spurs weren't meant to have it...

brin

...considering 'West Ham United' is an anagram of 'The New Stadium' - seems all the odds were against Tottenham from the start.

edhornby

I'd have thought it quite obvious, nothing to do with the team... (neither a hammer nor a spur me btw)

it's the olympic games staduim and one of the prime reasons (that Seb Coe banged on about repeatedly during the bid) to have the olympics is to provide future generations with sports facilities - and by sports facilities they mean a track and field stadium

Spurs' proposal ?? 'We will knock it down and build a new, footy specific stadium with no running track'

and our survey said....

deptfordmarmoset

edhornby wrote:

I'd have thought it quite obvious, nothing to do with the team... (neither a hammer nor a spur me btw)

it's the olympic games staduim and one of the prime reasons (that Seb Coe banged on about repeatedly during the bid) to have the olympics is to provide future generations with sports facilities - and by sports facilities they mean a track and field stadium

Spurs' proposal ?? 'We will knock it down and build a new, footy specific stadium with no running track'

and our survey said....

In itself, I quite liked the Spurs proposal because Crystal Palace is in need of a hefty bit of renewal, but the bid never looked like it could succeed. It was simply too far outside the ''legacy'' brief for the Lea valley.

Bunneh

Should have gone to Man United, most of their fans are down south! BOOMTISH! Someone had to say it.

tmg

No footbal fan wants to watch their team from beyond the width of a running track

Bonus could be tho that they run things in parralel, so on Saturday afternoons you get to watch football and athletics at the same time. Brilliant dual use. Thanks Seb.

So the 'legacy' is a crap football stadium and Crystal Palace remains a shit hole, brilliant idea.

Bobbinogs

So the 'legacy' is a crap football stadium

To be fair, it may also be a stadium for good football but that is now dependent on standard of the opposition.

pneumatic

They could always move to Milton Keynes and merge with Wimbledon. :evil:

Sorry, it's the Gooner in me!

StillGoing

Time will prove it to be a white elephant. Teams all over the world with a running track between fans and the pitch are moving out to purpose built football stadiums. It simply doesn't work. Lets also be honest, who goes to watch athlectics besides fellow competitors and relatives of competitors? The answer is very few and nowhere near 60,000 people. The Crystal Palace revamp would've satisfied any spectator numbers still with thousands of seats empty. West Ham are not even managing to fill a stadium of 35,000 capacity and once they get relegated at the end of this season, even less will go to their games. West Ham have to be very sure that Sullivan and Brady don't have something else planned for the spammers new stadium when the team can't make ends meet and run the team into the ground at the expense of a nice new concert venue.

I also heard Spurs are considering an appeal on the grounds that although borrowing to fund the stadium plans isn't illegal by the terms of the agreement, borrowing at public expense is. Spammers are borrowing somehwere in the region of £40m on the back of the local authority and therefore payable at public expense. Wait until they can't meet the repayments on the loan and everyone's rates go up even higher. They can thank the local football team for that.

Welcome to the dome MK II as Sir Alan Sugar put it. A blinkered decision made to satisfy the ego of a few forgotten athletes.

deptfordmarmoset

pneumatic wrote:

They could always move to Milton Keynes and merge with Wimbledon. :evil:

Sorry, it's the Gooner in me!

Mind you, the Gooners appear to have got blown adrift from Woolwich at some point in their history. And while they were being blown north, somehow Millwall got blown south of the Thames. Millwall for Arsenal? That really doesn't look like a fair swap to me.

pneumatic

Apparently, the Birdsnest in Beijing hasn't been used since 2008 apart from the odd rock concert. They couldn't persuade the local footie team to take it on, and that is in a city with seven concentric M25's and a population of many millions more than London.

markera

As a Spurs fan it's always disappointing to lose out to West Ham. The media certainly did seem to have it in for Tottenham since day one.

It was never Tottenham's intention to demolish the brand new Olympic stadium. That was the plan from the olympic legacy committee from the outset. Problem was how could they get a return on their investment if what was left was a 25000 seater stadium that cost them £543million pounds. No amount of athletics is going to ensure the stadium is successful them.

Instead they let West Ham have it at the cost of a further £40m of public money thanks to Newnham council, while the club is in debt to the tune of £110m, who are bottom of the Premier League.

Not that I'm bitter

verylonglegs

pneumatic wrote:

Apparently, the Birdsnest in Beijing hasn't been used since 2008 apart from the odd rock concert. They couldn't persuade the local footie team to take it on, and that is in a city with seven concentric M25's and a population of many millions more than London.

Isn't that also the case with a couple of the stadiums built for the WC in South Africa last year..they couldn't get either the local football or rugby union sides to move in.

More I think about it the more what my dad used to say makes sense....all the major nations in the olympics should put their hands in their pockets for a permanent olympic park/stadium somewhere and just use that every four years. Sounds a little dull maybe but I think it beats having countries or cities wasting money on a vast vanity project disguised as 'regeneration'.

Le Commentateur

More I think about it the more what my dad used to say makes sense....all the major nations in the olympics should put their hands in their pockets for a permanent olympic park/stadium somewhere and just use that every four years. Sounds a little dull maybe but I think it beats having countries or cities wasting money on a vast vanity project disguised as 'regeneration'.

In which case London would be in the running as a venue. 8)

Surely an upgrading of Crystal Palace would have meant loss of some of the surrounding Victorian parkland for enhanced facilities and car parking?

Karl2010

markera wrote:

Instead they let West Ham have it at the cost of a further £40m of public money thanks to Newnham council, while the club is in debt to the tune of £110m, who are bottom of the Premier League.

This should not be alowed to happen.! Who is the local councilor for this area? Do the residents of Newham Council know all this?

wildmoustache

I'm a longstanding Spurs fan and tbh i'd rather we'd have won simply because it's a cheaper way to get a good new stadium. couldn't really care less if we are in tottenham or leyton.

hammers will move from one of the best compact stadiums with a great atmosphere to a library. they will regret it. though given time they might get away with getting rid of the aethletics track ... who knows.

Drysuitdiver

Karl2010 wrote:

markera wrote:

Instead they let West Ham have it at the cost of a further £40m of public money thanks to Newnham council, while the club is in debt to the tune of £110m, who are bottom of the Premier League.

This should not be alowed to happen.! Who is the local councilor for this area? Do the residents of Newham Council know all this?

local councillor for the park , dunno. but as nobod lives there the councillor won't care as there are no voters to be annoyed.

now as a borough Newham has quite a few councillors and a mayor ( sir robin wales) and a couple of MPs ( stephen byers is one)

and rsidents know full well but most have ben brainwashed into " legacy will be good"

Smokin Joe

markera wrote:

Instead they let West Ham have it at the cost of a further £40m of public money thanks to Newnham council, while the club is in debt to the tune of £110m, who are bottom of the Premier League.

Not that I'm bitter

The money from Newham council is a loan, not a gift, and will be repaid with interest.

IMO the three stooges bought West Ham for the purpose of moving to the Olympic Stadium, increasing the value of the club and making it attractive to a foreign oil billionaire or Russian mafia boss who wants to buy into the Premiership dream and create another Chelsea or Man City.

StillGoing

I fear it will be the finish of West Ham Utd. You'll be back at a dilapidated Upton Park trying desperately to pay off a debt of £40m to Newham council with ever increasing rates of interest, while the OS is turned into a concert arena and lap dancing club.

Stick8267

Good news for Crystal Palace FC though.

They are planning to move in to a new stadium at the National Sports Centre (known by most s Crystal Palace Athletics), rebuild the athletics track as a smaller venue for regional events and revamp the aquatics centre with a 50m pool.

The NSC is on the site of Palace's original stadium so they get to go 'home', the local community get a refurbished sport facility, the NSC get improved training facilities and London gets two decent pools and athletics venues.

It also maximises the sports remaining at the Olympic Park.

Not a bad deal.

RichN95.

Smokin Joe wrote:

IMO the three stooges bought West Ham for the purpose of moving to the Olympic Stadium, increasing the value of the club and making it attractive to a foreign oil billionaire or Russian mafia boss who wants to buy into the Premiership dream and create another Chelsea or Man City.

The Russian mafia is so 2005. It's all about the Shieks these days. Knowing West Ham , they'll get the Fake Shiek from the News of the World.

StillGoing

Stick8267 wrote:

Good news for Crystal Palace FC though.

They are planning to move in to a new stadium at the National Sports Centre (known by most s Crystal Palace Athletics), rebuild the athletics track as a smaller venue for regional events and revamp the aquatics centre with a 50m pool.

The NSC is on the site of Palace's original stadium so they get to go 'home', the local community get a refurbished sport facility, the NSC get improved training facilities and London gets two decent pools and athletics venues.

It also maximises the sports remaining at the Olympic Park.

Not a bad deal.

This will never happen IMO. For me it was a ruse to try and fleece TH out of a few quid as a bargaining tool in the event that they won the OS stadium prefered bidder vote. CP will be developed into an athletics training centre with some of the money from the OS sale. Until they have a cast iron guarantee from the spammers that the track is staying for good, CP won't be handed over for redevelopment.

markera

Sorry i wasn't very clear previously. It is a loan, that Newham council have arranged, but if West Ham default on, it is not clear who foots the bill.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12227069

StillGoing

The people of Newham in their council tax. Maybe Sullivan et al are hoping to recoup some funds renting or selling Upton Park to Leyton Orient although maybe the fans once they get fed up with watching through binos will start going to watch Orient instead? One things for sure, THFC won't rent it while they build a new stadium wherever they decide on.

Le Commentateur

Sorry i wasn't very clear previously. It is a loan, that Newham council have arranged, but if West Ham default on, it is not clear who foots the bill.

Perhaps the taxpayer. Crafty Sullivan knows its too politically sensitive for West Ham to be allowed to fail.

mr_goo

Spurs have been in the preliminary stages of a redevelopment of White Hart Lane since early last year (maybe a lot longer). Scheme was on hold while they awaited the outcome of the Olympic Stadium Legacy. So fear not Spurs fans, a new stadium is still on its way. Plus you will have a new big Tesco or Sainsburys next door as well.

StillGoing

Spurs won't redevelop WHL, the board have as much as stated so publicly. WHL has no suitable transport infrastucture to make it easy to get to or from WHL and N17 is a shithole to put it mildly. As part of any planning process, the local planners want Spurs to foot the bill for new road and rail connections which while reducing traffic congestion on football days, will also make it more viable for new business to be attracted to the area as part of the redevelopment plans for the area. As a result of not being given preferred bidder status for the OS, Spurs will now try to identify suitable land to build a bespoke stdium elsewhere preferably in north London. Spurs went for the OS simply because the bill to develop that was almost half of the estimated costs to redevelop WHL and the OS has existing rail links and road networks.

Stewie Griffin

philthy is right, on top of that we still don't own all of the land and Levy advised that going for compulsory purchase orders is timely and expensive so we are more then likely moving.

Aggieboy

Stewie Griffin wrote:

philthy is right, on top of that we still don't own all of the land and Levy advised that going for compulsory purchase orders is timely and expensive so we are more then likely moving.

Upton Park will be available soon.

Stewie Griffin

Aggieboy wrote:

Stewie Griffin wrote:

philthy is right, on top of that we still don't own all of the land and Levy advised that going for compulsory purchase orders is timely and expensive so we are more then likely moving.

Upton Park will be available soon.

Move to a smaller ground with big plastic castles at the front, brilliant idea

StillGoing

The spammers won't sell Upton Park; they'll be moving back in to it very soon after moving in to the OS once they can't meet the payments on the loan. It's also smaller than WHL. Going back to the OS, I see they are already trying to change their plans for the seating by bringing in temporary seats that have to be manually set up and taken down each time. How many times are they going to fork out for the ground staff to do that without charging athletics clubs the earth?

Aggieboy

philthy3 wrote:

The spammers won't sell Upton Park; they'll be moving back in to it very soon after moving in to the OS once they can't meet the payments on the loan. It's also smaller than WHL. Going back to the OS, I see they are already trying to change their plans for the seating by bringing in temporary seats that have to be manually set up and taken down each time. How many times are they going to fork out for the ground staff to do that without charging athletics clubs the earth?

It'll be sold.

Ooooh, you don't say!