The time lapse webcams showing the rebuilding of the Olympic Stadium have been moved this evening to show different angles of the rebuilt stadium ahead of the Morrisons Great Newham run this Sunday. The new views show the newly laid pitch in all its glory together with the uncovered and cleaned up Olympic running track. The final external image shows the Olympic Stadium with the lights on last night in which have dubbed Close encounters of the third kind resembling some kind of Alien mothership landing in Stratford.
You can watch time lapsed images from https://www.lobstervision.tv/home
I’m not sure how the retractable seating arrangement could get any closer to the pitch than it looks in the photos, or whether the pitch for WHU will be wider/longer than the one currently laid – but it looks a long way from the front seats to the touchline! Surely if the retractable seats slide nearer the pitch that would leave a ‘flat’ area between the lower and upper tiers.
I went to book my Cat 1 seat from the Westfield Centre last week and the visualisation I was shown didn’t seem to show any of the running track at all!
I’m happy to be proved wrong, but I’m jut a little worried!
When the retractable seating moves forward there will be bridges connecting them back to the rest of the stadium
It should look like this. Click photo to enlarge
In which case, if those mock-up pics are anything to go by…..the nearest lower tier seats to the touchlines are those by the corner flags – and the upper tier front row seats will be a very long way from the pitch.
I think you are correct
Well that’s nothing like the presentation the club give when you choose your new season ticket seat! They show the upper and lower tiers meeting – and I’ve bought near the front of the upper tier on the views they showed us. But I will want a refund and move if I can get 50 yards closer at the back of the lower tier!
An uninvited trip back to Westfield appears to be on the cards.
Has anyone else chosen a seat yet?
For the Kop style stand they will infill the gap with demountable seating to fill in the gap to create the impression of one massive stand
That”s the smallish 55,000 seat Etihad Stadium at Docklands in Melbourne. It’s an Australian Rules Football Stadium oval configured in ‘rectangular form’ for it’s secondary uses of soccer and rugby league. This moves about 8,000 people closer to the action and it looks a lot better for TV. The stadium also has a fully opening/closing roof. It’s used for A-League grand finals when the 25,000 Melbourne rectangular soccer/rugby stadium is too small. When the seats are moved forward you get gaps in the four corners.
Based on The Etihad experience, you will be a little disappointed with the OS – but at least it has reasonable capacity. Hard to contemplate a big club like West Ham playing in front of only 35,000 fans.
Stadium Australia in Sydney has seats that move the other way – sliding backwards on rails under the higher decks to convert the more rectangular old 85,000 seat Olympic stadium into an oval for Aussie Rules and T20 cricket.
When shared used stadiums have to cater for regular 50-100,000 crowds across Aussie Rules, cricket, Rugby League, Rugby and Soccer – they have to be flexible. We expecting 55,000 for Liverpool vs Adelaide United at Adelaide Oval on Monday, last year Liverpool got almost 100,000 at the MCG.
Panorama of Melbourne’s Dockland’s stadium in rectangular form with the seats pushed forward. See:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docklands_Stadium#/media/File:Melbourne_Derby_December_2014.jpg
That looks gross,like someone has dumped a load of seats in the middle of the stadium 😉
Hope it will look a LOT better than that Sean, if not we will be the laughing stock of the PL. Will the corners be filled in??
I know the pic of it at night looks spectacular & it is a lovely new stadium but for some reason when i see it inside it just doesnt do it for me.Just leaves me with an empty feeling about it & us playing there.
I’m one of the paupers so I don’t go until December I think, but looking at the top photos it would seem anyone not on the retractables would be quite far away but then again is a football pitch bigger than the grass part inside an athletics track. It’s all a bit confusing but I can’t see it being as bad as we’re imagining. Maybe when the Lidl three legged races take place we can sneak a peek lol
The upper and lower tiers do meet in the east stand (see planning application). Please take my word the view from the back row of the upper is far better than that of a similar seat at Wembley. Was in the back row at Wembley during the Olympics and had to leave at half time because of vertigo. Similar seat at Anniversary Games in 2013 at OS – no problem.
My understanding is that the grass playing surface does not extend onto the running track.
The seats near the halfway line will be further from the pitch than the seats at the corners due to the curve.
The seat in the top tier do not move forwards obviously, so top tier front row will be significantly further away than back row bottom tier (by however much the lower tier moves/retracts).
The ‘sight lines’ will be great, but the players are going to look a bit like ants. You’ll have a great view of the game from anywhere in the stadium….whether you feel a part of it though…that is another matter. But that’s true of most big stadiums. Cardiff gave a great view from on high, but you’re a long way from the action. Wembley is the same.
Trouble with comparing those stadia, is that you’re only ever there on special occasions so the atmosphere is always top notch.
Whether it will be for us on a Wednesday night at home vs Stoke in December, when it’s on TV, and forecast to be ****ing down…I think we all know the answer to that.
I do find it strange that they won’t let you see the seat you can purchase in the flesh so you can actually decide if you like it. if you went to a car dealer to test drive a car and all they gave you was a simulator to test would you buy the car ? I’ve booked tickets for thevathletics next week to get avfeel forbthe stadium and the distances to the pitch before I commit to buy.
I dont like it either,the first chance you are going to get to see if you like what you have purchased is at the first match.I know it is a huge undertaking for the club to let everyone go to check it out & while construction work is going on it is near on impossible but im really uncomfortable with looking at some screens in a presentation to think you are getting what you see & it is going to replicate your actual experience at the stadium.I have real reservations,but maybe i am just being worried about nothing 😀