Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

[griff123]

No one knows as it's never gone from full athletics mode to full football mode. Last summer all the East Stand in-fill seats between lower and upper tiers were put in place before the athletics - with just some rows at the front of the moved forward lower tier corners missing to accommodate the track. The other lower tier stands were put in place after the athletics but didn't seem to be done to a tight timescale as for the first few matches the Club moved season ticket holders until they knew that the stands would be in place.

For the World Athletics Championships this summer it has to be in complete athletics mode with the East Stand in-fill seats removed and all the lower tier seating moved back/uncovered. It is the cost of doing the complete change from football mode to athletics and back again that is rumoured to cost £8m. Without having to redo the East Stand each year (other than the lower corners) the potential costs could be £3m.

The other factor that affects the cost is the time allowed to do the conversion - the less time to do it the more resources have to be utilised, therefore the costs go up:
From the Concession Agreement:

• ‘Championship Window means the period commencing on I July 2017 and ending on 21 August 2017 or such earlier date as the Stadium is no longer required for the 2017 IAAF World Championships and the 2017 IPC Athletics World Championships or the relevant set-up and breakdown time required such that the Stadium will be configured in Football Mode by no later than 25 August 2017’

That's not going to happen and the Club have already requested that the first home match won't be until September. One more week helps reduce the costs as well.

So this year it may well cost £8m, but subsequent years will be much less - and they'll work out more efficient ways of doing it as well as starting to install some form of retractability!

We'll know more once Khan's inquiry has published its findings into Boris's decisions!

If this report is true, we arent going to know for a very long time - http://www.claretandhugh.info/mayor-str ... ttigation/

[WestHamIFC]

Coe's position is that London would never have gotten awarded the games had the stadium been convertible for football.

This was a total fabrication that Coe conveniently spouted to justify his ridiculous plan. The IOC made it clear they had no issue with a multi-purpose stadium or with football being played in it.

[Sweeney Bod]

This was a total fabrication that Coe conveniently spouted to justify his ridiculous plan. The IOC made it clear they had no issue with a multi-purpose stadium or with football being played in it.

Indeed, we only narrowly beat France, and they planned to use Stade de France for the Olympics if they won.

Our bid was based on Athletics legacy, not on sole athletics use of the post Olympics stadium.

[taffhammer]

We'll never know whether Coe was an idiot or not.

I could say hand on heart that he is an arrogant idiot that screwed up the legacy of the site for the love of his own sport , the sport that needs a stadium of 25,000 once a year at most. It should of been just like the Man city stadium and a smaller athletics stadium built next to it after the games.
The Olympics is a celebration of many many sports including athletics and also football, so it should have been the legacy that a sport that could fill it should have it.

[WestHamIFC]

I could say hand on heart that he is an arrogant idiot that screwed up the legacy of the site for the love of his own sport , the sport that needs a stadium of 25,000 once a year at most.

Yep, I mean just look at how abysmal it would have been!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/davidbond/20 ... _an_o.html


"..a tiny roof, which covers barely one 10th of the whole arena, is the only feature of an otherwise drab, characterless venue."

The first thought when you see it is the tumbleweed blowing through that place..

[Gsbgsb]

The Coe "legacy" vision was never going to happen, the site is too important and too valuable. It was either the solution we have now, us in a poorly designed stadium (remember originally we were going to in essence buy it) or they would have gone with Spurs and their knock it down and rebuild -an option we could not afford.

Personally I would have hated Spurs being in Stratford and going past their stadium on a regular basis.

[mushy]

I has a look at the mess that is the east stand at the last game, if you ever get the chance go and have a good look at what is under your seats (lower tier).
I have never seen such a hotch potch mess in all my life, its nothing but thousands and thousands of randomly cobbled together scaffolding poles,bolted together at irregular intervals. There seems to be no pattern or plan at all(am sure there must be though), it would take an army weeks to take all that lot down, and even longer to put it all back together again.

[Up the Junction]

I wonder what the 2012 Board think in retrospect:

http://kumb.com/story.php?id=12099

[Claret&Blue,Thru&]

I has a look at the mess that is the east stand at the last game, if you ever get the chance go and have a good look at what is under your seats (lower tier).
I have never seen such a hotch potch mess in all my life, its nothing but thousands and thousands of randomly cobbled together scaffolding poles,bolted together at irregular intervals. There seems to be no pattern or plan at all(am sure there must be though), it would take an army weeks to take all that lot down, and even longer to put it all back together again.

Hey, that's the Baroness's state of the art retractable seating that you're talking about.

[galleywoodHammer]

May have been covered in the past but could have missed it, but, if the stadium owners (or if we bought it - us) decided to install proper seating over the running track thus stopping a conversion would they(us) be sued to Kingdom come? Guess the answer is yes but ask the question ??!!

[HHCD]

The point is WestHamFC, an underused athletics stadium would have been Coe's problem, not mine.
You are right, it should have been developed as stadium capable of staging football after the Olympics. The minute it became clear that would not happen, we should have walked away.
Unfortunately GSB saw not pound signs not common sense.

Exactly...and it has now ripped our club apart.

[leveller]

May have been covered in the past but could have missed it, but, if the stadium owners (or if we bought it - us) decided to install proper seating over the running track thus stopping a conversion would they(us) be sued to Kingdom come? Guess the answer is yes but ask the question ??!!

The owners have a contract with UK Athletics that gives rights to hold events in the stadium each summer. So yes I expect so. Plus the owners are the government so they are never going to do that even purely on political grounds.

[brownout]

It was Gold, Sullivan & Brady that chose to take West Ham to the stadium - and without asking the fans.
Had they not have made this decision everything else would have been irrelevant to us.
The stadium will be their legacy to West Ham.

[Gsbgsb]

It would not have been an under used athletics stadium it would have been the site of Spurs new ground, the only reason it is still there is we were prepared to take it on as it is because we could not afford to knock it down and rebuild. There are many reasons to dislike the place but I will suffer some of those to not have Spurs the biggest club in East London.

[Believer]

It would not have been an under used athletics stadium it would have been the site of Spurs new ground, the only reason it is still there is we were prepared to take it on as it is because we could not afford to knock it down and rebuild. There are many reasons to dislike the place but I will suffer some of those to not have Spurs the biggest club in East London.

Spurs never had any intention of moving to stratford. That was all bluff and blunder to

A) Stop us buying it
B) Secure their own additional Govt funding

They achieved both with the added advantage of giving some "backing" to G&S's decision to sell our home, history and main asset. If it was a clear run from us and Silly Barry then fans and supporters would have been more up in arms and might have made more of a scene. However Spurs appearing to be interested gave them reasons to really go for it as they couldn't have that lot moving into our territory. There's no chance Spurs would have moved to East London IMO.

Wouldn't surprise me if Spurs "interest" was convenient for Sullivan and Levy and a deal was struck.

[Ben]

The Olympics is a celebration of many many sports including athletics and also football

You know that's a great point and I always forget that. The Olympic park could have kept a football stadium, swimming pool, that copperbox arena and convert the community athletics stadium all there as legit Olympic legacy!

[hammerman11]

there is an athletics track down behind the stadium store. The solution may be to build on it and convert that to a 25000 seat stadium to be used once a year and let the weeds grow .We buy the LS and contribute towards some of the costs of the new athletics legacy stadium.

we then intsall seats on the running track and have a 70000 great stadium. does require our "new" owners to spend money.

how does our song go --- just like my dreams ......

[the pink palermo]

Wouldn't surprise me if Spurs "interest" was convenient for Sullivan and Levy and a deal was struck.

Surely not yet another part of the Carrick deal ?

[taffhammer]

there is an athletics track down behind the stadium store. The solution may be to build on it and convert that to a 25000 seat stadium to be used once a year and let the weeds grow .We buy the LS and contribute towards some of the costs of the new athletics legacy stadium.
.

Theres a massive plot of land at the south east corner of the ground. As the tax payers gradually get round to realising Brady has shifted the day to day running costs of a stadium to them someone in politics ,who wants the public on there side , will eventually suggest we take over the stadium for free. With the clause of having to pay to build a 25,000 athletic stadium on that plot of land.

[leveller]

It would not have been an under used athletics stadium it would have been the site of Spurs new ground, the only reason it is still there is we were prepared to take it on as it is because we could not afford to knock it down and rebuild. There are many reasons to dislike the place but I will suffer some of those to not have Spurs the biggest club in East London.

So us having a decent stadium we can all enjoy and is appropriate to football is less important than where Tottenham are playing? Sorry but the arguments get ever more absurd. Tottenham will be laughing at us in their new purpose built football ground, constructed basically on the site of their old ground with supporters in mind.