London Olympics Information

London 2012 Olympics Guidance, News and Information

About Olympic Stadium

Capacity: 80,000

Location: Olympic Park

Status
The stadium will have 80,000 seats for the 2012 Olympic events. 55,000 of the seats will be dismantled after the Games, leaving behind 25,000 seats. After the games, the venue will become a community stadium for athletics, rugby and lower-league football.

About The Olympic Stadium

The flagship structure is being built on an island in the Lea Valley, where River Lea and the City Mill River converge. Work was initiated in May 2008 on a monumental scale with the first phase being the removal of 800,000 tonnes of soil and the demolition of 33 buildings on the site.

The innovative design includes a sunken bowl into the ground which will hold 25,000 permanent seats enabling a closer view of the action and the rest 55,000 demountable seats will be incorporated in a temporary structure at the top. A cable-support fabric roof will stretch 28 metres around the stadium and about two-thirds of the spectators will be covered. A 65-feet high open-weave fabric will wrap around the 1000 yard circumference of the structure and will serve as an additional cover. Externally the 65-feet plastic wrap will resemble a colourful mural printed with sponsorship logos, pictures of Olympic champions and flags of participating countries, and internally it will give a warm pink glow. Within the stadium will be self-contained structures resembling 'pods', which will offer facilities such as catering and merchandising.