The spectator capacity at the Olympic Stadium was 80,000. I was therefore a tad disappointed to find out that the capacity when we take over next season will only be 54,000. My Spurs and Arsenal supporting friends doubt whether we will fill that. Personally I have no doubt it will be full for at least a third of the games, and probably more, if not all.
However, it has emerged that the latest Design & Access Statement shows that there are actually 53,000 seats in the upper tier alone, with 21,000 in the lower tier, making a capacity of 74,000, not 54,000!
But it’s more complicated than that. According to Claret & Hugh? 2,000 more upper tier seats have been removed to allow construction of what I am told is a rather impressive roof. It might be thought that they could now be reinstalled, pushing the ultimate capacity up to 76,000 at some point, but apparently the headroom wouldn’t be acceptable.
The fly in the ointment is that the stadium only has planning permission for 54,000, which in theory will mean that 20,000 seats will remain empty or covered up. So even if we are sold out, it won’t look as if we are.
Once we see how many tickets we can sell at 54,000, especially in lower attraction games, surely we should apply for renewed planning permission – at least for Category A games – go increase the capacity to 74,000. This may mean also allowing more away supporters to attend, but that would surely increase the atmosphere exponentially. If that happened, I think I am right in saying that only Old Trafford would have a bigger capacity.