David Gold believes West Ham's chances of taking over the Olympic Stadium after the London 2012 Games have improved. The Hammers, under new co-owners Gold and David Sullivan and vice-chairman Karren Brady, have expressed interest in relocating from Upton Park to the 80,000-capacity arena in Stratford.

"I'm sensing an easing of the stance that it should be a legacy to athletics," the Hammers co-owner told BBC Radio Five Live.

"We have to be more pragmatic. Do we want to have a stadium like we have at Crystal Palace which just deteriorated and rotted away because it wasn't sustainable?

"We believe there is a serious possibility that we could strike a deal that would take West Ham to the Olympic Stadium.

"If that can be done, we would have a super stadium that could take the club to the next level."

Gold has even suggested West Ham could build a separate athletics stadium to support their move to the main arena.

"One other possibility is to abandon the athletics idea altogether and maybe build a small athletics stadium that can be used forever," he said.

"Not as an Olympic athletics stadium but a regional stadium with seating facility commensurate to their requirements, which would be about 5,000."