The way the former Olympic stadium can be converted into a multi-use venue has been revealed in a time-lapse video.
Footage has been published showing how the 2012 arena – now known as the London Stadium – went through numerous changes over three months this summer.
The first change was to rearrange the stadium’s layout and seating from being the home of West Ham FC to hosting a concert by the Nigerian singer Burna Boy two weeks later, on June 3.
Contractors swung into action on the morning of West Ham’s final home game of the 2022/23 season, when they beat Leeds Utd 3-1.
Within 24 hours the athletics track had been uncovered and parts of the front tiers of the North and South Stands were removed to enable the stage to be built.
The second change – preparing the stadium for Major League Baseball – was the biggest challenge of the summer.
St. Louis Cardinals took on the Chicago Cubs in the two-day 2023 London Series on June 25 and 26 – watched by a total of 100,000 fans.
Contractors had three weeks to construct a baseball field. This required moving the West Stand back to accommodate the infield, pitcher’s box and catcher’s box as well as the two dugouts.
The field was created using 4,000 tonnes of aggregate to level the surface, combined with a special clay imported from Pennsylvania.
The new surface and the synthetic turf will be reused next year, when New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies meet, and again in 2026, the final year of the three-year series.
There was then just a week-and-a-half to get the stadium ready for two nights by rock band The Weeknd, which attracted crowds more than 150,000 – a new attendance record at London Stadium.
A week later, on July 15, the stadium hosted the annual Monster Jam event featuring giant trucks.
It took over 1,500-man hours to build and remove the purpose-built course which the monster trucks navigated.
Then on July 23 the stadium hosted the Diamond League Athletics meeting – giving 50,000 athletics fans the first glimpse of the famous Olympic track in four years. It was the best attended one-day athletics event in the world this year.
On Sunday it will be back to football, when West Ham’s opening home game of the season will see them take on London rivals Chelsea.
Olympic park chiefs say the stadium hosted the “most diverse range of stadium events anywhere in Europe”.
Graham Gilmore, chief executive at London Stadium, said: “These past three months presented a massive challenge to the team at London Stadium with great support from the London Legacy Development Corporation.
“I’d be very surprised if there is a stadium in the world that has done as many transitions in such a short space of time that we’ve done this summer.
“We normally go from football straight into concert mode or baseball mode, which involves putting all the seats back, but we didn’t have the time because we had baseball coming so quickly after Burna Boy – so we had to do a hybrid version of our summer transition.
“It shows just how versatile the stadium is and underlines the importance of having a venue which has successfully built on the legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games 11 years ago. This is a venue which has eyeballs on it all year round from elite level European and domestic football to top class athletics, Major League Baseball and sold-out international concerts.”
Major League Baseball is due to return on June 8 and 9 next year, when New York Mets take on the Philadelphia Phillies.
Then on June 20 and 22 the Foo Fighters are due to play as part of their Everything or Nothing at All UK Tour.
The West Stand had undergone work during summer 2022 to make it easier to adapt for music concerts, athletics and baseball.
The stadium reopened in 2016, four years after successfully hosting the 2012 Games. The LLDC, the City Hall quango that oversees the stadium and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, recorded a loss of £15.8m in the 2022/23 financial year.
