Albie Beck wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:47 pm
Good post, however:
I don't believe Newham Council were ever going to allow any further development of the BG, despite any prior or pending planning decisions. Nor that they were going to allow the Parcel Force site to be developed, not by WHU anyway. Newham had an enormous White Elephant on their hands in the shape of the OS, and WHU were the only solution. So whether it was a bus depot (that isn't there now) or listed gasometers (that can now be built around) those were just excuses.
We were always going to have the OS. It's just that the original Coe/Livingstone/Jowell concept was fatally flawed as it discounted football as a genuine legacy when it was the only realistic option, and then Brady and Co made such a pig's ear of the subsequent deal it meant us ending up with something totally unsuitable for football.
It could have been ok. Many of us thought it would.
More fool us.
That's an interesting post, Albie. I totally agree that they were all just excuses & absolutely not insurmountable.
We must remember though that 'in 2009, club CEO Scott Duxbury announced West Ham had obtained planning permission to expand the East Stand; this would have brought the stadium's capacity over 40,000'.
'Then, in 2010, new club owners David Gold and David Sullivan announced West Ham would move to the Olympic Stadium after the 2012 Olympics after all. On 23 March 2010, the club announced it was working on a joint bid with Newham London Borough Council to move into the Olympic Stadium'.
So, at some point between 2009 & early 2010, Newham went from saying yes to further building at Upton Park, to going all in for the move.
In other words, in 2009 the future OS wasn't deemed by Newham to become an enormous white elephant but by early 2010, it suddenly was.
I guess that GSB used all of their 'charm' on Newham..
The question is though, would it have been such a white elephant specifically for Newham council? They hadn't paid for it to be built. They had already been gifted the massive regeneration of Stratford.
However, it might well have been a white elephant for the Government & the then London Mayor & Seb Coe..