West Ham’s London Stadium is ready for Premier League football again as three-month time-lapse shows incredible transformation over the summer
- The Stadium was used for various events during the summer and off-season
- It is now ready for the return of Premier League football this coming weekend
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West Ham will kick off their home Premier League campaign this weekend when they take on Chelsea at the London Stadium following a summer of several events held at the stadium.
Originally built as the Olympic Stadium for the 2012 Games, West Ham purchased and moved into the ground following the event, but the stadium is still used for various events.
Over the summer, it played host to football matches, baseball games and concerts, but is now back into football mode as the Hammers look to build on last year’s success of their first European trophy for several decades.
A time-lapse has shown the transformation of the ground over the summer, starting with West Ham’s final league game of the 2022/23 season against Leeds on May 21.
It goes onto show the work that goes into transforming the stadium for concerts, then other games, all the way back to football for Saturday’s match.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=d6IwRJaytn8%3Frel%3D0
West Ham’s London Stadium has undergone major developments since their final Premier League game of last season
The ground was used for various events over the summer, including a baseball series and various concerts
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Work can be seen starting on the ground for the first concert of the summer, Burna Boy, less than 24 hours after West Ham’s game against Leeds.
Parts of the North and South Stands were removed to help the stage construction, before work then began on constructing the baseball field to host St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs’s two-day London series.
The West Stand can be seen moving back to meet the specifications of the basketball field including the infield, pitcher’s box and catcher’s box as well as two dugouts.
Clay imported from Pennsylvania was used in the building process, and will be stored alongside the synthetic turf at the ground for next year’s baseball games.
Work can then be seen starting to build another stage for The Weeknd’s concert at the stadium in July, with over 150,000 fans attending over two nights, breaking the record for the highest attendance in the bowl.
It then took over 1,500 hours to build and remove a course for Monster Jam in mid-July, an event which saw monster trucks navigate inside the ground before athletics returned to what has become its UK home.
Diamond League athletics was held at the ground on July 23, with the running track on show for the first time in four years, and the event, selling 50,000 tickets, was the best attended one-day athletics event in the world this year.
Following the event, the focus is seen getting the ground ready again for Premier League football ahead of this weekend, with a new pitch grown and the North and South Stands returned to their original positions.
The pitch for the season is also newly-grown, with West Ham’s first home game this weekend
St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs played a two-day baseball London series at the ground
The stadium also played host to several concerts, including one held but The Weeknd in July
Graham Gilmore, Chief Executive at London Stadium, said of the summer: ‘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.’
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