The 20,000 'redundant' seats

[gavrosh]

This is an issue that has been vexing me for some time and still one that we have not had an adequate answer to. Logic dictates they remain (if not, what would go there?). How will they be hidden? I believe the planning docs referred to a 'curtain'?

Perhaps more pertinent, especially in the long term, is whether they can be brought into use on special occasions. I know they fall outside of the optimal viewing distance as dictated by FIFA but so do seats in many other major stadiums. There would be a need for the police to OK it but again I don't see a problem there.

If we started performing as a consistent top 6 club I can see there being times when we could go above 54k. Will it be easy to release the extra capacity?

[HamburgHammer]

I don't get that Category 4 crap either. Okay, so some seats are pretty far away, but if you adjust the price of the respective ticket accordingly I don't see a problem. There are older stadiums all over England with pillars obstructing your view, still those seats get sold nonetheless and they find their customers.

For a Spurs derby for instance we could surely sell 80.000 tickets and people wouldn't be bothered too much if their seat was a bit further away than usual, they'd still want to be part of it all as long as they're not asked to pay through the nose for the privilege. Also hopefully somewhere down the road some clever architect/designer can come up with a good idea to fill up those gaps with something more suitable than just space.

[e10hammer]

I think one of the reasons the stadium has been scaled down for football is the lack of a concourse area for the upper tier, not a problem for the Olympics as spectators are coming and going during the different events and there is no need for segregation for opposing fans who will have to share the one and only concourse, football supporters leave their seats in masse at half time and I don't think the concourse can handle the influx from upper and lower tiers, only my opinion of course amongst probably other reasons including sight distances.

[NorthBankAlliance]

For a Spurs derby for instance we could surely sell 80.000 tickets

Are we still talking about West Ham, very very delusional that...

[HamburgHammer]

North Bank, I didn't say all of those 80.000 had to be West Ham fans, Spurs fans would surely buy tickets if available. I stand by that: 80.000 fans for big games is very possible, if the pricing of the tickets is fair.

[NorthBankAlliance]

Police wouldn't allow Tottenham a ridiculous allocation...

Not that we want that anyway, it's our home ground, we're not MK Dons...

[Pop Robson]

Until the secret squirrels let the cat out of the bag, we'll never know.

Big green tarpaulin sheet from Wickes should do the trick

[brownout]

Until the secret squirrels let the cat out of the bag, we'll never know.

Big green tarpaulin sheet from Wickes should do the trick

A world class tarpaulin with marketing opportunities that will help take West Ham United (London) to the next level.

[e10hammer]

Tarpaulinho, isn't he Brazilian?

[Hampshire Hammer]

As I understand it the licence for football use will be based on the 54k seats, therefore to increase the capacity would involve a new licence application. That doesn't prevent it happening but it wouldn't be a quick process. I assume, as others have done, part of that will be facilities as in concourses, toilets and escape routes. The viewing distance is not the issue IMO. more the likely ticket sales, so if we are regularly selling out 54k I can safely predict that the club and stadium management company will find a way to open up these seats.

As I understood it the design was that there would be big screens where these unused seats are, presumably with curtain like screens around them.

[HamburgHammer]

I'm looking forward to the OS changing over the years. I'm confident that a few years down the road it will be looking different from the version we'll have for our first season there. Changes will surely be made.
But the fact remains that it essentially remains an athletics stadium that has been tampered with.

In that respect I'm already disappointed that I won't know if West Ham will still play at the OS in the year 2100 or if we will have built a proper football stadium ofour own by that year. Since I will be dead by then I won't know and probably won't be able to care about West Ham anymore...

[EvilC]

North Bank, I didn't say all of those 80.000 had to be West Ham fans, Spurs fans would surely buy tickets if available. I stand by that: 80.000 fans for big games is very possible, if the pricing of the tickets is fair.

From memory we have failed to sell the Boleyn out against them in recent times, so it might be "very possible", it's also pretty unlikely.

[HamburgHammer]

It all depends on the pricing of the tickets. Look at Bundesliga sides like Bayern and Dortmund, they offer reasonably priced tickets and sell out their big stadiums all the time.
Ticket sales only represent a dwindling percentage of club income these days anyway, the majority coming from TV money. So our current or future owners could easily adjust ticket prices to guarantee a sold out OS (and hopefully a cracking atmosphere) for every single game.

[NorthBankAlliance]

We have nowhere near the support of either Bayern Munich or Dortmund though...
We will never play in front of 80,000 people at a home match, I don't mind putting that out there.

[EvilC]

It all depends on the pricing of the tickets. Look at Bundesliga sides like Bayern and Dortmund, they offer reasonably priced tickets and sell out their big stadiums all the time.
Ticket sales only represent a dwindling percentage of club income these days anyway, the majority coming from TV money. So our current or future owners could easily adjust ticket prices to guarantee a sold out OS (and hopefully a cracking atmosphere) for every single game.

Dortmund and Munich are the best sides in their league. They also play in stadia designed for watching football in. We are far from the best side in our league, and will be playing in an athletics stadium, with some seats bodged in. The attendance is obviously influenced by price, it is also influenced by the number of people that want to watch us play football because they support West Ham, and numerous other factors.

I agree with NBA, and I find it strange that anyone could argue otherwise.

[gavrosh]

No one would have ever predicted a 75k stadium for Man City but that's what they're getting.

There won't be big screens up there because the big screens are staying where they are. This for me is a massive design fault as it creates a massive space at each end between lower and upper tiers. Hopefully in future that spar will be in filled and the screens relocated elsewhere.

[NorthBankAlliance]

Well at least Man City have had over 75k before...

And regularly sell out at home...

[HamburgHammer]

Most Bundesliga club sell out their grounds regularly, even the less successful ones. And the ticket prices are a lot lower than in England. As the TV money is the big cashcow for the clubs they could do something similar in the UK, it would surely increase our chances to sell more tickets in the OS, even if it isn't a proper football stadium...

[NorthBankAlliance]

Most Bundesliga club sell out their grounds regularly, even the less successful ones. And the ticket prices are a lot lower than in England. As the TV money is the big cashcow for the clubs they could do something similar in the UK, it would surely increase our chances to sell more tickets in the OS, even if it isn't a proper football stadium...

They could but they won't, not in isolation as Mr Gold says.

Even if you gave away tickets I don't think we'd get 80,000 through the door...

[EvilC]

Most Bundesliga club sell out their grounds regularly, even the less successful ones. And the ticket prices are a lot lower than in England. As the TV money is the big cashcow for the clubs they could do something similar in the UK, it would surely increase our chances to sell more tickets in the OS, even if it isn't a proper football stadium...

How many have an 80k stadium to sell out?