Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

[Samba]

is the stadium salvageable?

Honest, totally unqualified opinion?
I really don't think so.
The reasons you suggested, I think are very accurate.
The shape of the stands are all wrong. The rake (angle) of the seating as they go up & down, is all wrong. The distance of the majority of the seats from the pitch, is all wrong.
Trying to fart about, making changes to what is there, imo, would just be a complete waste of time & money which I believe would hardly achieve anything for anyone.
I only want one of two options:
Knock the whole thing down & start again,
or
Move again.
We don't get our club 'back', until one of those two things happens.
Anything else would be just further taking the piss out of us.
Which is why, G,S & B, have to go, because they ain't ever going to do either.
And that's not even mentioning the travesty of making us leave Upton Park.

[SEAHammer]

The problem Ms Brady has created is reverse supply and demand

Arsenal 44,000 season tickets average price about 1,300 so they generate 57 million
Spurs 42,000 season tickets average price also about 1,400 so they generate 59 million

West Ham 54,000 season ticket average price about 650 so we generate 35 million

But that's only the tip of the iceberg, Arsenal season ticket holders spend an average 23 pounds per person game on 'stuff' not sure how that's worked out do they have a cashless system like Spurs? Spurs season ticket holders spend an eye-watering 52 pounds per person per game, that staggered me but when you look into those numbers you find the whole stadium from Michelin stared restaurants to massive fast pouring bars is designed to take fans money, and it does. It's very hard to find any spend per person for West Ham ST's but when you consider the stadium only makes 6m from catering PER SEASON, and we get a tiny percentage of that, it can't be very much ...

If you extrapolate those numbers against 25 games a season ...

West Ham ST's spend per season 6m (I'm being generous)
Arsenal ST's spend per season 25m
And Spuds ST's spend per season a massive 55m

So we may attract a lot of low budget fans but not only does that gives us very limited ST income it also gives us fans with lesser budgets who simply don't spend money on the day ...

So why reverse supply and demand -

Arsenal and Spurs attract high end Season Ticket holders who demand high end facilities, if you supply them with real quality then the ST's will spend decent money. There's a reason arsenal just refitted all it's high end corporate, that's where the big money is.

West Ham attract low end Season Ticket who demand cheap facilities, and even if you supply them good facilities the ST's will spend very little money.

and it gets worse - high end sponsors and advertisers aren't interested in people with no money, they will pay us a fraction they pay Spurs and Chelsea because that's all our 'new' fan base is worth ... sounds harsh but that's real life.

With the London Stadium we've made a rod for our own back, put up the prices to Spurs and Arsenal levels and we would need a massive upgrade in facilities, simply not happening in a rented bowl. With no new facilities the season ticket sales would drop back down to our hardcore 25,000 (and believe me if you put up prices I bet even many of the hardcore would now give up) so we'd have an even emptier stadium.

Keep the tickets as cheap as chips but then understand that our revenue and marketing attraction will remain 2nd tier ... whilst the big six can all expect income pushing to 500 million a year, we will remain on 250 million a year ... with that size gap off the pitch we simply can't hope to compete on it.

At some point, and it better be soon, the club must realise that the LS can only lead to mediocrity and failure, we have to change we buy it knock it down and build a Spuds type stadium, we abandon it and relocate to a brand new stadium, or we even ground share ... but something has to give.

[Samba]

The problem Ms Brady has created is reverse supply and demand
At some point, and it better be soon, the club must realise that the LS can only lead to mediocrity and failure, we have to change we buy it knock it down and build a Spuds type stadium, we abandon it and relocate to a brand new stadium, or we even ground share ... but something has to give.

Pretty much, SEAH.
It was SUCH a gamble. Except, it wasn't really because even the worst gamble in the world would contain some chance of winning.
This was a f*cking non-runner before we'd even left UP.
I just thought (& hoped) they'd make it right. They actually did f*ck all about making it right, because it never could be.

[EastEndIRON]

20th April 2016 was my final visit to Upton Park as we beat Watford 3-1 (the atmosphere around the whole club at that time was so positive due to results on the pitch - I actually think that the air of optimism was brilliantly seized upon by the owners in their efforts to “sell the move” to the core support)

I can distinctly remember sitting in the Bobby Moore upper that night though and asking myself “Why are we leaving this place?” The Boleyn ground WAS West Ham and in my honest opinion there was no real necessity to move.

Nearly four years on and I’m still asking the same question. Why?

[DaveWHU1964]

To make two rich, greedy old men even richer in their dotage. That’s all there is to it.

[Eggs'n'nuts]

Cheers Wembley.

Opened my emails this morning and received the same thing.

[Mega Ron]

The problem Ms Brady has created is reverse supply and demand

I don't think we attract low end fans with no money.

I just don't think there's much to spend your money on at that stadium.

It's also pain in the arse to get to the shop, let alone get inside and buy something there.

The whole experience, for me, at the OS is one that encourages me to spend next to nothing in the place.

[hammerman11]

the matchday experience for most fans has gone. we turn up and watch the dross and go. I don't buy anything in the awful place. overprice beer and rotten food I would not feed to the dog !

a beer in the bull and carpenters and occasional breakfast in spoons. that's my routine. the stadium is not homw and never will be. rather be relegated and at the Boleyn than in the PL in the bowl.

trouble is we are going down and its about to get much worse at the dust bowl !

[wormley]

I think Karren should just go all out and rebrand us as the 'cirque de Londres'

Whack a multicoloured striped roof on the stadium with a flag on top and have a ringmaster instead of a referee.

Replace the mascots with a few juggling midgets and unicyclists.

Job done.

[Samba]

Replace the mascots with a few juggling midgets.

She does know one..

[mushy]

a beer in the bull and carpenters and occasional breakfast in spoons

I don't think we attract low end fans with no money.

Hmmmm...

[Believer]

It’s not that we have cheap support. We have a lot of wealthy supporters but what is laid on in the corporate is nothing more than a Premier Inn foyer by all accounts.

I know a bloke who along with 6 mates had seats in corporate that were around £3k (might have been £2k ?) but either way, a lot of dough. They had them on the understanding that they could entertain clients. He says it was embarrassing and on the few occasions they did take clients, they went to Canary Wharf to eat first and then straight to the game. They wanted to increase the prices again this season but for what ? So they sacked it off. Now he doesn’t even have a “cheap” seat as he felt that they had been exploited.

Our lot have no more idea on how to structure our club or attract money than the support in the cheap seats. The whole football aspect requires professionals to be employed. Director of football, corporate management, head of sports science, scouting, everything needs change !

If we drop this season we will remain down for a long time with this lot.

[Wembley1966]

It's very hard to find any spend per person for West Ham ST's but when you consider the stadium only makes 6m from catering PER SEASON, and we get a tiny percentage of that, it can't be very much ...

You're not comparing the same catering spend with Spurs and Arsenal. The £6m per season is purely what LS185 receive as royalty payments from Delaware North for catering - the actual revenue received gets booked in Delaware's accounts. What LS185 receive is after Delaware have deducted all their costs and taken their share of the profit. That also excludes the hospitality catering revenue which is the Club's and that gets booked in the West Ham accounts.

[HammerMan2004]

I’d probably spend way more in the London Stadium if I could get to the bar more than once in 20 minutes.

[Rio]

The problem is we do everything on the cheap. From top to bottom.

We have a rented stadium at a rock bottom price because the landlords were terrified of a white elephant and we were the only viable option.
Our corporate offering is shameful, embarrassing and not befitting a league one outfit. It’s worse than what was on offer at the Boleyn. Why? Because we cut every corner imaginable rather than offer a top notch service which would keep clients happy and wanting more.
For the everyday fan like most of us. With no proper pubs to really choose from, any decent businessman would see a captive audience and pander to them to keep the punters fed, watered and happy to spend pounds galore. Instead we tender out to take away hassles. Leaving substandard offerings on every front. Why? Because that’s cost effective.

That’s the reason the whole stadium experience is a shambles from top to bottom.

[BromleyHammer]

Just look around the stadium at the type of sponsors we attract - for a premier league club it’s shocking, the commercial side of our club is terrible for attracting multinational sponsors, but then look at who is running the show and is it any wonder? Why would any multinational want to associate their brand with our dog turd stadium and dog turd team. Anyone remember that sponsor (can’t remember their name) but they billed themselves as “Nigeria’s premier oil and gas company”. I’ve worked in oil and gas for 15 years and have literally never heard of them - says it all!

[hadleighhammer]

With no proper pubs to really choose from.

I'm far from the stadiums biggest fan, but I've found the pub options around Stratford far better than we had around UP/Plaistow/East Ham. It's about the only thing that has been a bonus from the move for me.

The rest of that is spot on though. The stadium is an utter done-on-the-cheap bodge job.

[-DL-]

Just look around the stadium at the type of sponsors we attract - for a premier league club it’s shocking, the commercial side of our club is terrible for attracting multinational sponsors, but then look at who is running the show and is it any wonder? Why would any multinational want to associate their brand with our dog turd stadium and dog turd team. Anyone remember that sponsor (can’t remember their name) but they billed themselves as “Nigeria’s premier oil and gas company”. I’ve worked in oil and gas for 15 years and have literally never heard of them - says it all!

It's not just sponsors though, is it? it's players, managers. The common denominator is I don't think any one, or any company worth their salts wants to be associated with the side-show of **** that is our board.

It won't be too many years before nobody will want to deal with them, in a commercial side and in a football side.

They are poison.

[Samba]

Anyone remember that sponsor (can’t remember their name) but they billed themselves as “Nigeria’s premier oil and gas company”. I’ve worked in oil and gas for 15 years and have literally never heard of them - says it all!

“Nigeria’s premier oil and gas company - send us yor banking detail for fastly deliver”

[SEAHammer]

You're not comparing the same catering spend with Spurs and Arsenal. The £6m per season is purely what LS185 receive as royalty payments from Delaware North for catering - the actual revenue received gets booked in Delaware's accounts. What LS185 receive is after Delaware have deducted all their costs and taken their share of the profit. That also excludes the hospitality catering revenue which is the Club's and that gets booked in the West Ham accounts.

Thanks for that explanation, it did seem ridiculously low bearing in mind the queues every week ... I wasn't arguing that we are all 'cheap' fans I'm sure we have just as many well healed fans as all the London clubs, the issue is that if you don't provide top level facilities they wealthy people will spend their money elsewhere - all you will be left with, and believe me it's already happening, are the fans who just arrives 5 minutes before kick-off and leave on the final whistle, maybe a pint at half-time but that's his/her lot.

I know a corporate group that have a 'lounge' deal got an invite a while back but couldn't make it, they will take clients to Darkhorse (never heard of it but is quite close I'm told) then chauffeur them to the ground just before kick-off, despite having paid for all the pre-match stuff they bin-it and pay again for a posh restaurant - that says it all. Needless to say they won't be renewing their two year deal, not sure but I believe it was over 50k for 8 people. Anyone want to take it on?