I went on the stadium tour today. It's pretty good. You don't get to see where the pitch goes under the South Stand, but you do see the dressing rooms, media centre and walk through the tunnel onto the side of the pitch. It struck me that they were taking a lot of money....more than 40 people for about 16 tours a day about 300 days per year each paying between £15 and £30. I make that about £5m in revenue. There were two guides on the tour and I think you would need about 25 full time staff but that only costs a fraction of the revenue. I also expect most visitors spend money in the shop.
Also, I'm pretty sure that plenty of coin will be flowing in from hosting corporate events. It's a shame that the Richard Hammond programme isn't on BBC, as that could significantly raise potential interest again, outside its current healthy levels, although this sort of thing does no harm...
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1227892627175071744...
I was chatting to an unhappy Hammer last week and we got round to our respective stadiums. Needless to say, we had differing user experiences. He was suggesting that their place could be improved over time, with the stands rebuilt nearer to the pitch, one stand at a time...if they owned it and had owners who would invest...
I was glad to put him out of his misery by telling him that the roofs on these bowls go up as one entity. As soon as you alter the tension on the cables by too much, the whole thing comes down in a very short space of time. The only way to improve it, is to bulldoze the damn thing and start again...once you've done that, there's only the matter of dealing with the land contamination on that site, before you can start building a new bowl of misery...to include an athletics legacy for Lord Coe.
Alternatively, they could buy a site and build from new...in London, that should cost about £1 billion...give or take. They are so ****ed.
I wonder when 'That's No Lady Brady' will make her next claim of the benefits of their council house...?