London Stadium Capacity, Tickets, Seating Plan, Records, Location, Parking
The London Stadium, also known as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, is a multi-purpose stadium in Stratford, London, England. The stadium was originally built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics and was later converted for use as the home ground of the West Ham United football club.
Ground preparation for the stadium began in mid-2007, and construction officially began on May 22, 2008. The stadium held its first public event in March 2012, serving as the finish line for a celebrity race organized by the National Lottery. Seating 80,000 for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, it reopened in July 2016 with 66,000 seats, but with a football capacity limited to 60,000 under the terms of the lease. The decision to make West Ham United the main tenant was controversial and the initial leasing process had to be re-run.
The stadium hosted the 2017 IAAF World Championships and the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships (the first time both events had been held at the same venue in the same year). It hosts one round of the IAAF Diamond League each year, known as the London Grand Prix, sometimes called the London Anniversary Games. It also hosted several matches of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
The stadium can also host concerts with up to 80,000 spectators, and due to its oval shape and relocatable seats, it was considered to have the potential to host other sports such as baseball and cricket. In June 2019, it hosted the first Major League Baseball USA regular season game in Europe, in which the Boston Red Sox played a two-game series against the New York Yankees.
| Built In: | 22 May 2008 |
| Capacity: | 66,000 |
| Home Teams: | West Ham United |
| Ground Size: | (114.8 yd × 74.4 yd) |
London Stadium History
Design Brief
During London’s bid for the games, promotional materials featured a main stadium with a roof “designed to wrap around the venue like muscles supporting the body”; however, no formal design brief had been agreed upon at the time. While the tender process was ongoing, West Ham held discussions with the ODA about contributing to the development of a multi-use stadium, should London win the tender.
The government preferred to produce a brief for an athletics-only stadium to be largely dismantled after the games, with the lower tier remaining in place as a permanent athletics facility to replace the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. With the original Olympic design completed and under construction, the government changed its mind, and a bidding process for post-Olympic tenants was launched.
On October 13, 2006, the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) confirmed that it had selected Sir Robert McAlpine and Populous with whom to enter exclusive negotiations to fulfill the eventual design-build contract for the new Olympic Stadium. after no other organization met the bidding criteria. The stadium design was released on November 7, 2007.
Stadium interior
The stadium was equipped with a nine-lane 400-meter (440 yds) Mondo running track. The stadium turf was grown in Scunthorpe and was a mixture of perennial ryegrass, smooth-stemmed prairie grass, and fescue grass seed. It took 360 rolls of grass to cover the inner field and was laid in March 2011. The track was designed by the Italian company Mondo and when installed it was their latest version of the Mondotrack FTX.
The 80,000-seat stadium had a black and white ‘shard’ theme to match the overall branding design used by LOCOG for London 2012. All lines were centered on the finish line of the track. The seats were manufactured in Luton and installed between May and December 2010. During the Games, the Stadium stands contained a lighting system developed by Tait Technologies that enabled them to function as a giant video screen.
Individual “vanes” containing nine LED pixels each were installed between each seat, which was controlled via a central system to display wrapped video content around the stadium. The system was primarily designed for use during Olympic and Paralympic Games ceremonies. This technology was also adopted for the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium, which hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics.
London 2012
The Olympic Stadium hosted its first public event on March 31, 2012, serving as the finish line for the National Lottery’s Olympic Park Race. Five thousand participants (including celebrities, British athletes, and members of the public who won a lottery draw) took part in a 5-mile (8 km) run around the Olympic Park. Contestants entered the Chariots of Fire-themed Olympic Stadium to run the last 300 meters (330 yards) on their track.
The stadium hosted two preparation events for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games as part of the London Prepares series. The venue hosted the British Universities Athletics Championships and London Disability Grand Prix in May 2012. On May 5, some 40,000 people attended an event titled “Hours to Go 2012 – An Evening of Athletics and Entertainment “.
The evening was hosted by Gabby Logan and Vernon Kay. Special guests joining Logan and Kay were Jon Culshaw, Melanie C, Hugh Bonneville, Chipmunk, and Jack Whitehall. Nine-year-old Niamh Clarke-Willis was chosen to ceremonially open the stadium. During the London Disability Grand Prix, Paul Blake (T36, 1500 meters), Hannah Cockroft (T34, 100 meters), Michael McKillop (T37, 1,500 meters), and Richard Whitehead (T42, 200 meters) set new world records. The stadium also hosted the UK School Games athletics events.
The stadium hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics. During the track and field events of the Olympics, David Rudisha broke his own 800m world record to become the first man to run the distance in less than 1 minute and 41 seconds. In the 4 × 100 meter relay, the Jamaican team also broke their own world record from the 2011 World Championships by two-tenths of a second.
The United States women’s 4 × 100-meter team surpassed the previous best record set by East Germany in 1985, recording a time of 40.82 seconds to set a new world record. Usain Bolt, who ran the second fastest 100m, set Olympic records, Renaud Lavillenie pole vaulted by 1cm (0.39in), Sally Pearson posted a record time in the 100m hurdles and Tatyana Lysenko set a new mark on the hammer.
Stadium Capacity
London Stadium has a seating capacity of 66,000.
London Stadium Seating Plan
Notable Events & Records
Events
2015 World Cup
In July 2012, Olympic Park Legacy Company submitted a bid to England Rugby 2015 to host some matches of the 2015 Rugby World Cup. On 2 May 2013, it was officially announced that the Olympic Stadium would host four group matches during the World Cup and the bronze final. The first rugby match at the stadium took place on August 29, 2015, as part of a test program ahead of the World Cup.
The match featured the first game between the Barbarian’s guest side and Samoa. The Barbarians won 27-24, and Samoa had Kane Thompson sent off for hitting. The game was delayed when the field sprinklers came on during the first half.
2017 World Athletics and World Para Athletics Championships
London had made a bid to host the 2015 World Championships in Athletics using the Olympic Stadium. They faced the Olympic Stadium in Beijing and the Polish city of Chorzów. However, the stadium had to withdraw its bid due to uncertainties arising from the timing of the announcement of who would operate it after the Olympics, thus gifting Beijing with the championships. With issues resolved over its future, London once again used the stadium to participate in the 2017 World Championships in Athletics.
The offer was made official in August and Lord Coe personally made the offer a few weeks later at the World Athletics Championships in 2011 in Daegu, which was supported by London Mayor Boris Johnson and the British government. On November 11, 2011, the IAAF officially awarded the 2017 World Championships to London.
The World Para Athletics Championships (formerly the IPC World Championships in Athletics) was planned to take place one month before the able-bodied event and was formally confirmed for the stadium in December 2012. 2017 was the last track championship for Mo Farah and Usain Bolt.
The World Para Athletics Championships took place between 14 and 23 July 2017, with 800,000 tickets available over 16 sessions. The IAAF World Championships followed from August 4-13, 2017 with 700,000 tickets available. 3,300 athletes from 200 countries competed for 690 medals in 245 events.
2018 Athletics World Cup
In February 2018, London Stadium was announced as the venue for the inaugural Athletics World Cup. The event was held on 14 and 15 July.
Upcoming Events
Not Yet.
Parking
There is no official parking available at the stadium. The closest car park to the London Stadium is at Stratford Westfield.
