London Stadium Season 3 (2018/19)

OldCastleSwift

I'd imagine the club may struggle to get the 66k capacity they want when only 43k people are actually turning up ;hmm

steve

if we keep playing as we have been only 43 will turn up

MrsGrey

OldCastleSwift said:

I'd imagine the club may struggle to get the 66k capacity they want when only 43k people are actually turning up ;hmm

Depends on the size of the ST waiting list, maybe.

Also, I on't think the planners (or whoever has to approve the increased capacity) is too bovvered about how many turn up on the day....

ASLEFshrugged

Mrs G - Newham council give the final approval although if the Met object Newham won't grant expansion.

MrsGrey

;ok

IronHerb

I think those figures are rubbish.

PrestonHammer

Well seeing as Herbie and Suz go to every home game, I reckon they both should count up all in attendance to find out the truth. ;whistle

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

IronHerb said:

I think those figures are rubbish.

I do too, very disappointing indeed that so many are not showing up, or even selling tickets on.

But the BBC did a FOI request, so they’re factual I would believe.

MrsGrey

Depends how the 'real' numbers are collected. ;hmm

Pearces_Left_Foot

I always list my ticket if I can't go but quite often it does n't sell

Colchester_Iron

If I can't make a game (very rare occurrence), I generally can't give my ticket away.

Not helped by the fact that; if I couldn't make the Chelsea game for example, and I listed my ticket, the club would offer it at £65 (Band 4).

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Unfortunately for me, this all goes back to the manner they were originally sold, at the sales office, with the +2 gig

Not going to go over old ground so much has been said about all this in the past.

I understand that the club “thought” by being in some shiny new home with 30k more fans would help project us, more income, cheaper seating options, more family friendly, but I think they’ve seriously miscalculated the fanbase here. Obviously some of this is tied to performance on the pitch, had we got off to a flyer in the first two years, probably wouldn’t of been able to get a ticket for love nor money on occasion.

One of their arguments with LLDC is to get the 60,000 and then 66,000 seats filled, right now that doesn’t seem like a good idea, until our fortunes change a bit. Of course some will say that if we have more people “behind us” then it should help, I’m not so sure at that place

IMO

;thumbsup

MarkNobleLocalHero

I have been to every home match and find it hard to believe that the ground has 22% empty seats. Having said that the club should be up front about numbers.

As for underestimating the fanbase, I do believe them when they say they have sold 52m season tickets so the money is coming in even if it is peanuts compared with TV money.

They should get permission to fill (in principle) those 66.000 seats and then it is up to WHU to see if they can fill them. How is it not a good idea? The seats are there they should be allowed to either fill them or not no big problem either way IMO but it should be nothing to do with LLDC. Would probably make my travelling to and in particularly from the ground even less pleasant if they did fill them though.

sweepy23

I don’t see it as a negative. I do believe the figures. Boxes and club seats are often empty or given away as free. The white seats in the stands are very visible. However we seek more than Chelski and many other clubs.

ASLEFshrugged

MarkNobleLocalHero said:

it should be nothing to do with LLDC. .

Stadium capacity is down to Newham Council and the Metropolitan police although the LLDC own the stadium so obviously they have an interest.

Pearces_Left_Foot

Bigger capacity means more food/beers sale which would generate more income for LDDC maybe West Ham pay abit extra to cover the extra staffing costs.

ASLEFshrugged

LLDC don't want "a bit extra", they're losing millions and have to try to get as much out of us as they can for any alteration to the leasing agreement.

Pearces_Left_Foot

I thought they were still arguing if the existing agreement already covers it and going to court again. You would of thought any additional income would be welcome but then again I have a hangover this morning too much guiness last night

ASLEFshrugged

Even if extra food and drink sales raised another half a million quid that would be a £22.2m loss compared to £22.7m. Not much help.

ASLEFshrugged

That's what Gold claimed but did he ever say for how much?

whupathman

Any amount better than the year on year loss to pander to one athletes meeting a year

ASLEFshrugged

Crystal Palace Athletics Stadium has an annual operating cost of around £1m, the Olympic Stadium as a 25k athletics stadium couldn't have been much more expensive. Not much of a year on year loss.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

We weren’t going to own it originally, we were going to lease it for 150 years (I think) in a joint venture with Newham Council

We were going to pay just £20m Newham £40m and a government grant £35m. The rebuild was budgeted at £95m (at that time - but came out 3x that!) but West Ham would pay the running costs and run the stadium sharing profit and naming rights

ASLEFshrugged

In 2015 David Gold told "Leaders in Sport" conference...

"When it became available it became available for sale, the idea was with Newham Council we were going to purchase it, we won that bid".

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3263708/West-Ham-tried-buy-Olympic-Stadium-outright-Tottenham-Leyton-Orient-forced-rent-insists-David-Gold.html

Once again no mention of how much it would have cost.

grey_til_I_dye

Pretty sure the club offered to buy it. Then there was some appeal, and it was offered on lease only.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Could be right, there may of been a bit of a previous mention of purchasing, But at some point I’m sure what I mentioned above was on the table as well.

What is interesting is that the day they bought the club, Sullivan said he wanted to rent it.

SuzanneClaret

AdMeus_CaputFilius said:

McHammer said:

Does the OS have anything like this?

https://rangers.co.uk/news/club/ibrox-sensory-room-project/

No. There was talk of it as it was a subject bought up during the supporters consultation discussion with the club during the planning for and after the move.

They made all the right noises and talked to various groups about it but it never happened.

I know this to be the truth as I was the main instigator of it being bought up at the meetings through members of the SAG who are part of this forum. There were all sorts of promises but no one ever got into contact with me from the club (despite several reassurances they would) as I was supposed to be involved with it - through my work I had even had a couple of companies I work with draw up some preliminary plans and ideas for a presentation.

One of the many reasons I lost faith in the current owners and to a certain extent the club.

True. I was one of the roots in. Promises made to me by the club that I passed on where never acted on.

One of, if not the main, reason why I became so apathetic about SAG.

MrsGrey

Stadium owners spend £4m on legal fees in disputes with West Ham

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45668395

They [LLDC] also disagreed over who should pay to make the stadium more supporter friendly, and a mutually agreed legal expert ruled in West Ham's favour.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Nothing like throwing good money after bad

ASLEFshrugged

In March Sir Robin Wales, leader of Newham council for 23 years, was deselected as Labour's candidate for Mayor and replaced by Councillor Rokhsana Fiaz.

According to Private Eye Fiaz is now investigating Sir Robin's dodgier deals including the £52.2m of Newham council money sunk into the Olympic Stadium and then written off. It seems that Karren Brady has been trying to arrange a meeting with Fiaz ever since she was elected in May but Fiaz won't talk until she has all the facts.