The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) today announced that 'Team Stadium' comprised of Sir Robert McAlpine, HOK Sport and Buro Happold has signed a contract to design and build the 80,000 seater Olympic Stadium.

The stadium will host the track and field events as well as the Opening and Closing ceremonies at the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London.

The ODA have been working with Team Stadium for over a year and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with them last July.

In legacy, the stadium will reduce to a capacity of 25,000, retaining the capacity to host a variety of sporting, educational, cultural and community events with athletics as its core use.

Tony Aikenhead, project director for Team Stadium, said: “We are delighted to have signed the contract to help deliver the Olympic and Paralympic Stadium.

We have been working closely with the ODA and their delivery partner CLM on the design of this exciting project for some time from our shared offices at Canary Wharf and we are now moving to the site to continue working on the centrepiece of the 2012 Games.”

The ODA recently confirmed that construction on the Olympic Stadium would start three months early in May.

Discussions are also at an advanced stage on the Velodrome with a construction contractor due to be appointed in the next few weeks.

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