Betfred Presents The Sports Venues At The Olympics

From 27th July to 12th August, London 2012 will be beamed live around the world from 34 different venues. Most of these venues will be in the heart of the host city, with a handful of other locations scattered outside of the capital in order to cater for certain events. Some venues are already well-established; some have been newly built for the occasion and others will exist only temporarily until the Games end. Most of these venues come under one of three zones inside Greater London – the Olympic Zone, the River Zone and the Central Zone.

Three permanently-sponsored Olympic venues have been renamed for the duration of the Games, in order to give all other sponsors equal entitlement and association with the event. The O2 Arena will temporarily become the North Greenwich Arena, the Sports Direct Arena will officially be St. James’ Park, and the Ricoh Arena becomes the City of Coventry Stadium.

The athletes will reside in the Olympic and Paralympic village for the duration of the tournament, where 3,300 apartments will provide 17,320 beds, 22,000 pillows and 165,000 towels, all complete with a TV, internet access and a private courtyard. When refueling between practices and events, 5,500 of the athletes can dine at any one time in the huge on-site dining hall, where an estimated 45,000 meals are expected to be served every day! They won’t waste too much of that fuel doing their morning commute though, as 93% of the training venues will be within half an hour of the village.

The Olympic Zone refers to all of the facilities within Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford and will host Olympic events including diving, swimming, basketball, cycling, athletics and water polo. It will also include Paralympic events such as swimming, wheelchair rugby, goalball and wheelchair tennis. The newly constructed park was given its royal permanent name in honour of the Diamond Jubilee, and the Royal Mail has given it the postcode E20 – previously only used by the fictional Walford of Eastenders!

The venues in this zone are the Aquatics Centre, the London Velopark, the Water Polo Arena, the Basketball Arena, the Copper Box, the Riverbank Arena and the centerpiece of London 2012, the Olympic Stadium. The newly unveiled 80,000-seater arena will host the much-anticipated opening and closing ceremonies. The former will be directed by Trainspotting’s Danny Boyle with a Shakespeare-inspired show transforming the stadium into a giant meadow, whilst the latter is the brainchild of live event director Kim Gavin, the man behind 2007’s Concert for Diana and Take That’s Circus tour, and will feature over 4,100 performers in the handover to Rio de Janeiro.

The River Zone is in the Thames Gateway Area overlapping the River Thames, where the Olympic boxing, table tennis, wrestling, equestrian, gymnastics and shooting will take place amongst others. Four main venues will host from here – ExCeL, Greenwich Park, North Greenwich Arena and the Royal Artillery Barracks. ExCel is one of Europe’s largest exhibition centres and has seen over 5million visitors from over 20 different countries since it opened in 2000. It will house 4 sports halls for the Olympics, with capacities ranging from 6,000 to 10,000.

Greenwich Park has a capacity of 23,000, and the existing venue contains the Royal Naval College and the National Maritime Museum. The North Greenwich Arena (usually the O2 Arena) is the infamous former site of the ill-fated Millennium Dome, and can seat up to 20,000 spectators. Hosting hundreds of concerts a year as well as prominent sporting events, the arena is so big the Eiffel Tower could fit horizontally inside! The Royal Artillery Barracks have been around since the 18th century, and were the natural choice for the shooting events. They can accommodate up to 7,500 visitors.

The Central Zone comprises a variety of prominent London venues, such as the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, Hyde Park, Lord’s Cricket Ground and Wembley Stadium. Within these venues, Olympians will compete in such sports as tennis, volleyball, triathlon, badminton and football. Earls Court, which hosts hundreds of events and concerts throughout the year and was also the city of Britain’s first ever supermarket, will see audiences of up to 15,000 enjoying the indoor volleyball event.

Hyde Park, open to the public since 1937 and host of the 1976 Queen concert with an audience of around 200,000, will be the place to go for the Triathlon and the 10k Open Water Swim. Lord’s, home of cricket since 1814, will see up to 6,500 spectators during the Olympic archery events. Wembley Arena, one of the world’s most famous concert destinations, was the chief venue during the last London Games in 1948, and was originally intended to be a swimming pool upon its creation in 1934. It will now host badminton and rhythmic gymnastics, holding up to 6,000 visitors.

Five of the Olympic Football events will be held further afield across the UK:-

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Wales’ £121million national stadium opened in 1999 and seats 74,500, regularly hosting music, sporting and charity events. It will host 3 men’s and 3 women’s group matches, 1 men’s & 1 women’s quarter-final, and 1 men’s bronze medal match.

City of Coventry Stadium, Coventry
The seven-year old home of Coventry FC was the UK’s first cashless stadium and seats 32,609 people. It will host 4 men’s and 3 women’s group matches, 1 women’s quarter-final and 1 women’s bronze medal match.

Hampden Park, Glasgow
Scotland’s national stadium was the biggest stadium in the world when it was opened and has a record attendance of 149,415, for a 1937 Scotland v England match. Now with a capacity of 52,063, there will be 2 men’s and 2 women’s group matches and 1 women’s quarter-final held there during the Games.

St. James’ Park, Newcastle
Newcastle United’s home since 1892, the lop-sided appearance of this venue is due to constant battles over expansion and a reluctance to relocate. The field is 105 x 68 metres in size, with 3 men’s and 2 women’s group matches, and 1 men’s and 1 women’s quarter-final being played there.

Old Trafford, Manchester
The ‘Theatre of Dreams’ celebrated its centenary 2 years ago and is the second-largest stadium in England after Wembley, the third-largest in the UK and the eleventh-largest in Europe. During the Games, the legendary venue will set the scene for 3 men’s and 1 women’s group matches, 1 men’s quarter-final, and 1 men’s and 1 women’s semi-final.

There will also be canoe, kayak, rowing, sailing and mountain biking events held outside of the capital’s province:-

Eton Dorney
Located 25 miles from London, next to the River Thames and close to Windsor Castle, Lake Dorney is set in 450 acres of parkland and features a 2,200 metre eight-lane course. Eton Dorney Rowing Centre will hold up to 30,000 spectators per day during London 2012, hosting the canoe sprint and rowing events.

Hadleigh Farm, Essex
This 550-acre site is owned by the Salvation Army and was purchased by their founder William Booth in 1891. Adjoining the 1230s-built Hadleigh Castle, this grand open location will host the mountain biking event. Its gradients measure 70 metres from top to bottom, with a circuit five kilometers in length and comprising such ominous-sounding sections as Snake Hill, The Rock Garden and Deane’s Drop.

Lee Valley White Water Centre
This £31million project will be the site of the canoe slalom events, holding up to 12,000 spectators at a time, and is the only purpose-built Olympic venue which opened to the public before the start of the Games. A 10,000 square metre lake was constructed alongside the centre, in order to feed 15 cubic metres of water per second into the course!

Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour
The Olympic and Paralympic sailing competitions will be held here in Dorset, having already become established for hosting international sailing events. Princess Anne officially opened its clubhouse in 2005. A new 560-berth marina was also built nearby, and was the first London 2012 venue to be completed. Following the tournament, the National Sailing Academy will make fantastic use of the newly-enhanced facilities.