Not Sure What Thread/Where to put it (from Feb 2026)

alderz

I like the playoffs. I don't think they are particularly fair from a promotion perspective, but the more teams that have something to play for towards the end of the season the more competitive the competition, IMO. Without the playoffs there are a lot of teams that are on the beach, which can have its own knock on consequences to promotion and relegation too.

chicagohammer

Alderz, I agree that it maintains interest for a number of teams deeper into the season and I would not advocate to scrap the playoffs, but I think the current system is adequate, i think that most fans feel that ending up top six means you have had a decent season and to have shot at promotion is an exciting prospect..

I do not know the stats but I suspect that there are many seasons where very few points separate eighth from twelfth and a team that has spent the season mid table, has fully earned the right to stay in that division but to give them a Hail Mary shot at promotion is where starts to feel ridiculous……that is why I think the current red line is appropriate

Dodger58

I’d like to see the 3rd place team face the third from bottom of the higher league (unless it’s Spurs) - so an opportunity for redemption.

ASLEFshrugged

Dodger58 said:

I’d like to see the 3rd place team face the third from bottom of the higher league (unless it’s Spurs) - so an opportunity for redemption.

Thats what they do in the Bundesliga, bottom two go down, top two from 2nd tier come up a with a playoff between 3rd in tier 2 and 16th in the top tier

chicagohammer

In the current championship, eighth spot is twelve - that is 12, points behind third, the fact that a team in such a position could gain the play off promotion spot seems ludicrous to me.

I know the clubs voted for this and it was plainly driven by money and self interest, what I would have liked to have seen is clubs canvass their fans to see if it is something that their fans want…..my guess is that the vast majority of fans would not have voted in favor.

Would have been quite quick and easy to arrange, .send a quick ballot to all season ticket holders - verified contact info is already on file… and the club would then vote according to their fans wishes.

Simple - but what do I know

nychammer66

That sounds a lot like democracy.

MunichHammer

I think a system like in the Italian Serie B would be alright.
First and second are promoted, 3-8 have a play-off with 5-8 and 6-7 playing a quarter final, the winners then play 3 and 4 and the winners of that play for the last promotion place. So 8th would need to win three rounds against teams higher up to be promoted.

However, if there is a gap of ten or more points begween 3 and 4 then the playoffs are scrapped and 3rd gets automatic promotion.

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

Munich, I believe that’s what they’re planning to do for the Championship, aside from the part about the gap

alderz

Apparently Callum Wilson has agreed another one year deal

MunichHammer

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes said:

Munich, I believe that’s what they’re planning to do for the Championship, aside from the part about the gap

I guessed as much. But I actually have to say I like the thing with the gap.
In our hockey league (2nd division) we have play downs which are best of 7. And for every 10 points difference between the two teams the better team starts with a one win advantage. So instead of needing 4,you then need only 3 or even 2 wins.

ASLEFshrugged

chicagohammer said:

my guess is that the vast majority of fans would not have voted in favor.

I have to disagree.

My experience is that fans like playoffs, for some teams it's the only time they'll ever get a chance to go to Wembley so for them it really is their Cup Final

Orient have been to four playoff finals (I think) and lost them all but whenever my Os mates talk about those days its always positive

Back in 1998 I was working at Bayswater on Bank Holiday weekend, the area is mostly hotels and the Grimsby fans were having a party

An American tourist asked who they were, I told him, he asked me if they'd won and I explained that the match wasn't until the next day.

He said "If they're like this before the game, what will they be like if they win?"

I went to Cardiff for the playoff final against Preston and it was one of the best away days I've been on

ASLEFshrugged

A report in the Daily Mail that UK Athletics (with the backing of Mayor of London and UK government) want to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships which the IAAF want to hold in September but we're refusing to vacate the stadium during the football season

UK Athletics could offer to hold them earlier in the year but that would make Rome and Munich more attractive venues

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-15629433/West-Ham-London-World-Athletics-Championships.html

We had a similar situation in 2017, played our first three league and first League cup matches away

If I were on the board I'd be asking how much UK Athletics, etc. would be willing to pay us to move out for the duration

buffybegood

I think we should put our foot down and stick to our guns. The only way I'd agree to this is if they agree to relinquish all further claims to events at the stadium and shift somewhere else, Birmingham maybe.

ASLEFshrugged

The Alexander Stadium only holds 18k, it can be expanded to 40k with temporary stands but obvious that's going to cost extra and IAAF won't consider anything under 30k

Add to that the GLA want as many events as possible to maximise revenue, they're not going to be keen on athletics going elsewhere

And of course there's the political problem that one of the conditions the UK accepted to got the Olympics in the first place was that the London Stadium would be a permanent home for UK Athletics

UK is bidding for the 2036 Olympics, it wouldn't help if we'd reneged on previous commitments

Yeoldhammer

the whole stadium situation needs sorting regardless, its consistently losing money. How the government past or present have not cut its losses is insane. How much its cost the taxpayer is unreal

ASLEFshrugged

its owned by the Greater London Authority/Mayor of London and it will never get sorted out

It costs so much to run and maintain that it will never make a profit so no one is ever going to buy it. If they tried to cover their costs tickets for events would be so expensive no one would buy them.

Even if they could find a buyer selling it would create political and diplomatic problems

If it had been reduced to a 30k athletics only stadium as planned they could have closed Crystal Palace and sold it off to developers for a handsome profit. Instead the GLA is forking out £130m to repair and upgrade Crystal Palace

Just part of Boris Johnson's legacy that Londoners will be enjoying for a long, long time...

Yeoldhammer

What would be the political problem ? its losing money, governments can point and complain about X Y Z deal and legacy but we are heading towards 15 years post Olympics, the legacy is long gone.

IronHerb

The Dome was sold after years of losing money wasn't it? Similar situation.

ASLEFshrugged

The Dome wasn't sold, AEG have a 99-year lease and O2 pay for naming rights but ownership was transferred to the GLA/Mayor of London

ASLEFshrugged

Over £700m of taxpayers' money was spent building and converting it, nobody is ever going to pay anything close to that but if the Mayor offered it for less they'd get accused of selling it on the cheap.

The government wouldn't want the Mayor to sell it as it would create problems with the IOC, etc. while other countries bidding for events could argue that the UK can't be trusted to keep its commitments. All rather embarrassing for HM Govt

claretandbluesky

I read yet again that Joey Barton is on remand accused of GBH with intent (not sure how you get GBH without intent), this on the day he was told to pay over 300k in damages and costs from his twitter comments trial. This guy is seriously bad.

chicagohammer

Yes he certainly has a screw loose, I recall a game when he was sent off and as he walked off, he deliberately kicked out at an opposing player hoping to create a reaction so that player would also be sent off…..that is how his mind works

IronHerb

ASLEFshrugged said:

Over £700m of taxpayers' money was spent building and converting it, nobody is ever going to pay anything close to that but if the Mayor offered it for less they'd get accused of selling it on the cheap.

The government wouldn't want the Mayor to sell it as it would create problems with the IOC, etc. while other countries bidding for events could argue that the UK can't be trusted to keep its commitments. All rather embarrassing for HM Govt

Embarrassing for Seb Coe, not necessarily the government.

Do you think they would reuse the stadium in 2036? I doubt it as it would be beyond its design life. And to be honest the IOC are as shady as FIFA, so wouldn't upset me upsetting them.

BubblesNeverDies

ASLEFshrugged said:

All rather embarrassing for HM Govt

As if that was the only embarrassing thing.

ASLEFshrugged

IronHerb said:

Embarrassing for Seb Coe, not necessarily the government.

Do you think they would reuse the stadium in 2036? I doubt it as it would be beyond its design life. And to be honest the IOC are as shady as FIFA, so wouldn't upset me upsetting them.

Why should Seb Coe be embarrassed? He had a perfectly workable plan of reducing the stadium to 30k, making it the home of British Athletics and closing Crystal Palace

I suspect the stadium has a design life beyond 2036 as our lease runs until 2112

Unfortunately the IOC decides who gets the Olympics and some think getting the Olympics again would be a good idea so do not want to upset them. Ditto FIFA with the World Cup, UEFA with the Euros and all the other international sporting events

buffybegood

Seb Coe clearly had an athletics agenda, but it should have been obvious that it being used, even in its reduced capacity, a couple of times a year wasn't really a realistic "legacy" given the initial construction costs, conversion costs and ongoing maintenance. The design was all based around that athletics legacy which meant it was always going to be ill-suited to other sport, and that's where we are.

As I understand it, Coe rejected the idea of it being football friendly (after the successful conversion of the City of Manchester stadium for the Commonwealth games into Man City's new stadium) at a very early stage of the design brief in favour of the reduced capacity althletics stadium, which is why we have an awful stadium which continues to cost London rate payers millions every year, so I think Coe has to accept a large portion of blame for the mess, imo.

ASLEFshrugged

Crystal Palace was built in the 1960s and suffers from structural issues, the cost of maintaining the Olympic Stadium would have less than the cost of maintaining Crystal Palace.

The conversion costs would have been minimal if they'd gone ahead with Seb Coe's plans, it only cost £323m because they decided to convert it for football

Seb Coe rejected the idea of football precisely because he wanted it to be an athletics stadium after the Olympics and the decision to bring football there was taken way too late

We have an awful stadium because our owners are idiots although they weren't the only ones, the Icelandics asked about moving to the OS in 2009 but were turned down. Even then it might have been too late to change the design as construction had already started

buffybegood

ASLEFshrugged said:

Seb Coe rejected the idea of football precisely because he wanted it to be an athletics stadium after the Olympics and the decision to bring football there was taken way too late.

That's the point I'm making, it was Coe that wanted it to be an athletics stadium even though it would have been a white elephant being used a couple of times a year; it was never a realistic long term use of the stadium and was just put forward because of Coe's athletics background.

ASLEFshrugged

Except it wouldn't have been "used a couple of times a year", it would have replaced Crystal Palace for international, national and regional events. It was a perfectly realistic plan, closing Crystal Palace would have saved a lot of money

How many times a year is Wembley, Twickenham, Lord's or The Oval used? Do they need football teams?

City of Manchester/Etihad was designed as a temporary athletics stadium that would be converted to a permanent football stadium after the Commonwealth Games but it cannot be used for athletics

To repeat, one of the conditions for London getting the Olympics was that the stadium would be used for athletics afterwards.

None of which alters the current situation where we're left with a stadium that loses money, probably never will and they probably couldn't give it away, let alone find anyone who would buy it!

IronHerb

Leeds cup tie confirmed as Sunday 5th April at 4.30pm.