The whole reason d’être of West Ham United’s football stadium was as, I’m sure everyone knows only too well , an Olympic venue as the centre point of the 2012 games. The Hammers took it over as tenants as a bit of a steal when no better use could be found for the Athletics venue; the argument over top class football in an athletics stadium has raged ever since.
The claret carpet over the running track is fooling nobody. The seating configuration shouts ‘athletics venue’ and the patent unsuitability of the design for 65,000 football supporters all trying to arrive and exit in the same 30 minute period is clear every match day.
Keeping the whole place configured for Athletics and ‘available each summer’ makes this giant white elephant of a stadium a ‘jack of all trades’ and suitable for neither sport.
And yet the situation now gets even more absurd when UK Athletics seek to put forward a bid for the Athletics World championships in September 2029 – based at the London Stadium – but are being blocked by West Ham.
As per yesterdays dailmail.co.uk:
“London’s bid to stage the 2029 World Athletics Championships is facing a major hurdle after West Ham refused to back down in a dispute over relinquishing their home mid-season…West Ham remain strongly opposed to a central strand of the plan that would see them vacate the London Stadium across roughly three weeks in September 2029.
And who can blame them? It’s rather like your landlord coming back and demanding access to your rented home even though the lease says ‘its yours’ at that time.’
“West Ham, who have leased the stadium from Greater London Authority Holdings Limited since 2016, are not backing down. In a statement to Daily Mail Sport, they insisted the terms of their awkward relationship with the stadium grant them ‘priority’ during the football season and, privately, club sources are confident they can defend their position through legal avenues if necessary.”
An absurd situation. ‘The £800m athletics stadium that can’t be used for athletics’. Only in good old England.
I think this is a bit of hot air. Even Sullivan knows the negative publicity for him and West Ham would far outweigh the inconvenience of switching one or two games to away fixtures in Sept. It might even give the GLAH Ltd enough rope to force a legal review of the terms of our tenancy contract.
Another situation which might hasten the sale of stadium to us in line with our original bid until Boris did his cowardly lion act!
The Boleyn remainers are stuck in history, it’s gone and was never going to suitable for the new generations of supporters. All the younger supporters I speak to love the new location, facilities and the fact they can actually get to see games. Its funny that Everton and Spurs magnificent new stadiums cannot so far produce winning performances.
We should all give thanks to Karren for negotiating such a great contract on the stadium. It may not be an ideal venue for football but it sure beats the Boleyn which was so far past its day.
If the owners want to sell the stadium I am sure we would be happy to buy at the right price.
I am sure we would all have preferred a purpose built stadium but where was the billion pounds to build it going to come from
sure beats the boleyn, come one mate even you cant believe that. maybe functionally but our clubs atmosphere is a shadow of its former self
we got rid of a great asset for a stadium we dont even own thank you so much karen you witch
3 weeks, where’s the problem? Perhaps losing out on home advantage for home games could be catered for by arrangement, so that during these 3 weeks WHU have away games scheduled. Might be all of 2 games.
WHU standing in the way of London hosting the Olympics? What the hell. Pointless self-importance, try planning for/making stadium improvements post Olympics instead.
Disclaimer: I’ve never been to the London Stadium. Other than stand outside in the off season.
Where it is, how it looks, and all the negative comments about transport, hospitality, away fans getting easy access to home fan seats.
It’s not home.
Equally, it puts the club at a major disadvantage when it comes to providing collateral for loans. The club has none.
I hope the new owners recognise this and build the club a home to be proud of.
Yeah, I’m projecting, we can but hope.
Boris not only screwed the UK with his bodged policies, he screwed West Ham out of ownership of the stadium and screwed London Council Tax payers.
If memory serves me correctly, didn’t the club agree to play four consecutive games as the away team in our first season at LS?
As I understand it, the stadium lose money for the public purse every year. This is most absurd thing as far as I am concerned even as a West ham fan. It is obvious, the ball is in the owners court, they are loosing money can’t use it when they want with the rental agreement they have set up. For all parties selling the ground to West Ham at a discounted price is the only move open that would help all parties, but ofcourse no one is worried about wasting public
public funds.
The 2017 event was very successful & it would be good to have it in London again. However there is no reason why in 2029 it could not be held in July/early August, like the Olympic games is. World Athletics apparently prefers September. But clearly West Ham Utd has a cast iron legal contract which entitles them to resist any attempts to vacate the stadium during the football season. My guess is that the government will try to pressure West Ham & there will be negative publicity for WHU if they won’t back down. Then the bid will go in for July 2029 and if London doesn’t get it West Ham will be blamed.