19 Comments

London Stadium may become athletics free!

EaststandathUK Athletics could be paid to quit the London Stadium after the 2017 London Anniversary Games and World Athletics championships.

The cost of moving the relocatable seats rose to £8m last year instead of an original budget of £300,000 and that has caused the stadium owners into considering that as a major alternative.

Claret and Hugh understands that one idea being explored is paying UK Athletics to relocate the Anniversary Games to their UK Athletics home in Birmingham and therefore giving up their 50-year agreement to use the London Stadium.

Buying UK Athletics out of their contract would cost millions but that could still possibly save the stadium owners a fortune should they not need to move the seats each summer.

The purpose-built athletics Alexander Stadium was expanded in 2011 to take a capacity of 12,700 at a cost of £12.5m and already hosts Diamond league events. It is owned by Birmingham City Council.

 

About Sean Whetstone

I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk. A Blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball, I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh. Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons! Follow me at @Westhamfootball on twitter

19 comments on “London Stadium may become athletics free!

  1. Step 1. Of how many though?

  2. At last some sort of sense being shown – the swapping back and forward between Football and Athletics modes was always a balmy idea!

  3. Why couldn’t they come up with that years ago? We will be playing in a athletics stadium that doesn’t hold athletics. Now that really would pi$$ tax payers off, spend £270m+ to convert it in to multi use & then pay UK Athletics another £??m not to use it. You couldn’t make it up 🙂

  4. I only said to my son last week that I thought the stadium would be changed to all seater & the running track scrapped but I thought it would take 3 years before they got round to it but it seems the cost of moving the seats has focussed the owners minds if this goes ahead they should scrap the running track & build permanent seating this would increase the stadium capacity I would think West Ham would be amenable to pay towards the cost or they could renegotiate their rent to pay a bit more because they would benefit from more ticket sales.

  5. I think we will see many things change with regards to the stadium in the next few years.All that is needed is a little patience.
    Unfortunately it will come too late for the fans who are already running around with pants on their heads and pencils up their nostrils lol

  6. Running track to be replaced by a giant moat 😀😀

    • You sir are genius. They could insert a link to the canal and have supporter barges traveling around the pitch thus bringing thousands of fans closer to the action. Brilliant.

  7. Lmao Stanley. Wibble wibble 😂😂

    Yep totally agree this coming event will be the last athletics event and I would not be surprised if there are already plans in place for a permanent seating system to go back in its place. It might even be that this will still be going in during the start of the season but so what, the LS is a long term plan.

    Then of course as yours truly has said many times Sullivan will buy it for less than £50M. I predict £30M. ITS MAKING A £10M LOSS EVERY YEAR!!! Even the naming rights won’t cover that.

    Anyhow, if I’m allowed, Id like to comment on Sean’s article on Wetlands. I think it’s a rotten article, it’s written for the target audience on that site. Good posters like Simon, VOR and Ro and a few others will hopefully point this out but I find the mocking tone and bias embarrassing to be honest. Mocking the biggest tv screen and pointing out the only way we have got closer to Spuds is by moving 1.8M closer is pathetic. Sure they are bigger than us, probably always have been but you have to aim for the next level and they occupy that level. We will hopefully close the gap but to do that we need to do a Leicester. But doing a Leicester IS achievable isn’t it? We weren’t so far away from CL last season.

    The article by Sean points out every negative as to why we won’t but it doesn’t list the positives the move to The OS has bought to us. Our rent and overheads are minuscule compared to the Spuds and like Arsenal before them they’ve got to fund a £750M stadium. West Ham meanwhile IMO will be buying a stadium for a tenth of that in that time.

    At least write a balanced article Sean. That’s just my opinion by the way, before I get banned, which is normally closer aligned to Sean’s than anyone else’s, I’m not sure why the article is so pro Spuds and mocking of West Ham other than you are trying to give the punters what they want.

    Anyhow that’s my view for what is worth. I’d be interested to hear from you Sean the cost advantages of us being at the LS with those small outgoings vrs Spurs paying their own security and corner flags etc and financing a £750M debt with Wonga.com. And of course attracting naming rights and catering etc. That would give your article balance.

    • The majority on there dont want balance unfortunately young John.They want drama and reasons to throw a paddy.
      Fortunately i still have a full life which means i dont need to site on a blog twelve hours a day finding reasons to be a miserable old bugger lol

      • Lol Stan they’ve got some good posters on there. See post by Paul Anderson too. It’s just that the idiots post the most. Bit like here really lol. On that note, I’m off for a cold beer down the local. One less idiot on this site 😂😂

  8. I recall the Tottenham plan was to knock the stadium down. relocate Athletics to Crystal Palace. Hate to say it but that was a good idea.

  9. Sounds great to remove the athletics track and install seating but I believe there remains a further major expense of extending the roof. It is already the largest cantilever stadium roof which cost a mind boggling sum to build. Issue claret and blue pakamacs to those sat in the front seats maybe 😄

  10. Can’t see Seb Coe being too agreeable to digging up the running track either. His name is said to be all over the original poor stadium design and from what I can recall never wanted a football club taking up tenancy. This could take years of arguing and numerous public enquiries so could be 20 / 30 years away from being reality if at all.

  11. I don’t think the track would be ripped up to be fair. It would be retained for World Athletics championships which could happen every 10 years on average. Only the Anniversary games would move.

    This purely about cost savings. Without moving the seats and naming rights they can break even and make a small profit. The chances of new seating or the roof being changed are extremely remote

    • Why don’t the club have the digital advertising boards around the edge of the pitch like every other ground similar to LS? Surely the pitch won’t seem so big to the players if they can see the edges.. that would give room behind for more advertising as well

    • Appolgies if I’m challenging what you say Sean, but breaks no even or making a small profit isn’t a good business model on a company that has a £1bn debt and a turnover of £5/6M. In fact the whole business model sucks. It won’t change over the next 98 years, what will its total profit be over that period? Probably nothing when you factor in maintenance. So little no profit every year for the next 98 years and a substantial debt still against the stadium, which in theory could be interest chargeable. Vrs West Ham taking it off their hands for £30/50M. I’m not a Newham tax payer but I know which is the best option.

      It’s ok I’m off to the local I’ll not challenge any reply lol. I do appreciate yours and Hughies hard work for us mate.

      • The whole Queen Elizabeth Park will make a massive profit though in land leases and business rates. Over the 99 year period LLDC and Newham will get the money back many times over, just not from the London Stadium although you argue it is the main attraction of businesses and housing to the park area.

        • Got to admit ive never considered the bigger aspect regarding the whole park. There is some prime real estate there. My point still stands tho, if the stadium is making nothing or next to nothing then selling it to the hammers for £50M is not rocket science.

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