I know there have been plenty of threads about West Ham, but i would like to take a different approach. Whilst we are all pretty sure that if they do not get promoted this season there will have to be drastic cuts of the wage bill at the club, there will also be a more catastrophic long term implication of not gaining promotion, and here is their issue. If West Ham fail to gain promotion to the Premiership this season, they will evidently still be in the Football League next season, this means they have to abide by Football League rules. My understanding is that the FL states that a club can not move into a stadium (Olympic Stadium) closer to a different club (Leyton Orient) if it puts the future of that club at risk. Whilst they are in thr FL if these rules are to be followed then their proposed move into the Olympic stadium will be barred and they will have to either stay at Upton Park or find a different site for a new stadium. However, i also understand that rules are different in the Premiership, and if they do get promoted they will not have to abide by the given FL rule. Just thought i would inform you all of more reasons why the pressure really is on West Ham to get promoted this year. Corrections are welcome if i have any thing wrong.
These sort of problems bother the board of a club, but doubt it filters down to player level. The players just want to win games and get promotion. Doubt that other factors enter their thinking.
I didn't think they were getting the Olympic Stadium anymore? Yeah, I'm right, just looked it up: On 11 October 2011 Britain's Olympics minister Hugh Robertson confirmed the collapse of the Olympic Park Legacy Company's agreement with West Ham to take over the stadium after the games. The OPLC announced that negotiations with West Ham, unveiled as the preferred stadium bidder in February 2011, had ended because of growing concerns over delays caused by the ongoing legal dispute with rival club Tottenham Hotspur. West Ham had not signed any contracts, allowing the OPLC to abandon talks with the club. The stadium, which cost an estimated $760 million, will now remain in public ownership and leased out to an anchor tenant following a new tender process
To be honest is WHU don't get promoted this season I think they may follow Pompey! When the Golds etc took over they were £120m in debt, then spent a furtune on bringing in new players and then paid them premiership wages - not sustainable on Championship incomes I would suggest
I concur with SF4L West Ham will not get the Olympic Stadium. I also concur that West Ham do have a lot of Debt. It is true that they have a higher wage structure than say someone like us. However I am of the opinion that the higher wages only apply to a very few particular players. It is a correct assumption in my view that if they do not get promoted this season they will be forced to make some unpleasant decisions. Whether that is to make a decision as to whether to finance yet another season in the Championship or to start offloading players with the view of a complete new start. I don't think they will do a Pompey though I truly do not think they will be allowed to quite frankly. But hey What do I know....?
I'm generally for the forgotten underdog in situations like this, and it means that I end up sympathising with overlooked little Leyton Orient on this one. They are much closer to the Olympic village than West Ham, although the stadium itself is only a bit closer, being a 2 mile walk away, as opposed to the Boleyn Ground [UptonPark] being a bit over 3 miles. It's not a huge difference, but crucially, Orient believe that West Ham end up in their catchment area, if not exactly in the centre of their borough. And boroughs being relatively small, an approximate one mile difference makes... all the difference. It's the problem with London. Little villages, that expanded in population, and became boroughs of the old Great City, crammed up against each other with quite small land areas containing sizeable numbers of people. So if football clubs want to expand, it seems like an easy thing to do to set foot in another one's territory. The who-gets-the-Olympic-Stadium saga isn't over, by any means, but I'm not sure either West Ham or Leyton Orient would be suitable candidates, or whether it should princibly be a football stadium, after the Olympics are over, in any case.
Just for the record, West Ham are still hoping to gain a 99 year lease (spell check) of the Olympic stadium. I agree with SecondStain, I feel that if West Ham were to move into the Olympic Stadium, the long term effects on their club would be catastrophic. This is a club that struggles to pull in crowds of bigger then 5,000, and if they were to have West Ham move right onto their doorstep, this really would kill their club.
I think this thread is a bit out of date regarding the situation at West Ham. Gold, Sullivan and Brady have all indicated publicly that they have cooled off on the idea of moving to the Olympic stadium on the new 99-yr lease terms. There are many doubts about whether this stadium is or ever will be fit-for-purpose for football. They are also fully aware that there is a growing swell of support from Hammers fans to re-develop the East Stand at Upton park and increase capacity to 45k. This was the plan when the West Stand was re-developed and moved backwards to allow space on the other side of the Boleyn. Before the Stratford mecanno set suddenly became a permanent fixture (despite it being designed for 60% of the outside to be ripped down within 2 years) this was West Ham's strategy. Only the local planners and the Icelandics gearing the company to the hilt put this on hold. As things stand, the Olympic stadium is only viable if it gets a football team who can pull 40k+ a fortnight into it. Shared space with rugby will not work. Hearn at Orient has already said they have no interest in a stadium with a track around it. West Ham have the total negotiating power here. If they do not go in, the stadium will fail as it is. Football League rules would be bent if needed but I personally think it will fail if they move in as they will soon realise it is awful. It's total design is wrong (see attached superimposition vs Upton Park). West Ham have expressed an interest in the stadium still but I suspect without the commitment of 10s of millions of pounds of taxpayer investment (new roof, retractable seating, food and refreshments AND TOILETS - it has none right now) they will not move in. The moment Spurs put in their tactical bid to push Haringey Council and Boris regarding WHL, the writing was on the wall for this Olympic Stadium. And a good thing too. They original plan of reducing it to a 20k athletic stadium was poor but that was the how this place was designed. If they'd started with plans for a 50k all-seater footie and athletics stadium in the first place, it could have been a go-er. As for West Ham going up or not, I think it is an irrelevance to this process. I do not think they will move there anyway.
Thanks for the information Grayster. From what i read in the Evening standard, i was under the impression they were still hoping to gain a 99 year lease on the stadium.
It seems to be all bluff and bluster but they have placed an indication of interest so they don't burn their boats. Gold and Sullivan are saying both for negotiation purposes but I just can't see how they can make the numbers work on a shared lease basis. Aside from the massive capex that is required to even get the place to premier league standards (extended roof, toilets, other facilities) and the problems with the entire seating layout and gradient and the track, the Hammers will have none of the revenue the previous deal guaranteed (along with Newham Council) such as stadium naming rights (plus branding the ground as WHU), sub-lets for other sporting and non-sporting events. This proposition only becomes viable if the taxpayer coughs up another £20-£50m and I don't see that happening. It would be incredibly high risk to sell Upton Park on this basis and despite what some observers say, the current owners are real West Ham fans. So they will be expecting a great deal of incentives to make the move. Both have categorically stated that they will not move if the first set of seats are further from the pitch that those in the West Stand at the Boleyn. If you look at that attachment, they isn't going to happen without an almost complete re-design of the current stadium. Shocking waste of money.
To go back to one of the comments at the start of the thread, I agree that the Hammers are on incredibly shakey ground if they do not go up this season. Sullivan admitted they have gone sh1t or bust this year. It will be a very long wait for a return to prem football if Allardyce doesn't shake the boys into some decent quality at home. They have been so disappointing to watch this season. As an Iron, I am of course convinced we will go up. But I also know we never do anything the easy way. As an Iron, I also hope we never opt for the Stratford Athletics Stadium.
Lets get one thing straight here about whose catchment area or manor we would move into, 1, stratford is in the old borough of west ham, West ham used to play at the memorial grounds which was in the old borough of west ham. 2, The Boleyn ground is in the old borough of East Ham where West Ham play at the moment 3, The old boroughs of West Ham and East Ham joined together and called themselves Newham 4, The boleyn ground and olympic stadium are both in Newham 5, Leyton Orient are in the London Borough of Waltham Forest So we are not going on anyone elses Manor, Orient have their Borough and we have ours, and anyway i do not believe at this stage we are interested in it, and Barry Hearn needs to be careful not to upset West Ham fans as a large propotion of Orients home gates are in fact West Ham fans, Hammer's fans have been going to orient for years, All the best Brooking
Point taken Brooking, but it is true that the Olympic Village itself is just a few hundred yards from Leyton Orient's Brisbane Road ground. You also say that Leyton Orient's attendances are bolstered by a sizable proportion of West Ham fans. Could it not be that these are actually Orient fans who attend West Ham matches..?
