The London Stadium is a football ground for most of the year and a running track for one Saturday of it. The next meeting is the Novuna London Athletics Meet on Saturday 17 July 2027, starting at 11:00, and tickets have been on sale since August 2026 from £27 for an adult and £7 for an under-16, plus booking fees. If you want to see world-class track and field in London, that is the date, and there is no second chance in the calendar.
It is a Wanda Diamond League meeting, which means a single afternoon of finals rather than heats: one race per event, the top of the world rankings, and nothing dead in the programme. The 2026 edition sold out and produced a world record, Josh Kerr running the mile in 3:42.66. Our page on the London Stadium covers tours, West Ham and the building itself; this one is about the meeting, where to sit when the track is in place, and what else is worth doing in the park on the same day.
Novuna London Athletics Meet 2027
- Date and time
- Saturday 17 July 2027, from 11:00
- Where
- London Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford E20
- Tickets
- From £27 adult, from £7 for under-16s, plus booking fees. On sale since 14 August 2026
- On sale through
- The stadium's own ticketing, which routes to Ticketmaster
- Nearest station
- Pudding Mill Lane on the DLR, a 10-minute walk. Stratford is the recommended route at 20 minutes
- Capacity
- 62,500 in football mode; the lower tier retracts for athletics
- Wheelchair spaces
- 428
- Event-day closures
- Ticket holders only on the stadium island, and the surrounding roads shut three hours ahead
One date, and how to be sure of it
The London Stadium lists the 2027 meeting on its own events calendar as Novuna London Athletics Meet 2027, Saturday 17 July 2027 at 11:00. That is the figure to trust, because it comes from the venue.
The Diamond League's own website is less reliable on dates and it is worth saying so, because it is the first result most people find. For 2026 its season calendar gave the London meeting as 18 July, a Saturday, while its London meeting page gave 16 July, which was a Thursday. Both cannot be right, and the Saturday is the one consistent with everything else published about the 2026 event. When you are checking a future year, look at london-stadium.com rather than the series site, and look at the events listing rather than a news item.
Photo: Uthoang · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
What a ticket costs, and why you should buy early
The stadium announced the 2027 on-sale in a news item dated 14 August 2026, with prices "from just £27 and under 16s from £7 (booking fees apply)". It did not publish a full band-by-band price table, so treat those as starting prices and expect the seats along the home straight to cost several times as much; the seat map at the point of booking is the only place the bands appear.
Two reasons to book long before the summer. The 2026 meeting sold out, in a stadium that seats over 60,000, and a sold-out Diamond League fixture is not a normal event in British athletics. And the stadium runs a pre-sale for people on its mailing list, which it describes as giving subscribers access ahead of general sale; if the date matters to you, join that list rather than watching for an announcement. For a family, £27 plus £7 apiece for two children makes a day of world-record-standard sport cheaper than most West End matinees.
Under-16s at £7 make this the cheapest major sporting event in London. Two adults and two children start at £68 before fees, for five or six hours of finals with no filler in the programme.
What happens to the stadium when the track comes back
The stadium was built for London 2012 and now shares itself between West Ham United and UK Athletics, which is an awkward marriage solved mechanically. The stadium's own description of its features says the lower-tier seating is re-configurable, bringing football fans closer to the action "while providing the flexibility to reveal additional floor space for concerts and athletics". In athletics configuration that lower tier sits back, exposing the nine-lane track and the field events inside it.
The practical consequence is that the front rows are further from the action than they are at a football match, and that the two long sides are not equivalent. The finish line, the pole vault run-up and the long jump pit are all on one side, and the field events are staged inside the bend at the other end. Other numbers from the same list are worth knowing before you arrive: 35 catering outlets, the longest cantilevered roof in the world, and 428 wheelchair viewing spaces.
Where to sit
For a track meeting there are three useful answers.
- The home straight, lower tier, level with or just past the finish. The most expensive seats and the right ones if you are there for the sprints. You see the finish of every race from the correct angle and the field events on the infield beyond.
- The upper tier on the same side. Much cheaper, and better for distance races, because you can follow a 5,000 metres round the whole lap rather than watching runners disappear. Also better for seeing the pattern of a field event competition unfold.
- Behind the bend. The cheapest seats in the house. Fine for the atmosphere and the big screen, poor for judging a finish. Reasonable with children, who will spend half the afternoon watching the javelin anyway.
Whichever you pick, the roof covers all the seats, which in a British July is the single most valuable feature of the building.
Arriving for an 11:00 start, and leaving at five
The route in is the same as for a football match, and our page on the stadium itself sets out the four stations and the walking times. An athletics day differs in when you use them.
An 11:00 start means arriving between nine and half past ten, which is the quietest possible time at Stratford: the shopping centre has only just opened and there is no pre-match hour of drinking to pack the concourse. Go through Stratford and use the crowd-managed route, because you are ahead of it. Coming out is the opposite problem. A track meeting finishes when the last final finishes, so tens of thousands of people leave inside fifteen minutes on a Saturday evening, competing with Westfield's own shoppers. That is the moment to use Pudding Mill Lane on the DLR, which is the shortest walk from the ground and the station most people forget; our page on riding the DLR in the front seat explains what to do with the ten minutes once you are on it.
Plan something for after, rather than joining the exodus. Where to eat in Stratford has the options around the park, and the Saturday late opening described below is a better use of an hour than a platform. The stadium's own catering runs to 35 outlets, and 35 outlets in a stadium are still stadium food. For the area itself, see Stratford.
What else is on in the park that day
An 11:00 start and an afternoon finish leaves either end of the day free, and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is the one London venue where that is genuinely useful. Everything below is within twenty minutes' walk of the stadium.
| Place | What it is | Adult price (September 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| V&A East Museum and V&A East Storehouse | Two new museum buildings on East Bank, open daily 10:00 to 18:00 and to 22:00 on Thursdays and Saturdays | Free |
| ArcelorMittal Orbit 360 | The viewing deck of the red tower, run as Zip World London | From £15 plus a £5 booking fee |
| Helix | The 178-metre tunnel slide down the same tower. Minimum age 8, minimum height 1.3 m, maximum weight 130 kg; about 45 minutes in total | From £19 plus a £5 booking fee |
| London Aquatics Centre | Public swimming in the 2012 pool, run by Everyone Active; book online or in the app | Local pool prices; book ahead |
| The park itself | Waterways, gardens, playgrounds and the London Marathon Community Track beside the stadium | Free |
The Saturday late opening at the two V&A East buildings is the detail that makes the day work: finish at the stadium in the late afternoon, walk five minutes and have a free museum until ten at night. Our pages on V&A East Storehouse, the ArcelorMittal Orbit and East Bank have the detail.
Two further pointers. A walking route through the park strings the venues together in an order that works on foot, and the Aquatics Centre explains how public swims are booked. The one thing not to plan around is that pool immediately after an athletics meeting, when every changing room in E20 is full.
Access
With 428 wheelchair viewing spaces the stadium is unusually well provided by British standards, and accessible tickets are sold through its own accessible ticketing route rather than through general sale, so start there rather than in the seat map. A free shuttle for guests with access requirements runs from inside Stratford station.
The detail worth having in advance is the what3words list the stadium publishes for its bridges, entrances, lifts, box office and bike racks. Five bridges cross onto the stadium island and they are not equivalent: one has a lift, one is the fan-zone entrance, and on an event day the stewarding may send you to a different one from the one your ticket names. Typing three words into an app beats asking. For a comparison with the other big London venue, how to get to Wembley Stadium is instructive, and stadium tours in London covers visiting on a day when nothing is on.
The wider picture, and what could change
This stadium held the World Athletics Championships in 2017, and in August 2026 London submitted its final bid to host them again in 2029. If that bid succeeds, the single-Saturday pattern will be interrupted by a much bigger event, and ticketing for it will work nothing like the Diamond League's. Until then, one meeting a year is what there is: our guide to the 2012 Olympics and the park today explains what happened to the rest of the venues, and the Copper Box covers the indoor arena next door that has events far more often.
Two things to watch. The meeting's sponsor and therefore its name have changed more than once, so search for "London Athletics Meet" and the year rather than the current sponsor. And the date has moved around within July in recent seasons, so a date you remember is not a date you can book a flight around; our month guide to London in July flags what else falls in the same fortnight, including Wimbledon's final weekend.
Frequently asked questions
When is the athletics at the London Stadium in 2027?
Saturday 17 July 2027, starting at 11:00. It is the Novuna London Athletics Meet, a Wanda Diamond League fixture, and it is the only athletics meeting of the year at the stadium. Tickets went on sale on 14 August 2026.
How much are tickets for the London Athletics Meet?
From £27 for an adult and from £7 for an under-16, plus booking fees, according to the stadium's own announcement. A full price table by seating band is not published in advance; the bands appear on the seat map when you book. The 2026 meeting sold out, so book early rather than close to the date.
What time should I arrive for the London Athletics Meet?
Between 09:00 and 10:30 for an 11:00 start, which is the quietest window of the day at Stratford because there is no pre-match hour. Going home is the harder half: the crowd leaves within about fifteen minutes of the last final, so either use the DLR at Pudding Mill Lane or stay in the park for an hour and let it clear.
Where are the best seats for athletics at the London Stadium?
Along the home straight for the sprints and the finishes, in the upper tier on the same side for distance races and field events, and behind the bend if you want the cheapest seats and do not mind watching the screen for the finishes. All the seats are under the roof.
What else can I do in the Olympic Park on the same day?
V&A East Museum and V&A East Storehouse are free and open until 22:00 on Saturdays, five minutes from the stadium. The ArcelorMittal Orbit viewing deck starts at £15 and its Helix slide at £19, both plus a £5 booking fee. The London Aquatics Centre sells public swims at local pool prices, and the park itself, its waterways and playgrounds cost nothing.
Sources
- London Stadium - Sports events listing, Novuna London Athletics Meet 2027 (checked September 2026)
- London Stadium - 2027 Novuna London Athletics Meet on sale, with 2027 prices (checked September 2026)
- London Stadium - About: capacity, re-configurable lower tier, wheelchair spaces and transport (checked September 2026)
- London Stadium - Getting here, event-day closures, accessible shuttle and what3words (checked September 2026)
- London Stadium - London submits final bid for the 2029 World Athletics Championships (checked September 2026)
- Wanda Diamond League - season calendar (checked September 2026)
- Zip World - ArcelorMittal Orbit 360 prices and opening (checked September 2026)
- Victoria and Albert Museum - V&A East Storehouse opening times (checked September 2026)