Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

[Smudger1]

Isn’t the legal case on the stadium capacity set for sometime in November ? Pretty sure I read or heard that in the spring, maybe one of the London Assembly meetings..

[Kialos]

Considering the actual attendances are some way below the current capacity I'm not sure why the cub are making such a fuss, especially as they are expecting others to pay for it

[SullySpecial]

Why does Brady want 3,000 more empty seats?

[Suffolk Iron]

Why does Brady want 3,000 more empty seats?

She doesn't care how many empty seats there are, just as long as they've been paid for.

[eastsider]

I suppose to be fair, that after the incoming transfers recently they think that more season tickets / machday tickets can be sold??!!

[MD_HM]

Went to the Athletics World Cup last night and the contrast in treatment was incredible.

Less vigorous security checks

Staff inside the Stadium encouraging people to take up closer seats that weren’t theirs

The stop/go people dancing to the cha cha slide

Enterance into Westfield by the Cow open after the event

Enterance into the shopping centre being allowed with car parking ticket shown

[mushy]

Went to the Athletics World Cup last night and the contrast in treatment was incredible.

Less vigorous security checks

Staff inside the Stadium encouraging people to take up closer seats that weren’t theirs

The stop/go people dancing to the cha cha slide

Enterance into Westfield by the Cow open after the event

Enterance into the shopping centre being allowed with car parking ticket shown

What was the attendance?
Photos I saw it looked very poor.

[Rays Rock]

Estimated at a total of 50k over 2 full days of competition
35 k empty seats per day.

[HammerMan2004]

Entrance into Westfield by the Cow open after the event

This is the thing that pisses me off more than most. Those barriers just create bottlenecks. Just let people disperse they way they want to.

[MD_HM]

They said 25k last night, events were between 7pm-10pm.

The Westfield bit annoyed me more than anything as they have made it so hard for us over the last two years and treated us like crap

[mushy]

Not defending Westfield at all but guess it's a lot easier coping with 25k then 50k.

[WestHamIFC]

Estimated at a total of 50k over 2 full days of competition
35 k empty seats per day.

So, so predictable. Can you imagine if had it stayed as an Athletics Only stadium, as per the original plan?! :shock: Large numbers of empty seats during the summer events, then Tumbleweed for the rest of the year!

We’ve SAVED the Tax-payer from much bigger losses, but Dan Raon won’t tell you that..

All Hail ‘Lord’ Coe!

[Ozza]

Makes the decision not to include football as the long term solution when designing the bloody thing close to criminal.

How Coe has walked away from this without any **** sticking to him is incredible

[HammerMan2004]

So, so predictable. Can you imagine if had it stayed as an Athletics Only stadium, as per the original plan?! :shock: Large numbers of empty seats during the summer events, then Tumbleweed for the rest of the year!

To be fair, the original plan was to remove the upper tier completely leaving just the lower bowl.

[WestHamIFC]

To be fair, the original plan was to remove the upper tier completely leaving just the lower bowl.

Yes but we are already down to getting only 25k crowds on just 2 days out of 365 days in a year!

Give it another few years they'll be struggling to get even 15k...

Hardly a viable claim that Athletics could have supported a 25k Lower Tier only stadium (with NO ROOF)!

[hammerman11]

depends how much we want the bowl. or if gsb just happy with the minimal cost at the moment. an offer around 60-80m will solve the problem for khan as the dust bowl loses around 15m a year in its current format.

if we pushed for the stadium we should get it. 25k attendance and it costs 10m to remove and put back our seats !

move the athletics to Birmingham and let us get on with the footie in the bowl.

then there is the cost of redesigning it with seats nearer the pitch and other amendments. all that costs money maybe another 60m so you can see why gsb are reluctant .

[Hammer.CA]

Martin Samuel's column in the Mail today (I know, I know).

There were so many empty seats at the London Stadium this weekend, one could have been forgiven for thinking it was a West Ham game, and the opposition had scored. But it was something even more likely to get fans flooding to the exits: athletics. And not even good athletics, either.

The big names had pulled out of the fledgling World Cup, leaving a poor field. The official line is that crowds of 20,000-plus both days were relatively healthy for the sport — but not for us if taking into account the cost of stadium conversion.

If a crowd roughly the size of a Bristol City home game is considered decent, one wonders why UK Athletics are so insistent on commanding a 60,000-capacity arena, when it is plainly in need of retooling to suit the needs of its primary tenant, West Ham.

It is to be hoped the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham can resolve this issue. Athletics can then decamp to a purpose-built venue, West Ham — not the taxpayer — can pay for the remodelling needed to make the London Stadium feel like home, and the public can stop financing an annual conversion that exists primarily to salve the ego of Lord Coe and his cronies whose fault this is.

[Big George]

More Newham fallout

Newham council threw £40 million of public money “down the drain” when it backed the flawed deal to turn the Olympic stadium into West Ham’s new home, according to an independent report released today.
The borough’s newly elected mayor Rokhsana Fiaz said the council ignored specialist advice that a projected multi-million-pound return on the investment was not achievable, and failed to properly scrutinise the final decision.
Former mayor Sir Robin Wales promised a £3 million-a-year profit for the council from the 2013 agreement to grant a 99-year concession to the Hammers at the Stratford venue.
However, the financial returns never materialised and the independent review by Peter Oldham QC found that the council’s external financial advisers, Navigant, had warned that the stake “was not value for money”.
At last night’s full council meeting Ms Fiaz said: “The report helpfully tells us that concerns raised by financial advisers at the time — namely that a £3 million return on a £40 million investment wasn’t achievable — was ignored.
“So while the council had the legal power to invest in the stadium, the final decision to invest £40 million in March 2013 was flawed.
“The council wrongly decided that one of its own self-imposed conditions for investment — the condition of an annual financial return of £3 million per annum — was met, despite financial experts casting doubt on that. So ultimately  that was £40 million of investment by Newham council down the drain.
“The vision for the stadium and the benefits it could provide was exciting. But frankly the enthusiasm for the stadium’s potential far outweighed the scrutiny that should have happened.”
The money was borrowed from the Treasury and was written off by the local authority in December.
In total Newham invested £52.2 million in the stadium, injecting a further £12.2 million in working capital between February 2015 and June 2017, in return for free event tickets and 10 community days a year.
Last year Sadiq Khan described a “catalogue of errors” that led to him having to take direct control of the stadium built for the 2012 Olympics.
In a report ordered by the Mayor, accountants Moore Stephens detailed a litany of misjudgments, including underestimating the cost of retractable seating that allows the 60,000-capacity venue — now the London stadium — to be used for Premier League games during the football season, but other events such as athletics in the summer.
Newham council said today that it had nothing to add to previous comments from Sir Robin who said in December: “It is regrettable that the finances of the stadium have not followed the expected course. It was vital for Newham, however, that the stadium remained a public asset in public ownership, to maximise its regeneration, community and other financial benefits.”

[the pink palermo]

With regard the statement from Newham Council

Sir Robin Wales -was he incompetent ? Or was it something worse ?

Given the amount of public money wasted by the Council of which he was Mayor I'm amazed there isn't a detailed forensic examination of decisions made and the justifications thereof.

[Knighter10WHU]

Just reacting to Martin Samuel's piece in the mail and he is absolutely right. It is the best solution for all parties involved. Athletics moves to a smaller more suitable stadium in the middle of the country and we get the stadium for free or for a nominal cost and have to pay for any conversion costs in the future.