Crystal Palace's hopes of a move to a new stadium been have boosted after West Ham were voted as preferred bidders for the Olympic Stadium. The English Championship side have expressed a preference for a move to the National Sports Centre.

UK Athletics had backed Palace's plans to leave their Selhurst Park home but only if both the NSC and the Olympic Stadium retained their running tracks.

West Ham's successful bid included the retention of the athletics track, meaning both provisions can now be met.

That would make the Olympic Stadium at Stratford the primary athletics venue, allowing the NSC to downsize its offering and not have a running track within its new stadium structure.

"The aim is a 40,000-seater stadium and to try and give something to the community, so we want to make the NSC a centre of excellence for all athletes," Palace chairman Steve Parish told BBC London.

"What UK Athletics would like, and what we're very open to, is a new athletics track that will sit somewhere behind the NSC itself with a very small grandstand to host regional athletics events.

"There will be a whole host of sports that will be supported in that environment for the region, so the football stadium will be as well as, not instead of (athletics facilities)."