In less then nine weeks the Olympic stadium will hold it’s first test event in the run up the Rugby World Cup this September.
The stadium’s new roof is nearing completion and work has now began rebuilding the lower tier with seats about to be added soon so it will be interesting to see what colour they are and what patterns are made with them. Construction firm Balfour Beatty received an extra £35.9m on top of the £154m already agreed to complete the conversion after they ran into complications with the roof last year. They along with with their subcontractors are working flat out to complete the conversion on-time.
The first stadium event is scheduled on the 19th July when “Morrisons Great Newham run”: http://www.greatrun.org/great-newham-london-run is staged, Sainsbury’s Anniversary games will take place shortly afterwards between 24-26th July followed a rugby match between Barbarians and Samoa on 29th August.
The main event will be the Rugby world cup between September and October this year. The first match between France and Romania will be staged on 23rd September followed by New Zealand v Namibia on the 24th September, Ireland v Italy play on 4th October while South Africa v USA takes place on 7th October. Finally the play off final for 3rd place will take place on 30th October.
Rugby league will stage a match between England v New Zealand on the 7th November.
This recent image below from www.skyscrapercity.com shows the view from within the stadium with the new roof and flood lights in place.
A enterprising young illustrator called Corey Yexley-Alick has used this image to render two further images of what the Olympic Stadium may look like in football from the top of the upper tier. This view is actually from a dead zone which will be cordoned off so slightly worst than the cheap seats which likely to be classified as band 5 at £289 for a season ticket.
Image Credits: Corey Yexley-Alick @CoreyVinci & published on www.skyscrapercity.com