The Olympic Stadium [2010 Poll]

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Do you support the proposed move to an Olympic Stadium with a running track, post-2012 games?

Poll ended at Thu Jun 03, 2010 1:48 am

Yes
75
18%
No
299
73%
Undecided
36
9%
 
Total votes: 410

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old fart
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by old fart »

well so long as we can hold the javelin event when Spurs come calling :arry:
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GideaParkHammer
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by GideaParkHammer »

prince_huggy wrote: :clap: Very well put Mr DC. If it means staying on top (or in the middle as we are) then everyone will just have to suck it in and put up with the ground and track.
Or think "f*** this" and go and watch the game at a pub that shows every West Ham game on TV.
Last edited by GideaParkHammer on Thu May 20, 2010 4:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Wembley1966
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by Wembley1966 »

GideaParkHammer wrote: Re your first point. We will be paying a fixed lease in order to rent the stadium whether we fill it or not. As we own our current stadium, we pay no rent and many of the stadium costs can be increased/ reduced depending on attendance.
Might do what Man City do - they pay a fixed rent and any attendances they get above a certain amount are then shared with the owners.
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by prince_huggy »

GideaParkHammer wrote:Or think "f*** this" and go and watch the game at a pub that shows every West Ham game on TV.
But would everone do that? :wink:
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by GideaParkHammer »

prince_huggy wrote: But would everone do that? :wink:
It is as hypothetical as assuming that our gates would go up to 50,000. The truth is we know we can fill a 35,000 stadium, we would be likely to fill out a 40,000 extended Boleyn Ground, however any increase above this at a stadium with a track is like trying to figure out the unknown.

I have been consistent in my view that it is one HUGE risk. It depends how much of a gambler someone is. We could fill out a 50,000 stadium and become a huge force in football, or we could be a soulless club, with a half empty stadium and no way out, and with finances worse than they are now.
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by taffhammer »

Mike420 wrote:Well that throws a spanner in the works. So according to that we'll have a better view than wembley?
but thats from the rear seats, the front seats would be alot further away than the front seats at wembley. Therefore killing any atmosphere.
It's got to be without a running track, we will be a laughing stock. I'm all for a move to the right place and if they have to keep it for athletics at 25 000 let them. But is there not room anywhere else on the site for us to start a stadium from scratch, build a bottom tier right up to the pitch side and then buy their top tier (which can be moved) and use it on our stadium ?
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by hadleighhammer »

davids cross wrote:[
Sp*rs, Chelsea, Arsenal will all disappear over the horizon if we don't do something. Even now we can't beat any of them, they are hugely stronger than us in every way. Give it a few more years when Arsenal have paid of the debt for their stadium, Sp*rs will have an amazing stadium and Chelsea have the money to do anything they like while Roman is there and we will never be competitive with them ever again, not even to tug their coats once in a while. This opportunity is huge, it is an amazing stadium but we all know the downside, the track. I think we will become irrelevant in London, in an on the pitch sense if we don't move. Some will be happy for us to remain as we are and meander on at The Boleyn, for me I would like to keep up with the teams I've regarded as rivals all my life...........If there is another way, build up The Boleyn capacity, but I don't see it happening. Build a football stadium of our own, won't happen. The Olympic Stadium is a way of keeping pace with the people around us. I'm torn because of the view, really torn but on balance I think we have to move and make the best of it. To stay where we are as we are will sadly see us drop further behind and probably never recover.
So we continue as London's 4th club, the position we've been in for 50+ years? I'm not going to lose any sleep.

What I will worry about is tking a massive risk moving to this 60k stadium just for some complex in keeping up with the Jones's (who we've historically lagged behind anyway), with the very real threat we end up with a soulless, half-empty, half-arsed bowl we don't own for the rest of the club's days.

This is the real differing point from what I can see. Some are willing to take the risk for some success, others aren't.
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by Yorkshire 'ammer »

Upton Park 2 looking rather stunning in the afternoon sun...

http://www.london2012.com/webcams/olymp ... m-camera-2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

:wink:

Imagine if the seats continued down to pitch side.....what a breathtaking stadium it would be. The cost of digging down into the water table and removing the contaminated earth must be astronomical if Gold & Sullivan have written that option off.
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by Rasp »

Gonna get me some of these...

http://www.stockphotopro.com/photo-thum ... 050046.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by cockney hammer »

http://westhamprocess.com/2010/05/20/ol ... ll-we-sit/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by davids cross »

hadleighhammer wrote: So we continue as London's 4th club, the position we've been in for 50+ years?
It's not that we are 4th it's now the distance between the other 3 as a collective and us. It is growing and will grow further to make us incapable of being competitive or even significant against our London neighbours, something I don't want to see. And having grown up through the 70s and 80s when we were on a par with Chelsea and beating Arsenal in Cup Finals I would like to have the chance to do that again, when the gulf wasn't as great. With all 3 of them in the Champions League unless we look forward with imagination and courage we will never get those days again imo of course.
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by hadleighhammer »

davids cross wrote:
It's not that we are 4th it's now the distance between the other 3 as a collective and us. It is growing and will grow further to make us incapable of being competitive or even significant against our London neighbours, something I don't want to see. And having grown up through the 70s and 80s when we were on a par with Chelsea and beating Arsenal in Cup Finals I would like to have the chance to do that again, when the gulf wasn't as great. With all 3 of them in the Champions League unless we look forward with imagination and courage we will never get those days again imo of course.
Personally I don't think the bigger stadium will have a massive impact as most of the money comes from TV, but ok.

For that though you're willing to take the risk of gutting the clubs soul, which is a definite possibility if we move to a multi-purpose 60k stadium and don't have the success to go with it?
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by Mike420 »

davids cross wrote:
It's not that we are 4th it's now the distance between the other 3 as a collective and us. It is growing and will grow further to make us incapable of being competitive or even significant against our London neighbours, something I don't want to see. And having grown up through the 70s and 80s when we were on a par with Chelsea and beating Arsenal in Cup Finals I would like to have the chance to do that again, when the gulf wasn't as great. With all 3 of them in the Champions League unless we look forward with imagination and courage we will never get those days again imo of course.
Totally agree, not that the OS will solve all our problems and done badly could just make things worse however we need to do something to keep up. A common counter is oh well we were never better than them or oh its just not what west hams all about... its bull****. We can be there, whats set us apart is bad chairman and management and a general lack of ambition. We have a large fan base with potential growth and a great academy scew chelsea, arsenal and spurs it should be us up there its a shame! I'm glad Gullivan are pushing the boat out listening to some people on here we'll just stand still and rot in the lower leagues eventually... Like I said the OS is not an automatic key to success, but IF done right could lead to better things...
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by Pop Robson »

cockney hammer wrote:http://westhamprocess.com/2010/05/20/ol ... ll-we-sit/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Kindly provided by a user on Twitter, @simonjcole, here is a table outlining the distance from the pitch at the Olympic Stadium compared to other large football grounds in the country."

Sorry kindly provided by me the cheeky gits, right click check properties and it's my photobucket album.
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by GideaParkHammer »

davids cross wrote:
It's not that we are 4th it's now the distance between the other 3 as a collective and us. It is growing and will grow further to make us incapable of being competitive or even significant against our London neighbours, something I don't want to see. And having grown up through the 70s and 80s when we were on a par with Chelsea and beating Arsenal in Cup Finals I would like to have the chance to do that again, when the gulf wasn't as great. With all 3 of them in the Champions League unless we look forward with imagination and courage we will never get those days again imo of course.
To think we have been anywhere close to Arsenal and Spurs for any long period of time confirms their fans view that we are deluded. Apart from the mid eighties national decline in football attendances, they have been far above us in attendances, revenue generation and success. Yeah sure it hurts to admit it, but it is true.

Upto the beginning of the seventies, Chelsea was always equally far in front of us in the same catagories I listed. They made the mistake in spending an obscene amount of money on a stand that nearly crippled and bankrupted the club. Between then and the late 90s, they were probably our natural equal. It is only the money of Abramovich that has propelled them towards being a huge global club.

West Ham have always been a club that bounces up the league and the fans accepted that and were satisfied with a decent cup run and the odd occasion when we would beat one of the big clubs.

Don't get me wrong, I would love Champions League success, I would love to have a whole team of internationals, but I don't want us to sell our souls to do so. We are not plastic fans, we are not glory hunters...we bleed claret and blue for better or for worse. Simply put, moving to a huge stadium with the track acting as a barrier will rip the heart out of the club..
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by hadleighhammer »

GPH - well summed up. :thup:

There's definitely a recent shift in our fans belief in our actual size and potential, as well as the expectations for success. I blame Eggy. :evil:
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by Mike420 »

It's not rocket science to work out why Spurs are in the CL and normally always up there. It's not because they have a devine right or that the PL is just made that way, they've had good chairmen and spend decent sums every window as well as having good management. There's no reason we cant follow them. I'm not talking about CL because I still think that requires an Abramovich type. However achieving european football on a regular basis is not beyond us. I do think we should reserve judgement on the OS till we get some more feedback on what changes could happen in the OS. If the track remains and it is actually too far to see properly then yes thats a deal breaker...
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by Northern_Light »

GideaParkHammer wrote:Don't get me wrong, I would love Champions League success, I would love to have a whole team of internationals, but I don't want us to sell our souls to do so. We are not plastic fans, we are not glory hunters...we bleed claret and blue for better or for worse. Simply put, moving to a huge stadium with the track acting as a barrier will rip the heart out of the club..
I appreciate your passion for the club, but honestly, who is coming to rip out your heart and soul if we move to the OS? You make yourself sound so - well, helpless! Isn't that the opposite of passion and being up for the fight?

Isn't it your choice as to whether you bust a gut cheering the team on whatever stadium we are playing in, and isn't that exactly what the away fans have been doing wherever we have played, even when we visited (though not the changing rooms) the likes of Rotherham?

And Hadleighhammer, who is actually saying that moving to the OS is automatically going to make us CL contenders? No-one that I know of. We would just be keeping up, and giving ourselves a chance to increase revenues. The problem for us is really that we cannot afford to drop out of the top tier again any time soon, and so attracting the right players means showing at least some ambition.

I'm not saying the running track isn't a problem, I'm just not convinced that the history or the soul of the club would be on the line if we move. Those things live on in people, and once the transition was made, it just takes a few juicy fixtures in the FA Cup, and the new history is being written, and new experiences adding soul to the new location. It doesn't come on it's own, but football has a way of creating its own excitement, doesn't it? That and our passion for our club.
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by ottsands »

hadleighhammer wrote:GPH - well summed up. :thup:

There's definitely a recent shift in our fans belief in our actual size and potential, as well as the expectations for success. I blame Eggy. :evil:

I just don't want us to fall down into a lower league as I won't be able to see us on TV
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Re: Stratford 2012: the running track [POLL]

Post by GideaParkHammer »

Mike420 wrote:I do think we should reserve judgement on the OS till we get some more feedback on what changes could happen in the OS. If the track remains and it is actually too far to see properly then yes thats a deal breaker...
The ODA are saying the track will stay

Gold and Sullivan are saying the track will stay.

The 2018 England World Cup bid is saying the track will stay.

There has been plenty of diagrams released that shows the distances, and show that the front row of the Olympic Stadium is as far away as 50 yards from the touchline.

I think this is pretty much conclusive feedback on what changes could happen
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