London Stadium


London Stadium is a multi-purpose outdoor stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the Stratford district of London. It is located in the Lower Lea Valley, east of central London. The stadium was constructed specifically for the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics, serving as the athletics venue and as the site of their opening and closing ceremonies. Following the Games, it was rebuilt for multi-purpose use and now serves primarily as the home of Premier League club West Ham United, who became anchor tenants from the 2016 season. UK athletics are the other tenants in the stadium and host a round of the World Athletics Diamond League each year, known as the London Grand Prix, sometimes called the London Anniversary Games.
Land preparation for the stadium began in mid-2007, with the construction officially starting on 22 May 2008. The stadium held 80,000 people for the Olympics and the Paralympic games, before it was remodelled between 2013 and 2015 with 66,000 seats, but with capacity for football limited to 60,000 under the terms of the lease. The decision of what happened to the stadium post Olympics had to be run twice after the first process was delayed by legal cases and a complaint to the European Commission in regards to state aid. It was decided to run a second round of bidding for the stadium, this time keeping it in public ownership and seeking an anchor tenant instead of an owner.
The stadium has been owned and operated by different companies starting with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In October 2012, the whole park including the stadium was handed over to the London Legacy Development Corporation who set up a subsidiary company with Newham Council known as E20 Stadium LLP in July 2012 to oversee the stadium. In 2015, Vinci SA were appointed to manage the Stadium for a 25-year period through London Stadium 185. Newham Council left the E20 Stadium partnership in 2017 and their stake was taken by the LLDC. The LLDC bought LS185 from Vinci in 2019. In January 2025 the LLDC relinquished their interest in E20 Stadium LLP and LS185 to GLA Holdings Ltd. E20 Stadium LLP was renamed London Stadium LLP on 3 April 2025.

Stadium operator

The stadium during the Olympic and Paralympic Games was owned by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Olympic Delivery Authority.
Following the collapse of the first deal for the stadium over state aid and the wish to keep the stadium in public ownership; the London Borough of Newham withdrew from the West Ham bid and intended to contribute to the funding of the Stadium with the OPLC. It was decided that a Special-purpose vehicle would be created which the £40m, from the first tender process would be invested through a subsidiary company called Newham Legacy Investments. Accounting firms concluded that a limited liability partnership was the most appropriate structure for the SPV. In October 2012 the whole park including the stadium was handed over to the London Legacy Development Corporation ; which had replaced the public sector, not-for-profit company limited Olympic Park Legacy Company in April 2012 under the Localism Act 2011 as the responsible body to redevelop the Olympic Park after the Games. The LLDC and Newham Council, set up another subsidiary company known as E20 Stadium LLP in July 2012 to take long term responsibility for managing the Stadium.
In October 2014, The Evening Standard reported that French company Vinci SA were favourites to be given a contract to run the stadium for ten years. The company had reportedly beaten off competition from other companies including Anschutz Entertainment Group. In February 2015, Vinci Stadium, a subsidiary of Vinci Concessions, were appointed to manage it starting in April 2015 for a 25-year period becoming the first stadium outside France to be managed by Vinci. The company is also responsible for the London Marathon Charitable Trust Community Track and events on the south park lawn. Vinci set up a subsidiary company called London Stadium 185, with the 185 signifying how many medals were won by British athletes at the London Olympic and Paralympic Games. In January 2019, the LLDC bought LS185 from Vinci after concerns were raised following a £3.5million loss the previous year, with all staff being retained.
NLI and Newham Council relinquished its stake in E20 Stadium LLP in November 2017. Stratford East London Holdings LTD, a new subsidiary company of the LLDC, was formed and took over NLI's stake in the partnership. In November 2024 the LLDC voted to hand over their interest in E20 Stadium LLP, as well as subsidiaries SELH and LS185, to GLA Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary company of Greater London Authority. This was completed in January 2025 with E20 Stadium LLP being renamed London Stadium LLP from April 2025. The change was made to simplify and consolidate the ownership structure, removing the need for duplicative administrative requirements, rationalise leadership and enable the stadium to be directly managed by the GLA rather than the LLDC, which has less grant funding to support the stadium's governance.

History

Great Britain had bid for three successive summer Olympic Games between 1992 and 2000. There had been two failed attempts to bring the Olympic Games to Manchester, and one to Birmingham. The International Olympic Committee indicated that if Britain was serious about hosting the Games, then a proposal from London would be the one that the committee would listen to, according to British Olympic Association chief executive Simon Clegg. In 1997 the BOA appointed David Luckes to conduct a feasibility study about hosting the games. By 2000 Luckes had come up with two proposals:
  • One based on west London around Wembley Stadium. The old Wembley Stadium by 1994 was acknowledged that it had come to the end of its useful life. A proposal was put together for a national stadium to be developed for football, rugby and athletics. In October 1996 Wembley was picked as the site for the national stadium of all three sports.
  • One involving the regeneration of an area of east London stretching from the Isle of Dogs, through Stratford and north into the Lower Lee Valley. This would be tagged on to an existing proposal to regenerate the area.
Culture Secretary Chris Smith removed athletics from a Wembley stadium rebuild in December 1999 stating that UK Athletics would have to find a different venue. A House of Commons Select committee for Culture, Media and Sport disagreed with the decision noting that it was beyond the proper responsibilities of the minister. A new stadium was announced for Picketts Lock in the Lower Lea Valley to host the 2005 World Championships in Athletics in March 2000. It was noted that the Picketts Lock Stadium could have been expanded to host 80,000 people for any future summer Olympic Games bid. In October 2001 Great Britain withdrew from hosting the World Athletics Championships at Picketts Lock and the proposed stadium was cancelled on cost grounds with David Bond noting that the decision was likely to end any hopes of bringing the Olympics to London. The Picketts lock area was considered for an Olympic park, however was not favoured due to its distance to existing venues and the city. It was noted by the bid team that had a more strategic view had been taken to bid for an Olympic Games when proposing the stadium, then Stratford would have been more a suitable site.
When Beijing won the 2008 Olympic Games in 2001, this left the way open, under the IOC's policies on awarding Olympic Games, for London to bid for the 2012 Games using the land earmarked in east London. London Mayor Livingstone supported a bid for the games as long as it regenerated east London. In 2002 Mayor Livingstone stated that the proposed site was in Stratford. By then it had been decided that Wembley Stadium would be able to host athletics, as a platform for a track was built into the stadium's design; however it could not be the focal point for the Games. Clegg stated that the seating in the stadium would have to be reconfigured, and there would not be enough seats left to meet the requirements of the IOC. In addition he noted that any future bid would focus on east London. In May 2003 the British government gave the go ahead for an Olympic bid. London's bid book was submitted to the IOC in 2004 and confirmed the idea of an Olympic park and stadium in the east of the city. The IOC awarded London the right to host the 2012 Olympic Games after the city won the most votes in July 2005.

Location

The stadium site is on former industrial land between the River Lea, the City Mill River, and the Old Pudding Mill River, parts of the Bow Back Rivers. Another branch of this system, St Thomas' Creek, to the south, completes an "island" surrounded by water. to the east is the Waterworks River; with the London Aquatics Centre on its eastern bank. This "island" site for the stadium lies at the southern end of the Olympic Park. To make room for its construction, the already partially obstructed Pudding Mill River, a short channel of the Lea that ran from the west side of the stadium south-eastwards across the site, was filled in. A number of businesses were required to move for the stadium and park. During the bidding for the 2012 Olympics a group of businesses in Marshgate Lane, where the stadium was to be built, wrote to the IOC to withdraw their support for the plans due to unfair treatment.
It was found in 2005 that the site of the stadium was host to Queen Mary College's department of nuclear engineering, which had a small nuclear reactor.
The stadium is situated in the southern part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the Stratford district of London. It is located in the Lower Lea Valley, 6 miles east of central London.

Design and construction

Design brief

During London's bid for the games, promotional materials featured a main stadium with a roof "designed to wrap itself around the venue like muscles supporting the body". The government preferred to produce a brief for an athletics-only stadium that would be largely disassembled after the Games, with the lower tier remaining in place as a permanent athletics facility to replace the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.
On 13 October 2006, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games selected Sir Robert McAlpine and Populous to start exclusive negotiations to fulfil the design-and-build contract of the Stadium, after no other organisations met the bidding criteria. The stadium design was launched on 7 November 2007.