The Olympic Stadium [2010 Poll]

[James P]

Getting funding like Man City have is the footballing equivalent of winning the lottery. I play the lottery every week too. I don't base my day to day financial arrangements on the assumption I could win it soon. That would be reckless.

You may say I'm pessimistic, but I would say I have a better understanding of risk. The chances of us making the Champions League in the next ten years is in my opinion, far, far smaller than the chance of us getting relegated. Either could happen, neither could happen, both could happen. No one knows, but you can make guesses as to the probabilities of them happening.

Putting ourselves into a 60,000 seater athletics stadium on the basis that the least likely outcome is not impossible, is in my opinion foolish. As is the idea that such a stadium will suddenly make us cash-rich and more attractive to professional footballers with a short career and a hunger for money and medals. I have very little faith that the best case scenario were every single factor comes into place perfectly will actually come to pass and I think that the best case scenario is the only scenario which leaves us in a better position as a club as a whole. This goes wrong and it goes wrong spectacularly. In my opinion, the risk-reward ratio is skewed against us massively.

[chris the hammer]

James P.

I seems you are looking at it from the most pessimistic and negative of ways though. I could be wrong, and if I have taken your post the wrong way, then fair enough. Chris is looking at it as an optimistic and positive way. You can't say he's wrong because his opinion is the different end of the scale to yours.

If we stay up, what's to stay we can't start a period of progression? Start building, attracting better players, playing better football etc? You're looking at it as that we are definitely going down/will never reach a height better than relegation battle.

Are we gonna win the Premier League in 2020? You can't yes or no. 5 years ago, would you have said Man City would be title challengers or even nearly fill the City Of Manchester Stadium like they do now? No...but no-one could forsee a takeover and massive cash injection.

At last someone who wants more for West Ham than what were be getting for the last few years,
no-1} We cannot let them scumbags from north London move into the O.S. AT ALL COSTS.
no-2} why is us moving into the O.S. such a bad thing, with cheaper tickets i believe we would sell out most weeks, and slowly over time we could start to compete in the top half of the table, and as for the running track yes i hate the idea of that as the only time i went to the old wembley i never returned as i hated it, but i don't think it will be quite as bad as that and maybe over time something can be done about it

[Hampshire Hammer]

reduced season tickets - i can hear the 2 daves laughing from here !!!

Look do you really think they will not reduce ticket prices, its in their best interest to fill the O.S., yes once we start to fill the ground regularly of course prices will increase but they will sill be some of the cheapest around. and as for being the cheapest premiership tickets in London i think you find we already are poppy, so i think you find the Quote from Gold was some of the cheapest in the Premiership.

And that is exactly what some of us said at the time he said it, i.e. we already were.

Do the maths poppy they will not decrease all tickets across the board, in order to get the investment in the team to achieve the success to get near to filling the stadium they will need to increase revenue. There will be cheap areas, furthest back behind the goals would be my prediction. The thing that will fill the stadium will be success, not magically just because we have a bigger stadium. It is in their best interests to maximise revenue, which MAY not involve filling the stadium with day trippers at £10 a head, be assured there will be some very careful calculations and predictions going on to work out a pricing strategy and banding.

Until we know the details of the conversion plans and pricing strategy none of us know we can only guess, and hope. At the moment the space round the pitch seems a huge problem, plus the work that is needed to convert the facilities and roof. Based on nothing more than gut feel and looking at what was done at Brimingham I'm not convinced that that there will be anything more than a minimal job done.

[il_martello_di_genovesi]

Ok, forget Man City. But Spurs were used as the example here, and they haven't been a top 5 club conistently for 10 years like a Man Utd. They could easily get injuries and end up in **** street, which could lead to players leaving etc...They might not, the players might be loayl and they might win the league. But then we could stay up, build and do better.

We have loyal fans who are pissed off at paying £600 a year or £40 on the day for a circus. We have not had ahome attendance in the league under 31,000 I believe. Bottom of the league, not winning games, and yet are still average big crowds. I think people would be more than happy to go and watch West Ham play ****, but try for £250 a year or £25 on the day.

We can't not take risks based on future possibilites. You could be right, I could be wrong, and vice-versa. I do understand your post and can understand why you or anyone else would be apprehensive.

[Larry]

, and you cant count the 4 mickey mouse cups, .}

that's 4 more mickey mouse cups then us and seeing as you call them mickey mouse cups, should we get to the League cup final, then I really hope you won't be trying to buy a ticket for the final considering your attitude to the League Cup.

[bobd_uk]

They will HAVE to reduce season ticket prices for one simple reason. It will be very, very easy to get one off tickets. Over the last few years (not so much any more) it has been hard to get tickets for the Tottenham, Chelsea, Man U games at the BG. That will not be the case at the OS. People will not NEED a season ticket in order to get to all the games.

Personally, I would be amazed if we didn't see a drop of at least 20% in ST sales when/if we move into the OS, unless there is a substantial cut in their cost.

As we've seen this season, at £40-50 a ticket we can't even sell out the BG any more. The Tottenham game didn't sell out - we couldn't even sell out a semi-final match.

[Hampshire Hammer]

We have loyal fans who are pissed off at paying £600 a year or £40 on the day for a circus. We have not had ahome attendance in the league under 31,000 I believe. Bottom of the league, not winning games, and yet are still average big crowds. I think people would be more than happy to go and watch West Ham play sh*t, but try for £250 a year or £25 on the day.

We can't not take risks based on future possibilites. You could be right, I could be wrong, and vice-versa. I do understand your post and can understand why you or anyone else would be apprehensive.

If I was guessing I might predict a cheapest of circa £400 ST and £25 a game, which would be welcome BTW £250 is approx £13 a game.

I think this season might hit next years attendances, just going on the two seasons in the fizzy pop. Some STHs might not renew expecting ticket offers etc and going to pick and choose, and not many new STHs. There again maybe Chalks is just dragging me into his alternate depressed view of the world.

[chris the hammer]

Thanks guys, its been a great debate and i guess you will never change your views whether your for or against, but what i do know is that if spurs move in and start attracting new fans from our boroughs and especially Essex then the future for West Ham could be dyer as you wont get them fans back, ps i have to go now but look forward to future discussions.

[il_martello_di_genovesi]

Hampshire...Season Ticket incentive though. We don't seem to have these, these days, which pisses ST holders like me and others off. It's ok doing a £15 special on the day, which works out less than what we paid, and we're there for the long haul and duration of the season. People would snap up ST's at the price, Championship or not.

[James P]

We may have sold at least 31,000 for every game but ask any disgruntled STH, how many of these have been heavily discounted? That's in our current football stadium, and it's still 29,000 short of the 60,000 we need to sell out the OS.

Secondly, how do you propose we build a competitive squad on £250 a year season tickets? This is another requirement of the OS fairytale. I don't see how we can achieve the double jackpot of cheap football for the people AND the revenues to build a side to progress up the table. How do we do both simultaneously?

[chris the hammer]

that's 4 more mickey mouse cups then us.

Larry you really worry me with your knowledge of spurs trophies, i think you might be a spurs mole who somehow sneaked his way onto our forum shame on you...

[bobd_uk]

Would you pay £800-1000 a season for this view?

[HammerMan2004]

The Olympic Stadium should have standing sections on the running track. Fact.

Let everyone else sit in the top tier.

[Larry]

but what i do know is that if Sp*rs move in and start attracting new fans from our boroughs and especially Essex then the future for West Ham could be dyer as you wont get them fans back, :

TBH, even if Spurs stay and White Heart Lane, I think they will still start attracting future fans from our traditional catchment areas maybe I'm wrong but I think the days of kids supporting the clubs of their dad and grandfathers are gone and todays kids when chosing their team are more likely to start to support the teams who are always top of the league and winning trophies.

[Larry]

[]

Larry you really worry me with your knowledge of Sp*rs trophies, i think you might be a Sp*rs mole who somehow sneaked his way onto our forum shame on you...

LOL - Not at all I'm just a student of football history and have a Spurs, supporting brother..

[Hampshire Hammer]

Thanks guys, its been a great debate and i guess you will never change your views whether your for or against, but what i do know is that if Sp*rs move in and start attracting new fans from our boroughs and especially Essex then the future for West Ham could be dyer as you wont get them fans back, ps i have to go now but look forward to future discussions.

TBH fair with today's fans, I know that makes me sound old, success is a greater draw than locality. Just look round our traditional areas and see how many Chelsea, Arsenal and Spuds shirts you see? I agree that Spuds getting the O/S would impact our support, partly due to them targetting the local schools and partly just that I think it would increase their income and help increase their success. But at the moment we are probably the fourth biggest draw in London, that won't change drastically for the worse unless we spend a few years in the championship. And it pains me to say it but we are a long way back from the first three in attractiveness for new support. The O/S might attract some, but success will attract more and make them more likely to stay around.

The only reason I might be in favour of the O/S is location and the increase in awareness it would bring the club, but until I know more details of the conversion I have to say I'm more on the no side of the fence.

[Aceface]

How do you propose we build a competitive squad on £250 a year season tickets? This is another requirement of the OS fairytale. I don't see how we can achieve the double jackpot of cheap football for the people AND the revenues to build a side to progress up the table. How do we do both simultaneously?

The naming rights for the stadium alone are apparently worth £150 million every 10 years

[il_martello_di_genovesi]

We may have sold at least 31,000 for every game but ask any disgruntled STH, how many of these have been heavily discounted? That's in our current football stadium, and it's still 29,000 short of the 60,000 we need to sell out the OS.

Secondly, how do you propose we build a competitive squad on £250 a year season tickets? This is another requirement of the OS fairytale. I don't see how we can achieve the double jackpot of cheap football for the people AND the revenues to build a side to progress up the table. How do we do both simultaneously?

£250 is just an example. But the cheapest season ticket at West Ham is about £600? Chop it enough to entice people to still come and add extra incentives. £450 an ST. Plus one free cup game in with that. A voucher or two to get a second match ticket at half the price etc.

We hit over 30,000 at the Barnsley game with £10 a ticket. It shows what putting ticket prices down can do.

26,000 at £600= £15.6m
40,000 at £450= £18m
40,000 at £400= £16m.

So it's easily to sustain/earn a tad more by selling season tickets cheaper if the demand goes up. Which I believe will if they are cheaper.

[chris the hammer]

I know i said i was going but one last thought, how about we rip up all the seats at West Ham and go back to standing with a capacity of 50,000 bring season tickets down by a third, let spurs have the O.S. and when their inside set light to it, problem solved, just a thought.

[il_martello_di_genovesi]

I know i said i was going but one last thought, how about we rip up all the seats at West Ham and go back to standing with a capacity of 50,000 bring season tickets down by a third, let Sp*rs have the O.S. and when their inside set light to it, problem solved, just a thought.

Hmmm...

I'm sure if this happens...Sullivan and Brady will have Avram's fingerprints over every flammable substance in a 4 mile radius.