On 13 October 2006, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) confirmed that it had selected Sir Robert McAlpine and Populous with whom to start exclusive negotiations to fulfil the eventual design-and-build contract of the new Olympic Stadium after no other organisations met the bidding criteria. With the original Olympic design finalised and being built, the government had a change of heart, and a bidding process was launched for post-Olympic tenents. The government preferred to produce a brief for an athletics-only stadium that would be largely disassembled after the games, with the lower tier remaining in place as a permanent athletics facility to replace the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. While the bidding process was ongoing, West Ham had talks with the ODA about contributing to the development of a multi-purpose stadium, should London win the bid. The stadium in April 2012 Olympic design Design briefÄuring London's bid for the games, promotional materials featured a main stadium with a roof "designed to wrap itself around the venue like muscles supporting the body" however, at that time there had been no formal design brief agreed.
Major League Baseball game in Europe, in which the Boston Red Sox played a two-game series against the New York Yankees. In June 2019, it hosted the first regular-season U.S. The stadium can also hold concerts with up to 80,000 spectators and, due to its oval shape and relocatable seating, was deemed to have the potential to host other sports such as baseball and cricket. It also hosted several 2015 Rugby World Cup matches. It hosts a round of the IAAF Diamond League each year, known as the London Grand Prix, sometimes called the London Anniversary Games. The stadium hosted the 2017 IAAF World Championships and 2017 World Para Athletics Championships (the first time both events were held in the same location in the same year). The decision to make West Ham United the main tenants was controversial, with the initial tenancy process having to be rerun. Holding 80,000 for the Olympics and the Paralympics, it re-opened in July 2016 with 66,000 seats, but with capacity for football limited to 60,000 under the terms of the lease. The stadium held its first public event in March 2012, serving as the finish line for a celebrity run organised by the National Lottery. Land preparation for the stadium began in mid-2007, with the construction officially starting on. Populous (formerly HOK Sport), led by Philip Johnson