Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

[@TFSH_WHUFC]

If UKA were given the boot to Birmingham and we did buy the bowl we would need to rip out all lower tier and also upper tier seating, keep concourse as they are and build three sides as one tier stands, see Dortmunds yellow wall and have a two tier stand on west side which can house a row of exec boxes and make top area behind new seating enclosed and a viewing platform with bars/restaurants/hotel etc, this way all work is steel/concrete and existing lounges/concourse can be kept, all a pipe dream yes but a £1bn stadium is only that if you want your own cheese/beer making facilities and glass walls to see players in tunnel.........just give us good seating close to pitch, everything else can stay as, maybe some alteration to roof but nothing that a good architect couldn't sort out.

Digging down also a possibility as waste is away from stadium!!

One thing that will stop this is the owners, they would not give you the steam off their piss!!

[Ben]

If you have a credible alternative plan then please share.

not really but it isn't my job to, how are all these other teams doing it?
Cheapest option is to get rid of the athletics lot and then look to improve it without needing any conversion every summer.
if we get it on the cheap can we sell it for prime land space and buy somewhere cheaper? I dunno?

there must be many ways to improve it from it's current state.
if the rake was made shallower could you configure the seats differently so instead of
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
have
_ _ _ _ _
. _ _ _ _

*Edit this didn't work haha, but I mean don't have the seats directly behind eachother, I can't remember if it is already like this, shows how much attention I pay I guess

but like I say, I am no expert but I'd rather we discuss options that roll over and accept this awful stadium for the next 96 years even if it is just a pipe dream

[Colours never run]

^^^ Hertha are planning a move away. https://www.herthabsc.de/en/teams/newst ... -4-4-.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Steep, intimate and loud and in the Olympic Park, go on GSB see what you Divs can do :lol:

.

The only thing steep in our Olympic Stadium is the food prices.

[hadleighhammer]

Ironically, it ain't though.

By cutting costs to a minimum they have also cut income streams to a minimum. No naming rights, no mass catering income, no hotel, limited stadium advertising revenue, no other events etc.

Other Clubs see a growing market and see stadiums as revenue generators not as a problem to be overcome.

They ****ed over the taxpayer and the Club in the same bargain.

I tend to agree looking at it that side of the coin, but I'm speaking more from a return on investment perspective.

To make money from all those other revenue streams are ultimately high risk (see Sp*rs £1bn+ stadium, Arsenal debt from the Emirates, Ken Bates tried it with Chelsea, etc). Our rent makes us very low risk for any investment, especially when even for the big infrastructure investment clubs the Sky money is generally the real profit generator anyway.

[Hammerite]

Good to still see this thread on page 1 given that we've started winning again.

[B'WoodBob]

Ironically, it ain't though.

By cutting costs to a minimum they have also cut income streams to a minimum. No naming rights, no mass catering income, no hotel, limited stadium advertising revenue, no other events etc.

Other Clubs see a growing market and see stadiums as revenue generators not as a problem to be overcome.

They ****ed over the taxpayer and the Club in the same bargain.

The maths is easy, If the fall in operating costs exceeds the loss of revenue, then it made good business sense. I would hazard a guess that West Ham have achieved both a fall in operating costs and an increase in revenue. Brady's deal of the century quote may not have been too far off the mark from a business perspective.

The problem is the collateral damage to achieve it.......

[Hammer.CA]

Sporting director Michael Preetz said: “Hertha BSC is going to offer an incredibly intensive stadium experience from 2025, just like every other Bundesliga clubs - Perhaps even more so. The fans will be very close to the pitch, high rising and loud. There will be atmospheric standing areas and all the attributes of a modern stadium.”

He's not taken Karren's advice on board at all.

[Pop Robson]

Yeah but think of the money were making and saving

Oh we're not as Brady said last year we've no better off than if we hadn't moved.

New East Stand would have done the job,

[Wembley1966]

Because it currently is the bottom one. It's so shallow now we can't extend it out further.

This is entirely correct.
If you make the rake in the lower tier any shallower your view would be obscured by the big bloke sitting in front of you.
What you could do is simply stretch it out so you would have six foot gaps between the rows and you could watch the match in lying down mode.
The other problem with the lower tier is that if you were to move the lower tier seats nearer to the pitch, some rows in the upper tier (the expensive front rows) would no longer be able to see the side of the pitch.
It just wasnt meant for football.

The current rake (at the top) means that you can see over the big bloke in front of you - make the rake shallower or have 6 foot gaps then you can't see over the people in front of you.

[Tenerife07]

Hugh Southon (who clearly has the ear of someone at the senior level of the club) speculating that AEG might take over the running of the London stadium, with Khan considering disbanding the LLDC.

[mushy]

The current rake (at the top) means that you can see over the big bloke in front of you - make the rake shallower or have 6 foot gaps then you can't see over the people in front of you.

Yes, I wasnt really being serious when I suggested watching in lying down mode.
Nevertheless your point and graphics are both good, and is the reason that absolutely NOTHING can be done with the lower tier and moving people closer to the pitch.
Digging down (once again suggested on this thread despite the evidence of toxic waste), is also clearly not an option.

[Porkeyes]

All this messing about why can't we be unique and have an oval pitch right up to the seats and only sign massive players for the benefit of people in the upper tier?

[sutts07]

The vast majority of the stadium is demountable / reusable and most of the permanent structure isn't even being used anyway so it may as well be knocked out for better facilities or restaurants bars and pubs like the inside of the O2. I have no doubt that a top quality architect could come up with an innovative solution to convert it to a quality football stadium in various phases.

We could move the pitch closer to the main West stand, rebuild the big east stand (squared off and further forward), design additional extensions to the existing roof, then look at banked seating either end like Marseille...

Anything can be done with enough money and very few restrictions in place...
Sadly, as it stands, we have countless restrictions and no money so nothing fundamental or drastic is going to change unless a) we get new owners b) we own the stadium outright with no obligation to keep the running track...

If both of the above happen then it is something to get excited about.

[James P]

Anything can be done with enough money and very few restrictions in place...
Sadly, as it stands, we have countless restrictions and no money so nothing fundamental or drastic is going to change unless a) we get new owners b) we own the stadium outright with no obligation to keep the running track...

If both of the above happen then it is something to get excited about.

The crux.

If there is literally limitless money then you probably could reconfigure the stadium step by step etc. But it would make no sense to do that. It would be far more economical in all probability to knock it down and rebuild.

It’s not just our current owners who have no appetite to pour untold sums into reconfiguring the stadium. No owners will. It makes absolutely no sense to do it.

[the pink palermo]

It isn't changing, stop torturing yourselves, seriously, it's complete denial.

We were sold a pup by our owners, they lied and deceived the supporters.

Before any talk of new configurations, redesigns, fancy architects, the simple issue of getting shot of the owners needs to be addressed.

Everything else is just a waste of time.

Sadly we're stuck with them, stuck in a crap stadium, stuck with a spirit sapping walk up a dual carriageway and past some anonymous office blocks, across the windswept barren landscape by the pool to the stadium most of us hate.

We've seen our club and our pastime ruined by the greed of three people.

Don't forget, Brady got a £1m bonus for delivering the keys.

Yes, a bonus, for delivering a clusterfuck, but one that made two old farts even richer.

[Pop Robson]

Hugh Southon (who clearly has the ear of someone at the senior level of the club) speculating that AEG might take over the running of the London stadium, with Khan considering disbanding the LLDC.

AEG have the legal and financial muscle to kick West Ham out homeless in a few years it is then.

[Diogenes]

Mr P, I agree with you 200%. We have to take things for what they are and look forward positively, if we can. Things are improving gradually but the Stadium itself is what it is. Performance on the pitch helps greatly. For better or worse the LS is our home the way it is for the foreseeable future. To hope for a return to UP or similar just accentuates the negatives and anchors us to the past for good or ill. Personally, I like the Stadium, my seat, transport, etc. etc. but can quite understand why others don't. But for me, I will always be a West Ham supporter and that means attending matches wherever I can and in whatever stadium.

[poplargeezer]

Just to put things in perspective.
I have just come back from working in Germany for a week where I watched 2 games.
Beer was just €3 as were brautwurst.

And that's with a crap exchange rate and a higher cost of living.

Why do we put up with rip off prices?

[CB_CB]

If UKA were given the boot to Birmingham and we did buy the bowl we would need to rip out all lower tier and also upper tier seating, keep concourse as they are and build three sides as one tier stands, see Dortmunds yellow wall and have a two tier stand on west side which can house a row of exec boxes and make top area behind new seating enclosed and a viewing platform with bars/restaurants/hotel etc, this way all work is steel/concrete and existing lounges/concourse can be kept, all a pipe dream yes but a £1bn stadium is only that if you want your own cheese/beer making facilities and glass walls to see players in tunnel.........just give us good seating close to pitch, everything else can stay as, maybe some alteration to roof but nothing that a good architect couldn't sort out.

Digging down also a possibility as waste is away from stadium!!

One thing that will stop this is the owners, they would not give you the steam off their piss!!

Total cost = as much as buying a new stadium,. Not likely

Best we could hope for is redoing the lower tiers

[CB_CB]

AEG have the legal and financial muscle to kick West Ham out homeless in a few years it is then.

pretty sure they can't rewrite the law of the country in which case our lease remains as watertight as it is now

unless they want to negotiate a ridiculously high compensation package

Same report also states that any change of ownership has to be agreed by ourselves. We're not going to do that without them guaranteeing our lease