What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

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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Aceface
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What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by Aceface »

Obviously our original intention was to purchase the Olympic Stadium outright, and we won the right to do so until legal shenanigans from the usual parties prevented this avenue leading to the current situation where we're long-term leaseholders rather than owners.

Now, given the huge costs of the refurb of the roof, retractable seating, hospiltality etc. running into the hundreds of millions, and just this week increasing by another £35m, how would we have ever afforded to do any of this had we been allowed to proceed with the original plan?

Just curious about whether all of this would have happened regardless of the type of ownership we took up - and if so, how would we have paid for it? - or whether the intervention from Spurs and/or Hearn actually prevented us from doing an incredibly half-arsed job of it (deck chairs for seating, old plastic sheeting from the Ann Summers warehouse for the roof etc....)?
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by mywhufc »

originally there would of been no retractable seating, a new roof would of been needed as well.
Karen Brady interview from 2010 lays out the costs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/p ... 860149.stm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

im not sure we would be owning it i thought we would be operators in conjugation with Newham Council.
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by gavrosh »

i recall her talking about the 'state of the art' seating system that was going to cost £10 million.....christ knows what that abomination would have looked like.
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by Aceface »

That's what I mean. Remembering all the things that were promised at the time, and knowing now the actual cost of it all...it's impossible to believe we'd spend even a fraction of the £200m that's going into it now. Hearn's hissy fit might just be the biggest favour anyone's done us in ages
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by WestHamIFC »

mywhufc wrote:originally there would of been no retractable seating
Sorry pal but that is simply not true. Complete bull$hit in fact - quite the opposite is the true.

Originally we offered to buy the stadium in 2006, before they had even started building it, only on the condition that Retractable Seating was factored into the plans:

I have posted reference to this on several occasions on this forum, but for your benefit here's those links yet again :asleep: :
  • http://kumb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3 ... &p=2847273

    "‘Richard Caborn, sports minister at the time of the negotiations (2006) with West Ham, said that the failure to engage with football earlier was a missed opportunity.

    “We did a lot of work with West Ham, who were willing to take on the stadium but wanted retractable seats built into the design. They would have put money in, kept athletics in without compromising on the football side, and it was a win-win situation.”
    ‘"
  • http://kumb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3 ... &p=3362698

    In 2006, prior to Building work commencing, West Ham approached the Olympic Committee with a proposal to contribute £100 million to the building, but only on the condition that the plans were modified to include:

    * Being granted the freehold for the stadium
    * Becoming the sole operator
    * A retractable seating design
    * A 500-space car park
  • http://kumb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3 ... 6&p=388509

    "[2006] WHU's position is as follows: WHU will not occupy the stadium if a running track is a permanent fixture. Stand seating must cover the athletic track for a majority of the year (about 20k-25k seats) and the roof must be redesigned to the scope of this extended seating i.e. a much more extensive legacy roof structure.
    Retrofitting the stadium after the Games is not a cost effective option.
    "
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by mywhufc »

WestHamIFC wrote:[
Sorry pal but that is simply not true. Complete bull$hit in fact - quite the opposite is the true.
I'm sorry, did we bid to buy in 2006, nope, didn't think so. Whu may have held discussions but no bid was made.
But in 2010 when they interview was done I listed there was no talk of retractable seating, in fact the owners went to great lengths to tell us the sight lines were great with the running track.
So the original bid we made with Newham did not include the installation of retractable seating.
So, it was true, and it's not complete bull **** at all.
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by mushy »

We did not make a bid in 2006, not because of retractable seats but because the Icelandics insisted that a ground with a running track would be useless.
The same for Spurs, the idea was to scale it down and have some rugby team, or the London Monarchs, or the O's as tenants.
We then started to explore nearby the ParcelForce site but that was deemed as too expensive due to contamination from the gas works.
Am not sure what the next part of the plan was meant to be.
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by WestHamIFC »

mywhufc wrote: I'm sorry, did we bid to buy in 2006, nope, didn't think so. Whu may have held discussions but no bid was made.
Seriously fella you are embarrassing yourself. But if you must be so pedantic, talks were held in 2006 leading to West Ham making a formal bid submitted by Nick Igoe in January 2007.

That was the original bid. And that original bid absolutely 100% included a demand for Retractable Seating (and, btw, is widely understood to also have included plans for the stadium to be built to a design shape that could better accommodate football - like the Stade de France).

And that bid was for West Ham to takeover the FREEHOLD of the Olympic Stadium post-2012.

For you to say the original West Ham offer was Karren Brady's is, as I said, total bull$hit.
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by mywhufc »

WestHamIFC wrote:
Seriously fella you are embarrassing yourself. But if you must be so pedantic, talks were held in 2006 leading to West Ham making a formal bid submitted by Nick Igoe in January 2007.

That was the original bid. And that original bid absolutely 100% included a demand for Retractable Seating (and, btw, is widely understood to also have included plans for the stadium to be built to a design shape that could better accommodate football - like the Stade de France).

And that bid was for West Ham to takeover the FREEHOLD of the Olympic Stadium post-2012.

For you to say the original West Ham offer was Karren Brady's is, as I said, total bull$hit.
embarrassing? read the original comment, its pretty obvious he was talking about our failed bid in 2011 to get the stadium, hence why i put up Bradys interview, that bid did not include retractable seating.
ill give you the fact i didnt read the 2007 was a direct bid, i was under the impression it was just discussions the 2 partys had but couldnt or wouldnt agree.
the pedantic one is you bringing up the 2007 bid/offer/discussion/whatever it was.
no real details of west hams bid in 2007 has been revealed by the club so quite why you brought it up i dont know.
ill put my hands up to when i replied to your 1st rant at me i didnt read the links, but im not the only 1 to say we didnt bid in 2007 yet you single me out.
so i wasnt spouting bull****, i wasnt embarrased abut maybe slightly pedantic.
well done,
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by Doc H Ball »

It might be worth mentioning at this point that with regards our bid for tenancy, we didn't insist on retractable seats being put in. Our proposal was for temporary stands which the LLDC dismissed themselves for looking like ****.

It may have been clever negotiating, but our plan was for some Lego like scaffolding. We were going to spend 10m on it :lol:
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by the pink palermo »

Doc H Ball wrote:It may have been clever negotiating, but our plan was for some Lego like scaffolding. We were going to spend 10m on it :lol:
After add on's like if we won the European cup
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by Aceface »

Doc H Ball wrote: It may have been clever negotiating, but our plan was for some Lego like scaffolding. We were going to spend 10m on it :lol:
Classic isn't it? Given we've since discovered it would cost £5m just to replace the plastic seats in the stadium, the kind of crap-tastic solution they would have come up with would have been comical.
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by mywhufc »

Aceface wrote: Classic isn't it? Given we've since discovered it would cost £5m just to replace the plastic seats in the stadium, the kind of crap-tastic solution they would have come up with would have been comical.
Only behind the goals as well, on the sides the seats wouldn't have moved at all.
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by warp »

Aceface wrote:What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?
rent it to the spuds.
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by Mr_Andersonn »

"rent it to the spuds" the spuds can kiss my arse!

All things considered, it has worked out quite well for us.

I know we have the gaps which will be coverred and the issue with the stands behind the goals but it would really have been a nightmare had we struck the original deal.

Levy and Hearn have basically forced the taxpayer into paying for this entire conversion for us.
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by warp »

Mr_Andersonn wrote:"rent it to the spuds" the spuds can kiss my arse!
are you kidding? imagine buying top players with their money!
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by WestHamIFC »

Mr_Andersonn wrote:.. it would really have been a nightmare had we struck the original deal.
:eh:

How so? On the contrary it would have been fantastic!!

We would have owned the Freehold.

The stadium would have been built so it was suitable for football and athletics, rather just athletics and then a later attempt to retro-fit for football.

The entire shape of the stadium would have been different, rather than the unsuitable bowl shape which retro-fitted retractable seats can only partly fix. The Upper-tier would surely have been closer to the action too, with both tiers having a steeper rake.

The original offer quoted the Stade De France as an example of what could be done. And it's what should have been done!
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by Aceface »

To be clear in the original post I was talking about the formal post-Olympics bid to own the stadium, not the pre-build discussions with Eggy
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by brownout »

All things considered, it has worked out quite well for us.

Financially for the club (and probably its owners) - yes.
How many fans will be happy with the stadium and ticket price related to view, remains to be seen. Hopefully all we be well and we'll have 50,000 happy fans paying affordable prices to watch Champions League semi final v Real Madrid in a few years time.
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Re: What was the plan had we bought the OS outright?

Post by frankiemac »

in sullivans first interview when he bought the club he stated he wanted the OS, but that we would need to knock it down and start again
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