I went to the Olympic stadium and have to say the whole experience was superb. Transport links were faultless on the day, located right by a new Westfield for a bit of shopping, seats in the stadium were well spaced with bags of leg room. Not sure how the venue will change when all the razzmatazz has gone and they have to build turnstiles, security and the like or what the view of the pitch will be but it got me re-thinking my previous stance on a new ground. I would love to have something similar to the Olympic stadim (but a tad smaller) within W12 but, as has been thrashed out on Not 606 many times, this is an outside chance at best and we could be looking further afield. Providing a new stadium isn't so far out of the way to make it impractical to get to (bit like the Madstad in Reading) and transport links are as good as Stradford I don't now think I'd have a problem if we went further out West. Anyone else been to the Olympic park? Do you think we could replicate a smaller scale venue out towards the A40 corridor?
It's not a football stadium and that's a big difference. It's one reason why a lot of Hammers' fans don't want to move. The new Wembley is a modern and comfortable arena but for atmosphere the Millenium Stadium is far better, whether the roof has anything to do with it is debatable. Size does matter and the bigger it gets the more chance of losing that special buzz you get, whoever does our stadium has to strike the balance right...
There is a special feel, as you've said a buzz, about Loftus Road and I for one will be disppointed if/when we relocate
The running track problem can be resolved. Before the 1990 World Cup the organisers had to remove the track space at the historic Stadio Comunale (later called Artemio Franchi) in Florence. Their problem was that it was a protected building being one of earliest master-works in reinforced concrete of the famous architect Pier Luigi Nervi so they simply dug downwards, extended the terracing down and reinstalled the pitch at a much lower level. Whether the same could be done in Stratford is unlikely as allegedly there is radioactive waste under the stadium. Green glowing pitch would look nice though...!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2012/sep/14/manchester-city-football-academy-video Wouldn't say no to a similar set up to the above. About £250 million should be enough.
West Ham will never get the Olympic stadium, not unless we decide we never want to hold an Olympic games again. Locog promised to the Olympic committee that any bidder for the stadium would have to keep the running track, West Ham are still saying it's the first thing they'll get rid of. A stadium can be as big as you like and still maintain a good atmosphere, as long as the seats are close to the pitch and at a high pitch angle to maintain everyone is close in. I'm sure this will have been the main point made by the club to the architects when giving them the spec for our new stadium. Lets just keep our fingers crossed that it will be at the site of the Linford Christie so we remain in W12.
