Olympic stadium

Tashyboy

Tashyboy

Please don’t ask to see my tatts 👍
Joined
Dec 12, 2013
Messages
20,519
Visit site
Bottom line is, what the hell is going on.

The cost of converting it from a athletics stadium to a world class toilet/ footbal stadium has risen to over £300 million. Now am I missing something here. Surely it would of been cheaper to flatten it and build a proper stadium. The now Labour Mayor has now orderd an enquiry into what is going on re the stadium, and rightly so. West Ham must be laughing there socks off.
 
This is going to end up being a huge money pit with the tax payer footing the bill. From the moment the stadium was built with no one to take it on afterwards it became a white elephant. They then built it, unlike in Manchester, with no thought to football even though the reality was even without a football club lined up it was inevitable that a team would take it on. Now, the price is being paid. West Ham were laughing when the deal was signed because it is so heavily weighted in their favour but the current mess actually doesn't suit anyone. Whoever signed the deal off to West Ham was both incompetent and inept.
 
IanM said:
Absolutely ... what is going on?

Am I right in thinking it's currently in "football" mode and the extra costs being talked about is a temporary summer change so an athletics meeting can be held?

West Ham probably are not laughing, but how long is their lease?
Click to expand...

It's no ordinary athletics meeting - it's the world champs and first time we have hosted them

It shouldn't have been given to West Ham on the cheap and should have IMO stayed at a multi sport event and concert arena

It's changing it to suit football that has caused the issue

Some wonderful lifelong moments happened in that stadium and right now it's being spoilt by the actions of some fans and the near criminal deal that the club got
 
LP - London doesn't need another stadium / concert arena, Wembley covers those bases. Tottenhams new stadium may also offer similar events. Like most Olympic stadiums they become white elephants unless a football team takes them over. They are the only sustainable alternative. Athletics certainly can not cover the costs of a stadium like that.

It was always going to be either a football ground or a deserted, weed covered monument. Check out all previous Olympic cities to see how their stadiums are getting on.
 
Tashyboy said:
Surely it would of been cheaper to flatten it and build a proper stadium.
Click to expand...


Daft as that may sound (Sorry Tash!) but I heard someone from the construction/civil engineering industry make that very point on the radio this morning.

Apparently the stadium is constructed more like a temporary structure, similar to the new stands at Old Trafford cricket ground and it certainly was not designed with the idea in mind of ultimately becoming a football stadium, unlike the City of Manchester/Etihad Stadium.

This was despite the fact that without such a tenant we would have been left with a "white elephant" rather like other Olympic host cities.

Not sustainable as a multi sport/event venue as there is already too much supply in London for other than athletics and there are only two events in that sport that would demand such a stadium.

P.S. LT just beat me too it!
 
Football was the ONLY likely post-Olympics user imo However, the original design was almost deliberately aimed to prevent such use - in the hope that an Athletics use would be found for it. The inevitable result is that it's the 'worst' of both worlds - not great for Athletics, because of commitments for football use is required but also not great Football either, mainly because of distance from the Pitch. Paul Fletcher is right about the uses being compatible, but design/development priority was clearly different!

West Ham certainly got a great deal, though it was, supposedly, competitive so 'market forces' applied!

The increase in the cost of conversion doesn't actually seem particularly unreasonable (if still a considerable amount!), given the actual circumstances of the conversion. There's still apparently work to do - especially involving security/policing/seperation - that should ease the obscene behaviour of a few 'fans' who should be named and banned for life!

An Inquiry might highlight some of the errors, but I doubt whether it's not going to solve the problems! So merely a blame-deflection exercise!
 
Just picked this up from another site...



So London’s New Mayor Sadiq Khan is planning to spend more public money and launch an investigation into why the London Stadium is costing so much additional public money! Hmmmmmm

To me this smacks of kicking the proverbial dog when it’s down and some cheap political point scoring to curry favour with the easily outraged. The club and the stadium have been dragged through the mud enough recently and it was only last Thursday the the Mayor waded into the Chelsea backlash on his Twitter account

Anyway, Mr Khan will I’m sure be delighted to know that I can save him the price of an investigation though . . . . . . . the chain of events is very simple as I remember it.

West Ham were due to purchase the former Olympic Stadium alongside Newham Counsil and pay £90m towards conversion costs. Tottenham Hotspur and Barry Hearn complained and launched court case after tedious court case until they tied the process in so much red tape that the Mayors office had to scupper the deal.

We then had the farcical situation where we had to bid (amongst others) against a non existent London Grand Prix to see who could become anchor tenants. We won because we were the only show in town who could put enough people into the stadium on a regular basis to create the jobs and turn a small profit that would stop the government from having to subsidise a huge white elephant every year.

So the reason the costs have escalated Mr Khan is because we are the tenants and the property was not fit for purpose so as landlord it was the mayors office responsibility to make it usable.

Blame the contractors, blame a lack of foresight or even blame Daniel Levy if you like but leave us alone please because the bandwagon is full . . . . . . . another will be along shortly.
 
It should have been left as it was. I don't understand taking away the chance for young athletes to target competing at the Olympic Stadium (as it was for those wonderful games).
 
Bunkermagnet said:
It should have been left as it was. I don't understand taking away the chance for young athletes to target competing at the Olympic Stadium (as it was for those wonderful games).
Click to expand...

Too big a stadium with too high costs for just athletics, apart from a diamond league meet once per year and the occassional world champs (2017) or maybe commonwealth games in England again in 20 years, odd American football event or rock concerts, the stadium would sit empty. Domestic interest in athletics spectating is served by small stadiums with running tracks like Gateshead or Alexander Birmingham which seat 11000 -13000 or so and they never fill those. UK Athletics doesn't need a 60,000 seat stadium.

Dont think UK athletics could afford the upkeep anyway.

Think it's naff as a football stadium as is too.

Difficult one.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm still annoyed that they re-built Wembley, and built an Olympic stadium within a relatively short time frame of each other.

Wembley isn't even a good stadium! They missed a brilliant opportunity to build a great, one off stadium for football, american football, and sporting acts. As it's sounds like, the NFL will likely disappear to the new Spurs stadium, and another opportunity missed.
 
CheltenhamHacker said:
I'm still annoyed that they re-built Wembley, and built an Olympic stadium within a relatively short time frame of each other.

Wembley isn't even a good stadium! They missed a brilliant opportunity to build a great, one off stadium for football, american football, and sporting acts. As it's sounds like, the NFL will likely disappear to the new Spurs stadium, and another opportunity missed.
Click to expand...

The criteria seems to be:-

1 - They must be in London.

2. See number one, nothing else matters.

I think they should employ Arsene to pay it off.;)
 
Didn't they make stadiums in America were you could "wheel-in" the stands.

Surely with a bit of foresight, they could have done this with at least 2 of the end stands, to help keep the atmosphere for football games. Make the 2 side stands cheap, as they will be 15 metres from the edge of the pitch, but the 2 "ends" could have been brought in over the athletics track to help keep the atmosphere in, and make it a lot more like a footy stadium.

To be fair to Manchester council and their architects they played a blinder in making an athletics stadium into a footy stadium.
 
Bunkermagnet said:
It should have been left as it was. I don't understand taking away the chance for young athletes to target competing at the Olympic Stadium (as it was for those wonderful games).
Click to expand...

The running costs of the Stadium and the Aquatics Centre are absolutely horrific .... and that's whether they are used or not.

Great to have a facility like that for an Olympic Games, but, who pays for it after the event. You andf me, the taxpayer will no doubt be taking a big hit on the running costs.
 
Liverbirdie said:
Didn't they make stadiums in America were you could "wheel-in" the stands.

Surely with a bit of foresight, they could have done this with at least 2 of the end stands, to help keep the atmosphere for football games. Make the 2 side stands cheap, as they will be 15 metres from the edge of the pitch, but the 2 "ends" could have been brought in over the athletics track to help keep the atmosphere in, and make it a lot more like a footy stadium.

To be fair to Manchester council and their architects they played a blinder in making an athletics stadium into a footy stadium.
Click to expand...

To be honest LB, it was not rocket science re what Manchester City council did re the deal with city and what was formerly known as the city of Manchester stadium. Make sure they had a tenant before they built the stadium. Not only that I believe the stadium was designed with the option of being able to extend the stadium, which they have done and may well do again. Having said all that, it beggars belief that London now have a ground which at the moment is not fit for purpose having seen what has happened to other Olympic stadiums and some World Cup stadiums.
As a stadium it was one I really fancied going to re watching City in an away game and having a weekend in London village. Unfortunately I now ask myself one question. Do I fancy the possibility having my head kicked in whilst watching my team. No not really.
 
What is it with stadiums in London? First Wembley which cost more to build than the GDP of many a country, now the Olympic Stadium. As Clarkson would say: how hard can it be?!
 
Last edited:
The Stadium of Light at Sunderland cost £23m. What a great bit of work that was. Interestingly enough for all those talking about segregation that is basically an open stadium and once you are on the upper level you can walk around the whole stadium in one easy go. The away fans are on that level as well. It just needs decent policing and people being there who are not thugs.

The big cost of most stadiums is the land. The Allianz is built out of the centre of Munich, good tube / rail links though, so the land was probably not expensive. The Allianz came in at around £240 and blimey what a stadium that looks. Wembley and the Olympic Stadium were both built in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Crazy to build there if you have a choice not to.
 
Last edited:
Liverbirdie said:
Didn't they make stadiums in America were you could "wheel-in" the stands.

Surely with a bit of foresight, they could have done this with at least 2 of the end stands, to help keep the atmosphere for football games. Make the 2 side stands cheap, as they will be 15 metres from the edge of the pitch, but the 2 "ends" could have been brought in over the athletics track to help keep the atmosphere in, and make it a lot more like a footy stadium.

To be fair to Manchester council and their architects they played a blinder in making an athletics stadium into a footy stadium.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the company who originally designed the seating has gone into liquidation and this is one of the reasons for the fiasco with the seating it was meant to be rearranged in 5 days now it takes 15 days, West Ham first 2 fixtures next season are already planned as away fixtures due to this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top