You'll be first in the queue Brian. And providing the cheese is blue I dont have any issues with it. It's block 421
please log in to view this image Roof ahoy. So far, apart from 3 bits on the West Side, fitting about 7 or 8 bits on the East Stand has taken just over a week. According to the departed 'ITK' more crews will be arriving next week. I should imagine that fitting the adjacent bits is more complicated due to them having to be secured to those adjacent bits as well as the preceding piece to have been fitted. Behind the South Stand, the metal forming the framework for the glass wall is lying at the southern end of the podium. This morning they've been pouring concrete in the area where the base of the steels will fit, so I expect they'll start fitting them next week which would tie in with most of the glazing on the East Stand being finished in a couple of weeks time. please log in to view this image
Saw it for the first time today in the real. Driving along the North Circular en route to Wembley. Beautiful, a Ferrari of stadiums, the Moet et Chandon, the Roquefort, the Cavier, the Fois Gras. Then you see Wembley, a stock car in comparison, scrumpy, dairylee, cod roe, liver casserole. Cant wait.
Up to just before midday, today, three bits of the roof were put in place on both the East and West Stands. They started about 7.00 am from what I can see on the time delay. So, that's a little over an hour per piece. At 15 pieces per 'segment' and 54 segments to the entire roof, that's about 54 working days or 11 weeks at 5 days per week which is no good at all....or 9 weeks including Saturdays.....or just over 8 weeks, working 7 days a week. Unless, they can speed it up or work from sun up to sun down....or get 3 or 4 crews working at the same time. It'll be interesting to see which way they go but speeding it up is essential. I'm not going to panic as yesterday the place was pretty much devoid of any activity. No point in incurring time and a half if you don't need to.....They must be confident on hitting the deadline. Additionally, the first floodlights have gone up to the south, the very few remaining roof raising jacks continue to come down as does the goods lift to the north of the Grand West Stand entrance. There are workmen up on the giant screen support with lots of screen waiting to go up. Busy, busy, busy.
After the depression of Saturday this is all that can cheer me up ....can't wait to see us go home again
Also, the screens are going in at the South-West and on the 5 roof stanchions to the left of the those screens, the floodlights have gone in. They're removing one of the final few hydraulic jacks, just to the north of the fitted roof cassettes on the East Stand. The 2 huge bits of steel in the centre of the pitch area are being prepared for lifting. The glazing on the East Stand entrance is complete and the goods lift to the West and East are being taken down. We've not taken up the option on Wembley next season and have been granted permission to play our first 4 games away from home. It's happening, folks.
I wouldn't have thought so. They don't want us both playing at home on the same day. Playing away should be fine, depending on the opponents. I'd like to think that the Premier League will work it out sensibly, but that's probably not the case, is it?
Wembley being bought by Shahid Khan, he owns the Jacksonville Jaguars. Apparently this is bad news for Spurs and our ‘nfl dreams’.
Hmmm, it doesn't look good for getting our own franchise if a sale is agreed. Although Wembley is a bit ****, £500m sounds pretty cheap given the value of the land and cost of the stadium build. Only in this country could we end up selling our own 'National Stadium' to a foreign owner but they own nearly all the clubs, so why not?
Ever since Khan bought Fulham in 2013 it's been said his plan all along was to drag the Jaguars over the Atlantic regardless of what fans in Jacksonville (or, you know, London) felt about the idea. Back when the move was first being suggested the suggestion was that the only way for the Jaguars to stay in Jacksonville is if they kept failing to make the playoffs, which they routinely did between 2008-16, yet for the 2017 season they not only made the playoffs but made it all the way to the AFC Championship game only to narrowly lose to New England - and by complete coincidence that is followed by Khan helping The FA out of their financial hole. Of course, as our contract is for two NFL games per season, there's an easy workaround: Jacksonville play in the AFC, so we get NFC games at WHL2 instead - which also means we won;t have to put up with the New England Patriots cheating on our hallowed standby turf...
Where that leaves Khan's commitment to Jacksonville and the $2.5 billion development around their current stadium is unclear. This was only announced days ago... https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/...-khan-development-paramount-to-team/735323536 ...all very weird. It doesn't sound like he's moving The Jaguars from that story but who knows? It's pretty common for NFL owners to screw every last cent out of the city they're based in. Could this be part of that kind of manoeuvre?
Spending £800m on Wembley is more than a manoeuvre!!! Mind you £200m a year from Chelsea and it's just a gift.
Sure, but it's not gone through yet. If Khan's trying to get something out of the US authorities in Jacksonville, what's better than having somewhere else to go, to get them to focus on what he wants? It shifts the balance of power on a deal worth three times the cost of Wembley...if they buy it, which he could sell on if he wanted later. Also, it's only an actual expenditure of £500m. The remaining £300m is made up of letting the FA keep its usage and already received Club Wembley receipts. At that price, it's a ****ing bargain. If they buy it, there's a chance to rent it to Chelsea for an absolute fortune in the next few years. they've got nowhere else to go.They could get £150m or more of the purchase price from that alone. After, they can rent it to West Ham who need a proper stadium. No matter, it's not great for us to have more competition in the business for concerts, NFL, etc. Let's hope the NIMBY's get into a righteous indignation and it falls through or Jacksonville cave to Khan's wishes.It's paid off its debts pretty promptly [reckoned to be 16 years in total to clear them] so, it could be used for one-off games in London with a franchise going to NWHL or vice versa.
