Premier League football returns to London Stadium this weekend following an unparalleled summer of events at the venue which a new timelapse video has captured.
This summer saw the most diverse range of stadium events anywhere in Europe and the video shows the incredible transformation London Stadium has undergone over the last three months.
The video starts on 21 May at 9.45am, just hours before West Ham United’s final home Premier League game of the 2022/23 season against Leeds United. Less than 24 hours later and the athletics track can be seen as preparations begin for the first concert of the summer – Burna Boy. Parts of the front tiers of the North and South Stands are removed as the stage is constructed.
Following the concert on 3 June, the London Stadium team moved on to the most challenging part of the summer schedule – constructing a baseball field ready to host St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs in the two-day 2023 London Series.
To meet the specifications of a baseball field, the West Stand was moved 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 which was imported from Pennsylvania and will be stored alongside the synthetic turf for next year when New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies meet, and 2026.
The weekend was a big success with more than 100,000 spectators in attendance, a global TV audience and international media coverage.
But once the last pitch was thrown on 25 June, work started on building the stage and various structures for The Weeknd’s concert on 7 and 8 July. A crowd of more than 150,000 over two nights broke the record for the highest attendance at London Stadium.
The Stadium changed once again for Monster Jam on 15 July. It took over 1,500-man hours to build and remove the purpose-built course which the monster trucks navigated. The return of Diamond League Athletics to London Stadium on 23 July gave athletics fans the first glimpse of the famous Olympic track in four years. The meet sold 50,000 tickets, making it the best attended one-day athletics event in the world this year.
The focus since has been on getting the venue ready for the return of Premier League football. From growing a new pitch and re-marking the lines, bringing the North and South Stands back to behind the goals and reinstalling the dugouts, the Stadium is back to how it was on 21 May.
Three months and five events with a combined attendance of nearly 400,000 later and the Stadium is ready to host West Ham United’s first Premier League home game of the season against Chelsea on Sunday.
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 (LLDC). 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.”
Events 2024 Summer Schedule (to date)
8 and 9 June: MLB London Series 2024 – New York Mets v Philadelphia Phillies
20 and 22 June: Foo Fighters – Everything or Nothing at All UK Tour
Timestamps for the video:
London Stadium transformation - Summer 2023
- West Ham United v Leeds United 21.05.23
- Burna Boy 03.06.23
- MLB London Series 25.06.23 + 26.06.23
- The Weeknd 07.07.23 + 08.07.23
- Monster Jam 15.07.23
- London Athletics Meet 23.07.23
- Back to football mode - video ends 14.07.23
