with West Ham United over football tenancy of the ground. Unofficially it may be used during ongoing negotiations with the club as proof that LLDC won’t run out of event opportunities without the club.