The Copper Box Arena is a multi-sport venue built for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, located in the

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a sporting complex and public park in Stratford, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Bow, in east London. It was purpose-built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, situated adjacent to the Stratford City devel ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. Previously known as the Handball Arena, it was renamed because, aside from

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

, it hosted

modern pentathlon The modern pentathlon is an Summer Olympics, Olympic multisport that consists of five events: fencing (one-touch épée followed by direct elimination), freestyle swimming, obstacle course racing, Laser pistol (sport), laser pistol shooting, and ...

(fencing, shooting, swimming, horse jumping and running) during the Olympics and was the

goalball Goalball is a team sport designed specifically for athletes with a visual impairment, vision impairment. Participants compete in teams of three, and try to throw a ball with bells embedded inside it into the opponents' goal. The ball is throw ...

venue for the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Sum ...

History

London's Olympic bid proposed that there would be four indoor arenas in the Olympic Park, in addition to other main venues, but the revised masterplan published in 2006 reduced this to three, with the volleyball being moved to

Earls Court Exhibition Centre Earls Court Exhibition Centre was a major international exhibition and events venue in London, England. At its peak it is said to have generated a £2 billion turnover for the economy. It replaced exhibition and entertainment grounds, original ...

. The fencing arena was also cancelled, and the fencing took place at ExCeL. Construction of the building was completed on time in early 2011 and came in under budget. The design incorporates light pipes and rainwater collectors to reduce both energy and water use by 40%. Test events were successfully hosted at the venue ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. In January 2012, the venue was renamed the Copper Box from the Handball Arena, thus reflecting the look of the building and the fact that it would not just be used for Handball. British Handball campaigned for the rebrand to be reversed.

Olympics

The Copper Box has 7,000 seats. It was used for

preliminaries and

fencing during the Olympic Games, and for

during the

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disability, disabilities. There are Winter Paralympic Games, Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 ...

. The handball men's quarter-finals, all semi-finals and both finals were held at the larger Basketball Arena. The Copper Box was praised for its loud, exciting atmosphere during handball games. For the Paralympics goalball events the crowd in the Box were required to be quiet.

Post-Olympics

The venue has been adapted into a multi-sport arena for community use, athlete training and major events.

British Basketball League The British Basketball League (BBL) was a men's professional basketball sports league, league in Great Britain. Since its establishment in 1987 the BBL represented the highest level of basketball competition within the United Kingdom. The orga ...

side London Lions relocated to the Copper Box for the 2013–14 season. They played their first game there on 14 August 2013 in front of a sell-out crowd, losing 72–107 to the Iowa Hawkeyes American college basketball team in an exhibition match. The Lions' women's team, playing in the WBBL, moved to the venue in 2017. The venue played host to the 2015 Netball Superleague Grand Final, which saw the Surrey Storm win their first Netball Superleague title, defeating the Hertfordshire Mavericks, 56–39. The venue is the home arena for the London Pulse, who since 2018 have played in the Superleague. It has also hosted several home test matches for the England national team. The Copper Box hosted the

London Grand Prix The London Athletics Meet, formerly known as the London Grand Prix and subsequently as the Anniversary Games and London Diamond League, is an annual athletics event held in London, England. Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix even ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

tournament on 1–6 October 2013. The London Grand Prix forms part of the

Badminton World Federation The Badminton World Federation, aka BWF, is the international governing body for the sport of badminton approved by the International Olympic Committee. It was founded on 5 July 1934 as the International Badminton Federation with nine member ...

's Grand Prix Gold series. The

Wheelchair Rugby Wheelchair rugby (originally murderball, and known as quad rugby in the United States) is a team sport for Disabled sport, athletes with a disability. It is practiced in over twenty-five countries around the world and is a summer Paralympic spor ...

event at the 2014

Invictus Games The Invictus Games is an international multi-sport event first held in 2014, for wounded, injured and sick military service personnel, both serving and veterans. The word 'Invictus' is Latin for 'unconquered', chosen as an embodiment of th ...

was held at the venue in September 2014, as was the BT World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge in October 2015. London GD Handball Club, one of the oldest handball clubs in the country, used the venue for its home matches. The floor was badly damaged during a mass fitness event in January 2014, resulting in several netball internationals having to be played elsewhere at the last minute. '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' and '' Super Smash Bros. Melee''

DreamHack DreamHack is a Swedish ESL Gaming brand specializing in esports tournaments and other gaming conventions; at its root, a massive LAN party and computer festival, recognized by ''Guiness World Records'' and Twin Galaxies as being the world's l ...

London 2015 took place at the Copper Box on 19–20 September. On 3 February 2018, the Copper Box hosted the amateur boxing fight between

YouTubers A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

KSI and Joe Weller. It has also hosted IBF boxing. From 22 to 25 February 2018, the venue played host to the ITTF Team World Cup table tennis competition. The Rocket League Championship Series Season 5 World Championship, an Esports event sponsored by Psyonix, the video game company who created ''

Rocket League ''Rocket League'' is a 2015 vehicular Association football, soccer video game developed and published by Psyonix for various home consoles and computers. A sequel to 2008's ''Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars'', ''Rocket League ...

'', was hosted there on 8–10 June 2018. The event was notable for "The Shot", in which Justin "jstn." Morales, a player on NRG, scored a last-second goal that forced overtime in game 7 of the World Championship Grand Final Bracket Reset. The RLCS would return to the Copper Box for the 2021–2022 season Spring Major on 29 June–3 July 2022, with crowds only being present on the final two days.

Moist Esports Moist Esports was an American esports organization founded in 2021 by Charles White Jr., also known as MoistCr1TiKaL, and was co-owned by several others, including Ludwig Ahgren. The organization had teams competing in ''Guilty Gear Strive'', '' ...

won that Major's Grand Final 4–3 in series 1 and 4–0 in the Bracket Reset. Great Britain played Kazakhstan at the arena in April 2019, in the tennis Fed Cup World Group II play-offs. On 31 August 2019, the venue was used for

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Puroresu, Japanese professional-wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, and based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is currently majority owned by card-game company Bushiroad, with TV As ...

's show in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, Royal Quest. NJPW returned to the Copper Box for Royal Quest III on 13 October 2023. From 14 to 16 November 2019 the venue hosted X0, an annual event presented by

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

. Between January and July 2020, the Copper Box Arena was used as the home venue for the London Royal Ravens, an

eSports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

team taking part in the inaugural Call of Duty League. The

Apex Legends Global Series The ''Apex Legends'' Global Series (ALGS) is a global competitive esports tournament series for the video game ''Apex Legends'' run by Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment. The series uses a promotion and relegation system throughout each s ...

Year 3 Split 1 finals, was hosted there on 2-5 Feb 2023. The arena was one of the three venues selected to host matches in the 2021 Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup. The arena hosted the League of Legends MSI 2023 tournament between May 2-21, 2023.

Revolution Pro Wrestling Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro/RPW) is a British professional wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on 26 August 2012 by Andy Quildan after separating from International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom. Revolution Pro Wre ...

(Otherwise known as RevPro) hosted their 11th and 12th anniversary shows at the venue on 26 August 2023 and 24 August 2024, each one day before

All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. It is owned and operated by Shahid Khan, Shahid and Tony Khan, with the latter serving as President (corporate title), president an ...

's All In 2023 and

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

events at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. In November 2023, the arena was used for the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup play-offs between

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, which determine which team is relegated below the qualifying rounds in 2024.

References

External links

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park websiteGym and fitness centre website

London 2012 Olympics profile

Make Architects website
{{Navboxes, list1= {{2012 Summer Olympics venues {{2012 Summer Paralympics venues {{Olympic venues fencing {{Olympic venues handball {{Olympic venues modern pentathlon {{Indoor arenas UK {{2021 RLWC Venues 2012 Summer Paralympic venues Badminton in England Badminton venues Basketball venues in England Boxing venues in the United Kingdom Hackney Wick Hackney, London Handball at the 2012 Summer Olympics Handball venues in the United Kingdom Indoor arenas in London Netball venues in England Olympic fencing venues Olympic handball venues Olympic modern pentathlon venues Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Venues of the 2012 Summer Olympics Wrestling venues in the United Kingdom