David Gold on Talksport today

An archive of news, events and discussion leading up to and post West Ham United's historic move from Upton Park to Stratford in 2016.

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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by the pink palermo »

iron57 wrote:.
That would be because they have a sugar daddy currently residing in Bermuda that sends over shed loads of money.
Simply not correct .
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by Pop Robson »

More twitting from Gold

DavidGoldWHU
“@Omnipresent12: @DavidGoldWHU Why is it not viable to finish Upton Park? It's 3/4 rebuilt already? Cost and access is the problem DG

DavidWood44 @DavidGoldWHU Don't understand access prob, 20/30thousand supporters dont have prob every week getting in and out ??

DavidGoldWHU @DavidWood44 I understand. It's the 10,000 to 20,000 that can't or won't come because the poor access. DG


Come on over the 10k to 20k, it's only £15 for Barnsley
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by the pink palermo »

miles wrote:Why would trying to stop them being able to cherry-pick our best youngsters for the rest of our existence be cutting off our noses to spite our face?

The club cannot grow by staying at the Boleyn, simple. My guess is we were going to dump the running track eventually once the stadium was ours, but it does look like Spurs have won. Again.
Once again people putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 5 .

If you want to believe moving to Stratford would stop Spurs cherry picking our best players well good luck with that .........I'm of the view that playing in an athletics stadium may hasten their departure .

Our Vice Chair has repeatedly stated we would honour the committment to athletics , so no indication whatsoever of offloading the track .

I do however agree that despite denying it , they gambled they would be able to renegotiate terms , particuarly if the World Athletics championships are awarded to Doha - as I expect them to be this afternoon .

The conclusion that "Spurs have won again" is however unrelated to anything .

Quite simply , if our owners phoned Dave Cameron this evening and said

"Hi Dave, I see after the Paralympics next year there is no prospect of a major athletics championships being held in London in our lifetimes why don't you do the tax payer a favour and accept a bid from West Ham United to buy the OS for £100m , on the proviso we can do what we want with it" , we may have a chance .

Which is what I expect Levy to do .Everyone knows the stadium is a turkey as far as football is concerned but the infrastructure has real value .

Or owners have tried to get the keys to the stadium on the cheap , and have made promises nobody expected them to keep in time , and Levy saw it a mile off .

If our owners believe it to be the best move for the club , the way to grow , move the club forward etc etc all the guff they keep coming out with , why didn't they make a proper offer instead of trying to act like a second hand car salesman "well it's not a popular model, but I'll take it off your hands" , only then to cry foul when somebody else offers more......

So I don't see it as "Spurs have won .Again" .

I see it as "Our board have come up short .Again" .

Too easy to blame others, too easy to build Spurs up as the enemy of the month .If Spurs go there , as sole occupants, of a purpose built football stadium , the only people our Board will have to balme is themselves .
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by WestHamIFC »

Pop Robson wrote:DavidGoldWHU @DavidWood44 I understand. It's the 10,000 to 20,000 that can't or won't come because the poor access. DG
:thup:

Exactly. Nail on head. There's been so many current 'armchair' fans who don't bring their families for that very reason

Problem is, how many would we also lose by going the OS 'cos current fans refuse to watch Football over a Running Track??

It might end up balancing itself out...
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by Countryboy »

the pink palermo wrote: One great reason for us to go to the OS is that it will really, really, f*ck Spurs.


No, it wouldn't .

That's absolute fantasy I'm afraid and would be a classic case of us cutting off our noses to spite our face .

Arsenal built and have nearly paid for a barand new 60,000 seat stadium ......and yet , somehow, Spurs battle on at the Lane , getting into the CL and possibly doing so for a second time this season .

The thought that us moving into a wholly unsuitable venue 1.7 miles away from where we are now ( a 25 minute walk for goodness sake) would wipe spurs from the face of the Earth and send us on the way to global domination is pure fantasy .

Let's hope that those tasked with leading our club make decisions for the right reasons , not the wrong ones .

This obsession with Spurs , that is a relatively new thing, really needs to stop .I don't think I have ever once in my entire life looked at their result unless we are playing them .
I am not remotely obsessed with Spurs in the sense of hating them - though I know plenty are. My point is that they are a rival club in both footballing and commercial terms and they very clearly are prepared to go to extreme lengths to prevent West Ham getting the OS ... I see their campaign being more about us NOT being given the OS than them getting it and that's neither fantasy, nor wishful thinking. It's a simple response to the tactics Spurs have employed. There are allegations that this meant so much to them that they were prepared to employ or at least condone illegal activities ... Therefore it is reasonable to assume that they fear that West Ham moving to the OS would pose a significant threat to them.

In any competitive situation it's always worth thinking about what your enemy would least want you to do ... and then doing it.
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by miles »

the pink palermo wrote: Once again people putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 5 .

If you want to believe moving to Stratford would stop Spurs cherry picking our best players well good luck with that .........I'm of the view that playing in an athletics stadium may hasten their departure .
Once again you're missing the point. Moving to a "big" stadium and growing the club is the only way to stop the next generation of Rio Ferdinands from getting sold. Given that we are rather skint, and are not owned by oil sheikhs (who I'd wager would rather spend money on buying Kaka rather than boring stuff like building a stadium), I can see why Stratford was such an attractive proposition. We never got to see what they planned to do with it for football so yapping about playing in athletics stadiums and the like is rather silly. As is the suggestion that our best players would rather play at our beloved lopsided monstrosity (thanks Terence) rather than at some snazzy 50000 Olympic stadium...
The conclusion that "Spurs have won again" is however unrelated to anything .
Can't see how given that they've thrown everything including the kitchen sink to stop us from getting it. And it's worked...
Quite simply , if our owners phoned Dave Cameron this evening and said

"Hi Dave, I see after the Paralympics next year there is no prospect of a major athletics championships being held in London in our lifetimes why don't you do the tax payer a favour and accept a bid from West Ham United to buy the OS for £100m , on the proviso we can do what we want with it" , we may have a chance .

Which is what I expect Levy to do .Everyone knows the stadium is a turkey as far as football is concerned but the infrastructure has real value .

Or owners have tried to get the keys to the stadium on the cheap , and have made promises nobody expected them to keep in time , and Levy saw it a mile off .
No idea if your suggestion would have worked, but our bid was acceptable to everyone directly involved with the bloody thing. Except for of course, Spurs and good ol Bazza.
I see it as "Our board have come up short .Again" .
I'm not surprised. :lol:
Too easy to blame others, too easy to build Spurs up as the enemy of the month .If Spurs go there , as sole occupants, of a purpose built football stadium , the only people our Board will have to balme is themselves .
Given the way things look, I won't be surprised if we just end up staying at the Boleyn with no development done to the East Stand. But will the folks that wanted this be realistic enough to accept our place in the football world when the likes of Tomkins fob off the second Spurs come calling? My guess is no...
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by S King »

A football club will be playing in the OS. It is as much between us or Spurs now as it ever was. You may have noticed all the 'should it be just a football stadium' starting up again on BBC today (breakfast and online) and in the newspapers. I doubt that is coming from us.
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by the pink palermo »

Countryboy wrote:I am not remotely obsessed with Spurs in the sense of hating them - though I know plenty are. My point is that they are a rival club in both footballing and commercial terms and they very clearly are prepared to go to extreme lengths to prevent West Ham getting the OS ... I see their campaign being more about us NOT being given the OS than them getting it and that's neither fantasy, nor wishful thinking. It's a simple response to the tactics Spurs have employed. There are allegations that this meant so much to them that they were prepared to employ or at least condone illegal activities ... Therefore it is reasonable to assume that they fear that West Ham moving to the OS would pose a significant threat to them.

In any competitive situation it's always worth thinking about what your enemy would least want you to do ... and then doing it.
Whilst I agree with your sentiments with regards to how they have behaved , I'm not so sure they don't want Stratford .

Both Tottenham and West Ham have welathy owners - them more so , but despite David Gold's sack cloth and ashes routine, ours are not on their uppers .

The simple fact of the matter is Spurs will need to shell out around £450m to build a new ground at WHL .Even to a billionaire , that's a lot of folding .If they can build a new ground for around half (?) of that, believe me, Joe Lewis will take the shot .That's how he got to be a billionaire .There is no business case that Daniel Levy could present that would convince Lewis that a £450m outlay in N17 would give a better return than a £250m outlay in Stratford ( the difference being the ground works and local infrastructure) .

If Spurs can get a stadium site in Stratford without a track ( the one single argument Levy could present against the stadium to Lewsi) , they will move there - regardless of fan opposition .

For my money, the decision as to where the 2017 WC are held is pivotal .If they do not come to London, the case for retaining a track is hugely damaged .If Spurs can then get access to real decision makers - Cameron, Osborne etc, then I believe they will make a bid to buy the site .

We then will have 3 choices .

1. Outbid Spurs
2. Stay where we are and let Spurs go to Stratford
3. Offer a groundshare option with Spurs and halve the outlay for both clubs .

The economic case for option 3 is compelling for both clubs .Personally , I would hope our board pursue option 1 , but we have seen no evidence of them being likely to do so so far .
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by the pink palermo »

miles wrote: Moving to a "big" stadium and growing the club is the only way to stop the next generation of Rio Ferdinands from getting sold.
.
Miles, I have no problem if that is your opinion , but you have no evidence of it as fact do you ?
miles wrote:
No idea if your suggestion would have worked, but our bid was acceptable to everyone directly involved with the bloody thing. Except for of course, Spurs and good ol Bazza....
And our fans of course, who the club has never asked ......
miles wrote:
Given the way things look, I won't be surprised if we just end up staying at the Boleyn with no development done to the East Stand. But will the folks that wanted this be realistic enough to accept our place in the football world when the likes of Tomkins fob off the second Spurs come calling? My guess is no...
Accept our place in the football world ?

Trust me, Tomkins will go to Spurs, OS or not .We didn't struggle to attract the likes of Bellamy and Parker did we ?

I think what you are getting at is the lack of funds - well, the owners could do something about that .The idea that two of the richest men in the country could not afford to inject a little more money than they have currently done to be utterly laughable .

They've done the Fiddler on the roof routine so well I'm starting to believe David Gold could stand in for Topol in a West end production .
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by S King »

The simple fact is we can't outbid Spurs, They won't need to share the ground as they think longer term, so it's the slow death....unless we get 2017 of course.
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by miles »

the pink palermo wrote: Miles, I have no problem if that is your opinion , but you have no evidence of it as fact do you ?
Well, forcefully locking them up in the trophy cabinet is another method, but beyond that I'm struggling...
And our fans of course, who the club has never asked ......
Might be interesting if they did two polls before and after Spurs stuck their oar in, for sure...
Trust me, Tomkins will go to Spurs, OS or not .We didn't struggle to attract the likes of Bellamy and Parker did we ?
He might go to Man Utd or Real Madrid, OS or not. Spurs? I remember when even Eyal Berkovic chose us over them. We shouldn't have to suffer the indignity. :lol:

Bellamy and Parker were good players but with their stock at an all time low and reputations as being sicknotes. We did the usual West Ham thing and offered them a chance to kick start their careers again. Both did, that's why they're being mentioned now and not the likes of David Bentley and Robbie Keane...
I think what you are getting at is the lack of funds - well, the owners could do something about that .The idea that two of the richest men in the country could not afford to inject a little more money than they have currently done to be utterly laughable .
Excuse me for being just a bit wary about rantings regarding "owner-funded" purchases after the last bugger, who was about ten times richer than either of the said fiddlers. We should live within our means. Growing the capacity of our means is the right and correct way to stay competitive in this madness that is modern football. That's why we need to move from the Boleyn.
Last edited by miles on Fri Nov 11, 2011 4:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by the pink palermo »

Well, there we have it .

Stratford will have an athletics track for at least the next six seasons , I mean years .

So, that's the end of Spurs interest in the OS.
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by The Rebirth »

the pink palermo wrote:Well, there we have it .

Stratford will have an athletics track for at least the next six seasons , I mean years .

So, that's the end of Spurs interest in the OS.
Well how does that tie in with the 99 year lease for the track?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/no ... sfeed=true

it's even quoted in this article!
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by the pink palermo »

miles wrote: We should live within our means. Growing the capacity of our means is the right and correct way to stay competitive in this madness that is modern football. That's why we need to move from the Boleyn.
Well, living within our means would also mean funding any new stadium correctly, out of our own pockets , and not taking a freebie handout of something that isn't suitable, simply because it's free then .

Or should we only live within our means once we've had the "gift" ?
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by hadleighhammer »

WestHamIFC wrote: Exactly. Nail on head. There's been so many current 'armchair' fans who don't bring their families for that very reason.
So all have to put up with leasing a bodge job stadium with a view over a running track so we can try to attract a few armchair fans who can't be bothered to go at the moment as it's a bit difficult to get to? And don't forget the tourists and the corporates.

I see plenty with families who manage it now and I used to years ago as a kid with my Dad. What's different for these armchair fans? Personally I think if we stay a bit **** other excuses will be found for not going when the novelty of the OS wears off.

I fully understand and agree with moving to attract such fans for the good of the club, but it should be a purpose built site and cater for the requirements regarding view, etc the regulars also want. I don't agree the armchairs, tourists and corporates should be the priority, as currently seems to be the case.
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by Cuenca 'ammer »

Spot on Hadleigh.

If a few people can't be arsed to go because of this or that, how long after the novelty wears off of the new stadium, and/or we're playing like *****, will those folks continue to go ?

And what's to say they will go in numbers ? And maybe the numbers won't be there to replace those who stop going because Stratford isn't convenient.

I reckon the Gollies know, they have polled those extra 25K or more on the season ticket waiting list (but we can't sell out 35K as is)..

Complete cock....
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by Muddy »

Good post HH. :thup:
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

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People have a choice to look at what it will be like and speculate the pros and the cons. But it's all speculation on both sides, yes there will be a running track,but will it be there forever , what would be the plans about seating ,toilets and refreshments ? we don't yet know. Will it be cheap seats and easy to get to ? probally and hopefully.
So you guys can look to all the negatives and i'll think positive and speculate that this will a great chance to move on as a club , that it will bring back supporters who can no longer afford to go and be the start of a lifetime of support for young kids who will be our future. I'll add that i'm quite happy if we stay where we are it's just a great chance.

current season ticket holder who's been going more on than off since 1974 and is pro a OS move.
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by Pop Robson »

taffhammer wrote:People have a choice to look at what it will be like and speculate the pros and the cons. But it's all speculation on both sides, yes there will be a running track,but will it be there forever , what would be the plans about seating ,toilets and refreshments ? we don't yet know. Will it be cheap seats and easy to get to ? probally and hopefully.
So you guys can look to all the negatives and i'll think positive and speculate that this will a great chance to move on as a club , that it will bring back supporters who can no longer afford to go and be the start of a lifetime of support for young kids who will be our future. I'll add that i'm quite happy if we stay where we are it's just a great chance.

current season ticket holder who's been going more on than off since 1974 and is pro a OS move.
West Ham v Barnsley is £15 adults and £5 kids (all areas) Saturday 3pm Kick Off and the tubes are OK, so is the Fenchurch and Liverpool St.

Nice Xmas present for the kids, but will they come ?
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Re: David Gold on Talksport today

Post by Francoisvander or else »

taffhammer wrote:People have a choice to look at what it will be like and speculate the pros and the cons. But it's all speculation on both sides, yes there will be a running track,but will it be there forever , what would be the plans about seating ,toilets and refreshments ? we don't yet know. Will it be cheap seats and easy to get to ? probally and hopefully.
So you guys can look to all the negatives and i'll think positive and speculate that this will a great chance to move on as a club , that it will bring back supporters who can no longer afford to go and be the start of a lifetime of support for young kids who will be our future. I'll add that i'm quite happy if we stay where we are it's just a great chance.

current season ticket holder who's been going more on than off since 1974 and is pro a OS move.
so having a **** in comfort and having a good tasting pie is of more importance to you than watching a game from behind a running track with a bunch of tourists Headbanger
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