Karren Brady says the London Stadium retractable seating disaster is not West Ham’s fault telling London Standard readers “West Ham never had any involvement in the choice of a retractable seating solution,”
She added: “Our only requirement has always been that the seats be brought as close as possible to the pitch. In 2013, LLDC proposed a retractable seating model akin to that at the Stade de France and, indeed, produced a video showing this at that time. This solution would have cost in the region of £20m.”
The official West Ham 99-year concessionaire contract signed in 2013 says in relation to seating:
“The front of each seat in the front row of the east and west Lower Tiers to be between 10 and 20 metres from the touchline opposite the centre spot. The front of each seat in the front row of the of the north and south Lower Tiers to be between 10 and 18.9 metres from the goal line opposite the penalty spot.”
“To achieve the Agreed Capacity of seats in Football Mode within +1- 5% of the maximum viewing distance zone a bespoke demountable seating system has been added to the eastern side of the Stadium, behind the Lower Tier, providing a visual connection between the Upper Tier and the Lower Tier and fast turnaround from Football Mode to Athletics Mode”
A canned history of the doomed retractable seating project can be found at https://www.westhamtillidie.com/posts/2017/08/20/a-canned-history-of-london-stadium-s-retractable-seating
So why was Gold on video saying that we would never move if the seats were further away from the pitch than at UP? Oh, yeah, that would be part of the lies that were spun at the time to keep fans onside about the move. But hey, they didn’t know. In which case they gambled absolutely recklessly and lost; and we find ourselves ‘watching’ football in a completely unfit for purpose athletics stadium.
Of course she would say it’s not down to them. I remember watching the video showing the solution. The company that was down to this went bust. Was that the only company in the world that could do this?
The promised wi-fi also hasn’t materialised.
We’re all still waiting for the world class players.
Promises have been broken by the dodgy Daves and Brady.
She’s very good at shifting blame…they moved us there so they MUST take the blame if it doesn’t go right..she will never ever hold her hands up..Anyone thinking she will can forget it..The whole move is a mess..Great from a business side of things though for the club and the owners but from the supporter or should I say customers side of things for the vast majority it’s been and is a living knightmare..
What she says is right, she is defending the club against negative press, the directors at times do themselves no favours but in relation to this I think she is spot on, the fact that the model of seating promised is not what was delivered is down to the LLDC it is also down to the Stadium design in Parc Des Princes the seating is on wheels and is taken out of the stadium because it was well designed unlike our stadium which was designed as an athletics stadium with no foreward planning, blame the IOC and LLDC for that not our club. I certainly get the views of those who feel that is a negative but in terms of atmosphere when the team perform and sometimes when we don’t its hard to knock, we create a wall of sound.
well said 32
Also agree with you 32. There are some people out there who would find fault with anything the board do. Even watched a video of a meeting where it was suggested West Ham paid for the stadium to be knocked down and rebuilt or even for another stadium to be built somewhere else. The words ‘short sighted’ comes to mind.