Board/Fan Relationship

thornburyiron

That was the point I was making. The OS had to remain a stadium which could be used for athletics especially with the World Championships in 2017.
Spurs offer to take the stadium was always known to be a non starter and they got what they really wanted with being able to redevelop WHL into a much bigger stadium.

claretandbluesky

Maybe it should have been a non starter for us which would have left them a difficult choice to either let it gather dust and haemorrhage more money than now or become more agreeable to greater control and redevelopment than they were. I think we capitalised on their need through driving a good price but possibly, and I mean possibly we could have had more leverage, such as we stay at the Boleyn until after World Championships and then have greater say by dropping the legacy afterwards.

There was a lot of leverage as no one else could really have filled it each time as we do but maybe we cashed in our leverage for money rather than control.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

this deal of the century probably isn’t helping anyone tbh

IronHerb

But we were done for, football stadium wise, once it was built as designed.

ASLEFshrugged

claretandbluesky

Do you have any evidence that the Olympic Stadium would "gather dust and haemorrhage more money" as a 25k athletics stadium, similar in size to Crystal Palace, than it does as the 60k mess it is now?

MrsGrey

I don't think you can have evidence of something that hasn't happened yet. ;hmm

ASLEFshrugged

True but there would have been estimates, budgets and costings calculated before the thing was built, somewhere there are a bunch of figures that show just how much it would have cost to go with the original scheme but as far as I'm aware they were never made public.

Boris said that it would be a "white elephant", that it needed a football team in order to be successful and no one seems to have questioned him despite his record for being, er, well, slightly over-optimistic when it comes to finances

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

It was a perfect fit for Newham and our owners......

PrestonHammer

If it has just been left as a running track, then it would have just been left to rot. The track at Crystal Palace is still rotting. The local track to me would have rotted but Saracen RFU now play the home matches there.

ianbishoplegend

I do wish the athletic legacy had been allowed to run its natural cause. Beyond ridiculous, of Coe and others, to think they could support that stadium.

ASLEFshrugged

PrestonHammer said:

If it has just been left as a running track, then it would have just been left to rot. The track at Crystal Palace is still rotting. The local track to me would have rotted but Saracen RFU now play the home matches there.

Crystal Palace hosted the IAAF London Athletics Grand Prix (now called the Anniversary Games) from 1992 until 2012, if it was "still rotting" as you say it is then why did the IAAF accept it as a suitable venue?

MrsGrey

Well, it could be called 'a way out'.

But if they can't do something without their permission, and the permission is not given, it might just be a simple explanation as to why something wasn't done.

Unless we are now holding people accountable for things that they have no power to do?

In which case.... I blame the board for not compulsorily purchasing a nice chunk of land around the Boleyn, knocking down the old stadium and other properties on 'our' newly purchased land, and building a state of the art stadium directly on the site of the old one. This whole shambles could have been avoided if they has just done that, but oh no... ;wink

TheMadcapLaughs

Macca, this is my biggest problem, I have to admit, I haven`t been to the new stadium so cannot judge it from first hand experience, but I know a few people that have been and although not hating it are not too keen, they prefer The Boleyn. It does seem all a bit pointless, and was definitely miss sold. No move, no RWHFAG (imo)

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

RWHFAG have announced they were invited to a meeting TODAY by the club to talk about the 5000 word letter Brady released, this is on the back of it being revealed Andy Swallow attended Sullys house the other week before last weeks meeting when Sully was ill.

I’d say they’re rattled......

grey_til_I_dye

Or, they want to make sure they do as good a job of making the match day experience as good as possible for as many fans as possible, and realise that good communication, and clarity is important for that?

Not sure why people insist on seeing it in confrontational terms.

They aren't going to be bullied/threatened into doing anything they don't want to, so I don't see where 'rattled' comes into it.

MrsGrey

grey_til_I_dye said:

Not sure why people insist on seeing it in confrontational terms.

Well, given that Andy Swallow is (or was until a few years ago) a leading football thug, I suppose it's his ethos.

grey_til_I_dye

Concerned about negative publicity?

That would be a first, then.

Seriously, what do you imagine the impact will be on them? Because I think it will be zero.

They don't have shareholders to answer to. They can do what they like.

Do you honestly think a few thousand (or tens of thousands for that matter) of fans marching and chanting 'sack the board' is going to have any impact on Diddy Dee's sense of self-esteem?

MrsGrey

Or that if they do sack the board (which isn't possible) we aren't still going to be playing at the OS.

I appreciate that lots of people involved in this coalition are actually trying to bring about genuine improvements in the match day experience, but some (and I number a lot of the RWHF folks in that group) come across as having a very different aim.

While they might have no objection to better stewarding or more flags, from interviews and other stuff I've read they come across as more interested in 'punishing' the board for leaving the Boleyn (and for being who they are, too - there's a strong whiff of personal animosity about a some of it). My opinion, based on what I've seen them say.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

grey_til_I_dye said:

Concerned about negative publicity?

That would be a first, then.

Seriously, what do you imagine the impact will be on them? Because I think it will be zero.

They don't have shareholders to answer to. They can do what they like.

Do you honestly think a few thousand (or tens of thousands for that matter) of fans marching and chanting 'sack the board' is going to have any impact on Diddy Dee's sense of self-esteem?

Possibly yep, they hate bad publicity, they left BCFC because they were no longer liked/adored (not that I think they’re going anywhere soon)

It’s about “change” for the good of the club

grey_til_I_dye

they left BCFC because they were no longer liked/adored

I'd say that comes under 'opinion' rather than 'fact'.

PrestonHammer

Might be because they were offered 85 million quid?

MrsGrey

See, there's a contradictory opinion right there ;biggrin

Lukerz

Considering they put out the signings of Barton, Diouf and some bloke from abroad to the public vote on social media, I'd say they are very much influenced by opinion.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

grey_til_I_dye said:

they left BCFC because they were no longer liked/adored

I'd say that comes under 'opinion' rather than 'fact'.

I’d say it was a general quote from David Gold and he repeated it at WHUFC, - I’m not going to stay anywhere I’m not wanted, 86% wanted us gone, so we left.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Just think today of all days with that weather they’ve asked members of the action group to attend a meeting at short notice, if you were the kind to believe in conspiracies you’d think they would hope it was a no show by the group

IronHerb

RWHFAG update: -

https://twitter.com/realwesthamfans/status/945065245915181056

MrsGrey

;puzzled

IronHerb

Oops. Wrong tweet but Merry Christmas anyway. ;doh

IronHerb

try this_ -

Moojor

IronHerb said:

try this_ -

That was painful to read.