Sports	Basketball Wheelchair Basketball Wheelchair Rugby Handball
Capacity	12,000
Post Olympics	Dismantled and taken elsewhere, possibly Rio
Architect / Builders	Sinclair Knight Merz, Wilkinson Eyre and KSS Design Group / Barr Construction
Time to build	15 months
Cost	£43 million ($70 million)

The Basketball Arena will be playing host to handball as well as basketball during the Olympics, as well as both wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby when the Paralympics roll around.

This means organisers have just under 24 hours to turn the arena from a basketball venue to one fit for handball.

Even less time will be available to transform the site into a wheelchair rugby venue after wheelchair basketball, with just 12 hours for organisers 

The fourth largest venue in the Olympic Park, the basketball arena is the largest temporary venue that will ever have been used for an Olympic Games.

It can be packed up and reconstructed elsewhere, with the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics looking at using it.

Though it will host group games and quarter finals in the Olympic basketball tournament, the semi-finals and finals of the men's and women's tournaments are set to be held at the North Greenwich Arena to accommodate more spectators.

The first test event to take place at the Olympic Park was held in August 2011, with France winning the title ahead of Australia.

It will be one of the most heavily used venues in the Park, built on a network of revitalised canals and a river with history dating back to the bronze and iron ages.

Events will be taking place every day, and approximately 500,000 spectators will visit the arena during the Games.


It will be hosting semi finals and the final of the Handball tournament, and its giant frame took just less than three months to construct in 2010.

It will also be holding basketball group games and quarter finals, with the competition then moving onto the North Greenwich Arena.

Its canvas is made up of fabric which will be used for spectacular lighting during the Games.

Construction of the £43 million venue was completed in June 2011.