3 seats for everyone!
West Ham’s plans to play football in front of 30,000 empty seats have received a boost in the form of support from London Mayor, Boris Johnson.
The Spammers have been chasing the Olympic stadium hard since Messrs Gold and Sullivan took over the club in January.
Originally the stadium was to host the Olympics in 2012 and then be used as an athletics facility, but as the Olympic committee and the government smell money from West Ham, the agenda appears to have changed.
If West Ham do get use of the stadium, they will likely have to share it with a running track. Don’t know about you, but as a footy fan, being that far from the pitch sucks!
The Stadium would need to be converted after the 2012 games to remove some of the 80,000 seats to avoid an echo, but even if 50-60,000 were left, West Ham would struggle to fill the place BIG TIME; Last seasons average attendance was 33,603. In-fact, they didn’t sell out a single game at their current home, even when Man United (34,980) came to the Boleyn ground– which holds 35, 303.
West Ham have asked the Olympic Park Legacy Company for a 6 month grace period to negotiate a deal, expected to be worth 125 million pounds. Other rivals for the giant stadium include AEG, who own the O2 arena in the Docklands area.
“The market testing has captured genuine interest from a range of organisations in the sports, events, investment and education sectors. We are building on this momentum and working closely with interested parties to move towards a formal procurement process.” – OPLC spokesman.
Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that West Ham are trying to bring David Beckham and Michael Owen to Upton Park. Hmmm, let’s files this one under ‘OOF’.
Watching soccer at a stadium with a track definitely sucks, but give West Ham credit for at least showing some ambition. While it would suck to have 30K fans a week in a stadium that seats 80K, it would be far worse I think to build a winning team and find yourself turning people away at the box office. Isn’t that the problem Arsenal had with Highbury?
Biggest issue might be transport. Not sure as yet how close to Stratford Station the new stadium will be, while Upton Park on the District/Hammersmith/City lines is within spitting distance of the current ground.
That said, the Jubilee line links West Ham station to Stratford (UP is only two stops up from WH station).
That said, a major plus for Stratford in general is that it’s linked to way more underground/overground/National Rail lines than either West Ham station or Upton Park station. Ergo, more Hammers fans should be able to get in for games with much less hassle.
@JT: I feel it’s imperative for you to know that, while walking back to my hotel for lunch between bar exam sessions, I encountered a homeless man wearing a Liverpool jersey.
Are there any other league clubs that play at a ground with a track around it? I can’t think of any in the premier league. And yes, any football played on a pitch/field that has a track around it immediately goes up the suck-o-meter.
@Annon Was it Ian Rush?
@Anonsters
Thanks, dick.
Can’t imagine there’d be much atmosphere playing in front of so many empty seats.
I’d love the MLS to come to my hometown of Detroit, but I don’t think it’ll happen so long as the only venue is the Silverdome which holds 80,000. Not sure why West Ham thinks this is a good idea, especially when you add in the track.
@tmiller – we get AC Milan v Panathinaikos at the Silverdome on Aug. 6th, partially in an effort to build some momentum for bringing an MLS team to the area within a few years
@NY: I plan on being there. Cheap seats,but it should be fun.
@NY: I plan on being there. Can’t wait. Cheap seats, but it should be fun.
The situations are probably not too comparable, but Seattle gets a pretty decent atmosphere despite only filling about half the stadium. If West Ham can fill 40,000 seats or so, maybe tarp off the upper deck, that might not be bad at all. Still the track to deal with of course.