What nations want from such events - be they the Olympics or international Expos - is an enduring TV image of progress and organization plus a useful afterlife. On that score Richard Rogers' Millennium Dome is turning out to be a pretty good building, despite all the scorn heaped upon it for its erstwhile contents. True, it's not exactly in the same league as the Eiffel Tower of 1889 or the Crystal Palace of 1851, but now it is going to become a 20,000-seat sports and entertainment arena, which is what it always looked like it wanted to be. It was built before its time for the wrong purpose. Now the right one has come along, the deal has been signed. Another wannabe Olympic piece is thus in place: the transformation will have happened by 2007, it is earmarked for gymnastics and suchlike, and it is just across the river (and a few stops down the Jubilee Line) from the vast Lea Valley regeneration project that is intended to be kickstarted by the Olympics. It helps that the Dome looks a bit interesting from the air.

So if London gets the 2012 Olympics, we shall be faced with a paradox. Up in North-West London, Foster/HOK's sparkling new Wembley stadium with its landmark arch will be doing nothing very much except sitting there looking fantastic. While over in the East, the derided yellow-masted Dome by Foster's one-time partner Richard Rogers will have found its true purpose and be a centre of attention again. It's a funny old game.