Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

[taffhammer]

So she welcomes them to ' our ' stadium. It was embarassing watching them all carefully step over the crumpled green material around the pitch. If its our stadium why don't we chip in a few bob , finish it off and put a bit more claret and blue West Ham stuff around the stadium and surrounding area ?

[sanchoz]

Forgot to say Newham Recorder live tweeted yesterday from the London Assembly meeting regarding LLDC.

David Bellamy of GLA says delays by Moore Stephen, which is investigating London Stadium’s financial sustainability, "just not acceptable"

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Moore Stephens given timeline of three months & paid £150k to investigate £51million increase of @LondonStadium costs - still not finished

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Moore Stephens will be "spoken to very strong terms" to determine publication date of @LondonStadium review.

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David Bellamy, London mayor's chief of staff, says GLA "not been idle" in identifying financial challenges & there are "activities underway"

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@noordinarypark boss David Goldstone says engineering studies are going on to make @LondonStadium seats more effective & easy 2 reconfigure

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He also says crowd control is also being addressed which "will reduce stewarding costs significantly" in future at @LondonStadium

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LLDC chief executive asked if £200m E20 deficit "can be fixed" by @LondonAssembly budget committee. He is confident it can, he says

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David Bellamy, London mayor's chief of staff asked if LLDC will remain part owner of E20 in future. He says no plans for it not to be.

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David Goldstone LLDC boss says London Stadium had "fantastically successful" summer with athletics and concerts.....

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It has led to "unprompted" approaches to @LondonStadium about discussions around future events

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David Goldstone of LLDC admits sponsorship rights from different stadium partners "does make it a challenging sell" to sponsors

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Looking for a partner for naming rights has been put on hold. @LondonAssembly says LLDC needs to work with @WestHamUtd more on this

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LLDC chief executive says masterplans for cultural and education districts are to be remodelled and planning consultations are now live

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[Nesticles]

So she welcomes them to ' our ' stadium. It was embarassing watching them all carefully step over the crumpled green material around the pitch. If its our stadium why don't we chip in a few bob , finish it off and put a bit more claret and blue West Ham stuff around the stadium and surrounding area ?

Because (as you are alluding to), despite the show she enjoys putting on we are tenants. Our landlord would not allow us to decorate the stadium in claret and blue colours.

Despite being die hard West Ham fans born and bred etc, I would say there is a better chance of Gold and Sullivan changing our shirt colour to a nice grey/concrete shade to match the stadium we are currently renting to play our football in.

[sanchoz]

Budget Monitoring Sub-Committee - David Goldstone

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LLDC stopped marketing before summer 2017, says it’s Chief Executive to #AssemblyBudget. Watch the meeting HERE http://bit.ly/2hM9Swi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Full 2 hour conversation at the London Assembly here:

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[sanchoz]

Newly un-redacted (up to a point) minutes from 30/08/2016 till July of this year London Stadium Safety Advisory Group can be found here:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ ... ng-1056264" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

biggest takeaways I can see so far is the true attendances of Burnley, Hull, Man Utd and Man City at home are released and not redacted as well as lots of details of what happened behind the scenes at the Watford match as reported in the emergency meeting from 15/09/16

[sanchoz]

And finally, Newham have released a listing of how their free tickets were distributed for the 2016/17 season

https://www.newham.gov.uk/Pages/Service ... asons.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mushy]

Sanchoz,
what is your summary of the above?
I cannot see many games on that list that includes residents tickets, and yet I have copies of emails from Newham offering me tickets for matches that dont seem to include tickets for residents (Stoke City as one example).
Am a reading the list incorrectly?

[mushy]

I also note that despite claiming constantly to being a West Ham season ticket holder, Sir Robin Wales seems to be in hospitality just about every home game.
So thats where the 40 million has gone then.

[Mega Ron]

And finally, Newham have released a listing of how their free tickets were distributed for the 2016/17 season

https://www.newham.gov.uk/Pages/Service ... asons.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seems to me that most of the 'free' tickets are being taken up in the corporate sections by councillors and businesses.

[sanchoz]

One thing I can see is the Clapton ultras not being happy Clapton FC got free tickets for the Stratford Stadium.

Also with roughly 3000 tickets each for the Astra, Accrington Stanley and Domzale matches and around 50-100 on a ballot per other game, they are nowhere near 100,000 tickets over the course of the season.

The caveat though was always "up to..."

[mushy]

10,925.

That seems the be the total number of tickets given away all season either by LBN or E20.
Not all to residents either, other groups have been given tickets.
Its about a tenth of the amount they promised in their spiel .

[Diogenes]

10,925.

That seems the be the total number of tickets given away all season either by LBN or E20.
Not all to residents either, other groups have been given tickets.
Its about a tenth of the amount they promised in their spiel .

Is that not Newhams problem rather than ours?

[mushy]

Is that not Newhams problem rather than ours?

Depends if you either live in Newham (as some of us still do), or you think the Stadium was procured under false promises to the local council tax payers,or if you think out loyal support has been had over.
Clearly none of this either bothers or matters to you.

[Kialos]

Many thanks to Sanchoz. It takes a lot of time and effort to get this information released and often not without obstacles being put in the way.

[hammers92]

Newham Council and LLDC must really despise you Sanchoz :lol:

Thanks for all you’ve done so far!

[brownout]

Vice-Chairman delighted to welcome Royal guests to London Stadium

But today is all about you - the 150 young people who sit here today thanks to the work of Coach Core, positively brimming with potential and ready to make a real difference.

Well it's a good thing we moved to Stratford. We'd never have been able to accommodate as many as 150 young people at Upton Park.

'All about you' she says after making sure she's told everyone how wonderful she and her iconic stadium are.

[aaronhammer]

So it appears increasing the capacity to 60k (let alone up to 66k) is completely off the table as it’s not been talked about since August 2016?

[the pink palermo]

Sanchoz

Good work .

[sanchoz]

Newham Council and LLDC must really despise you Sanchoz :lol:

Thanks for all you’ve done so far!

Hope not. Got a few more FOI's to raise in the future....

Thank you to those thanking. Had a lot of support from people and guidance/advise along the way. As a committee member of WHUISA, I will carry on doing what I do for the benefit of all WHUFC fans so you can see for yourself what goes on with those responsible for the stadium we play in and the local area and you can make your own mind up based on that information or ask questions yourself.

http://www.whuisa.org/join-whuisa/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Gunz412]

Interesting article in 'The Times'. Need more of these to shame the money grabbing owners.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/spor ... -gw9scdst9" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

West Ham United fans still don’t feel at home in ‘soulless’ London Stadium

Alyson Rudd discovers broken promises and not enough bubbles at former Olympic venue
On the very same day that a West Ham United supporters’ match-day hub opened at the London Stadium, the 70-year-old supporters’ club back at the old Boleyn Ground was forced to close.

It is tempting to see some deep significance in the events a few weeks ago, to suppose that fans have moved on both literally and metaphorically and are getting to grips with life in their new home. Nothing could be further from the truth. The London Stadium is not yet home, the fans bemoan its lack of community spirit and believe the match-day experience is far removed from what was promised.
West Ham have gone for the cheap option, in classic Del Boy fashion, but the people who are millionaires are the board and players.

This evening marks the first home game for the club since the victory over Swansea City last month, a game in which neither the players nor the fans bothered to make an effort until the last ten minutes. As apathy mingled with jeers it seemed as if the whole concept of home advantage had evaporated.
The original supporters’ club building is something of a cause célèbre and a crowdfunding initiative has been launched to renovate it so that it can meet the health and safety requirements that were breached and led to its closure. “We’ve lost enough as it is with leaving the Boleyn, we don’t want to lose any more,” Paul Christmas, chairman of the West Ham United Independent Supporters’ Association (WHUISA), explains.

This does not represent a refusal to accept the death of Upton Park. Christmas says that the ideal outcome would be for there to be two supporters’ clubs, the original one, formed in 1947, and a new one at the London Stadium. “The fans have had so much change they are looking for some of the old experiences they had at Upton Park to help cushion the blow,” he says.
The contrast between the match-day routine for games at the Boleyn and games at the new ground could not be more stark and is at the heart of why there is often little in the way of a decent atmosphere inside the stadium. “We are tenants in a semi-converted athletics stadium while our London rivals have or will have state-of-the-art, purpose-built football stadiums,” Christmas says.

“West Ham have gone for the cheap option, in classic Del Boy fashion, but the people who are millionaires are the board and players. The fans are trying to make it our home but it’s not easy.”
It hurts that Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea are developing stadiums at their original grounds. “We are going to a stadium but it could be anyone’s,” Kim Perryman, a season ticket-holder says. “Spurs at Wembley has fan parks sorted and branded it well and they are only there for a season, while we are at the London Stadium for the next 98 years.”

The grumbles start early on match day. The Westfield shopping centre does not welcome fans and the walks from the various stations are long and boring. “We have moved from the centre of an urban community to a vast expanse of a park with little infrastructure,” Christmas says. “With there being so many stakeholders it takes time for any meaningful change to come about, if at all. The fans have to focus on what West Ham can actually do. In reality, that is little.”

Perryman accepts that the club have made some welcome changes after the mistakes of the first season. Stewards are friendlier, fans have been able to sit with their mates and the club ditched its policy of putting tourists behind the goal which made robust singing impossible. Karren Brady, the vice-chairman, meets regularly with bloggers to get their feedback and the club have introduced 40 match-day supporter liaison officers who listen to gripes.

Perryman, a WHUISA committee member, likes her seat and her view but had to pay £300 more for it than she did at Upton Park. “It does feel temporary and, inside, looks temporary,” she says. “There is disillusionment over what we were promised. Retractable seating was promised across the track and that never happened. We know we’re only tenants and no more important than a rock concert.
“There has to be far more engagement. There is a feeling that, as long as we pay our money, they don’t care.”

Christmas believes the promise that the club would shift to the next level in performance has been broken. “The fans have kept their side of the bargain as they have sold out 52,000 season tickets,” he says. “A team that is successful and entertains, we will respond to that. The board pledged we would go to the next level. That would help to melt away a few of the issues.

“The pledge of a solution to the distance of seats to pitch failed when the proposed company went bust so we have scaffolding for the lower tier. Fans were very close at Upton Park, now few are within ten yards of the pitch — the vast majority are 20 to 90 yards away.”

For the match-day vibe of old to be replicated, the restructuring of the Olympic Park has to be finished and that could take 20 years which, as Perryman says, “is a long time to wait”.

In the meantime, the WHUISA wants better lighting and sign posting, improved access for disabled fans, more team information on the big screens, a few more bubble machines, cheaper food and beer, scarf and badge sellers and market stalls. “We’re trying to keep the spit and sawdust element,” Christmas says. “We had a vibrant atmosphere pre-match at Upton Park. We’ve got none of that now, it’s very soulless.”