Oh the irony! World’s biggest McDonald’s to open… on the OLYMPICS site

• Restaurant will have 1,500 seats and is half the length of an American football field
• One in five meals sold at the Games will be a McDonald’s

Sports-loving spectators at the London 2012 Olympics could have a battle of will power on their hands – as McDonald’s has announced it will open its biggest ever branch close to the park. 

The 3,000 square-metre restaurant stretches over two floors and is equivalent to half the length of an American football field. It has 1,500 seats and will be one of four stores opening including one in the athletes’ village in Stratford, east London. The restaurant will employ 470 staff to serve around 50,000 Big Macs, 100,000 portions of fries and 30,000 milkshakes during the Games.

Supersize me: The new McDonald’s at the Olympic Park in east London is set to be the world’s largest for the chain

It has been claimed that one in five meals purchased during the Olympics will be a McDonald’s.

‘In our main restaurant at Olympic Park, every hour will be three times as busy as our current busiest outlet in the UK,’ said UK vice-president Steve Easterbrook. ‘Around 14 million meals will be sold, of which a McDonald’s meal will be one in five.’

The fast food outlet’s UK chief executive Jill McDonald has called the announcement ‘hugely exciting.’

Meanwhile, Olympic chiefs have moved quickly to reject claims that the new McDonald’s will deter from aims to promote a healthy and active lifestyle, which London chiefs have been pushing since winning the Olympic bid.

Quick off the mark: The design of the McDonald’s interior is vastly different from its usual decor

A member of the Olympics team told londonolympics-2012.net: ‘McDonald’s has been a supporter of the Olympic movement and sport in general for decades. ‘Whilst there will be a number of McDonald’s restaurants on the Park,  this will be alongside a diverse and full-range of other local food offerings which we are committed to providing. ‘We will cater for the wide range of people attending the Games, from athletes to spectators.’ The fast-food chain will serve the Happy Meal, aimed at children, for the first time at its Olympics’ venues.

Next year’s London Olympics will be the ninth consecutive games where McDonald’s has acted as the event’s official restaurant and the only branded food retailer feeding the athletes.

Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest man who won gold at the 100 metres in Beijing, claimed that chicken McNuggets were key to his success. The Jamaican, dubbed Lightning Bolt, said: ‘I woke around 11am and decided to watch some TV and had some nuggets. ‘Then I slept for a couple of hours more. Then I got some more nuggets and came to the track.’

Ingredients for the McDonald’s menu at London 2012 will be sourced from 17,500 British and Irish farms.

The fast-food chain is also putting together its largest ever team to serve spectators and athletes at London 2012. Some 2,000 staff will be behind the counters across the month.

McDonald’s has been a long-standing sponsor of the Olympic Games since 1968, when the company airlifted hamburgers to home-sick American athletes in Grenoble, France.

In April, McDonald’s reported a soar in global profit of $1.2bn (£730m), up 10.9 per cent from the previous year with revenue rising by 9 per cent to $6.1bn.

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