London's Olympic Stadium

[redman41]

West Ham are winning the race to move into London's Olympic Stadium. Appropriately enough, since they were the only bidders willing to keep a running track at the 2012 venue.
The Olympic Park Legacy Company vote tomorrow to recommend either West Ham or Tottenham's bid for the stadium, and widespread reports say they will plump for the former.
Their recommendation then has to be rubber-stamped by novelty mayor Boris 'Wiff Waff' Johnson and the government, but it's basically a fait accompli.

Should the Stadium be retained as it is so that it can be used for other Sport as well as Football ??

[joggerjayne]

Cost to us, the taxpayer ... £500 million

Justification ... it will provide an "Athletics heritage for future generation"

Alternative ... sod the athletics ... knockit down and build a footie pitch ...

... (because what? we don't have enough football pitches in Britain ????????)

The stadium HAS to retain the running track.

Any other sport, eg football, MUST be secondary.

[joggerjayne]

nb.

£500 million would have built 5 hospitals !!

[DEN53]

Redman - on our London Tonight local news last night, they said West Ham had won the bid.....

[snags]

If more than just football can be viably accommodated then surely it is plain stupidity not to...

[WELSHYORKIE]

Redman, the simple answer is yes it should (shorter answer than jj's and saying the same thing!!) Maybe we could get Seb Coe, Steve Cram or maybe Geoff Capes to manage the footie club (only joking JJ)

[Davethedog]

West ham win no problem

West ham are £80m pound in debt and want to use £40m of public money to fund thier bid. They also have to knock down the upper tier of the stadium, because that the way its designed. They have no use for this so that will be land fill.

The only thing they are doing is "developing the stadium" so there will be no outside infra structure. Yes they will retain the running track (at least until there in then they will try to get rid) meanwhile it will be able to be used by athletics for 20 days a year.

So the surronding are will decay and crumble - Briliant vison by the OPLC time will tell
but it doesn't sound good to me.

[joggerjayne]

Leyton Orient have already said that if EITHER Spurs or West Ham get the stadium, they will issue Judicial Review proceedings against the FA, and the Govt, because allowing another club to have a ground so close to Orient's is a breach of the FA's statutory constitution.

It could, after all, decimate a smaller club like Orient within a few years.

[redman41]

Agree with all the comments so far, as it would be a no brainer to knock it down and build just a Football Stadium instead.
As it is it would be ideal as a multi purpose Stadium, you could have Pop Concerts etc there as well.
West Ham, as DEN has mentioned seem to have the best proposal at present !
Might see JJ there with Brighton in the near future ! lol

[Davethedog]

JJ were you protesting when the Olympics were awarded?

I would of had no objection to 5 hospitals provided they were all in London, because we are paying for it or do you have a levy on your council tax in Brighton?

[DTCwordfan]

thought a hospital would be more than a £100 mln - well for a decent sized one.

Having built the thing, following the bid and win, then of course we should keep it. Surely British athletic need a world class facility......after all the swimmers, cycling, canoeists, sailors etc will all benefit from the new facilities and that, in part, is one of the objectives of an Olympics - i.e. upgrade facilities to being world class.

Therefore I am anti the Tottenham bid, even if it is privately funded. If the borough of Leyton supports West Ham then sobeit. The electorate there also have a right to say on this - i.e. at the next local election - not sure if they are on the list for May and I am not going to waste my time looking.

[Davethedog]

JJ Barry Hearn can't win Orient were offered a 25k ground on the site but didn't want it.

[WELSHYORKIE]

Dave - West Ham win no problem? that must be a first!!

[Davethedog]

DT what new facilities :-D I suggest you look up whats going to happen to the olympic park when its all over.

What has the borough of "leyton" got to do with anything?

[joggerjayne]

davethedog ...

If you click on my avatar and scroll WAAAY back through my posts, you'll find that, yes ...

... I have always been against

(1) hosting the games

(2) locating the Games in the East End

(3) trying to use the Games to stimulate regeneration of a deprived area.

The whole thing has been badly thought out, and I said so from the outset.

If you are going to host a successful Olympics, you have to set aside enough money to do the job. You can't try to tempt private investors, and you can't pin your hopes on someone coming along to use the new stadium that you should never have built in the first place.

[Davethedog]

HaHa Welsh.

I think its quite short sighted - Spurs/AEG wanted to turn the whole thing into an out door O2 - It will be huge empty park witha stadium in it. Great

[DTCwordfan]

what on earth are you talking about dave - I want to see West Ham win the bid and have a decent facility available for other sports than just the stupid round ball game

[Davethedog]

JJ on that I agree. However the Olympic bid and funding is based on exactly the way the last ones have been funded.

Trouble is us Londoners are going to be paying for it for decades.

[DTCwordfan]

because the council has to put up a 100 million - whichever council West Ham and the new 'Ex Olympic' ground come under - maybe two I guess......

What will happen to Upton Park by the way - a new Tescos?

[Davethedog]

Its the borough of Newham and they are lending West Ham £40m - Orient are in Waltham Forest and they are not giving anyone a pound.

Spurs would of funded it themselves.

[Davethedog]

My last word on this how do you think these people feel about Newham giving £40m to keep a running track:

http://www.newhamreco..._cut_deepens_1_742239