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The Times- West Ham open to sharing Olympic Stadium

Dillspur

Well-Known Member
May 18, 2004
3,747
9,926
Which will lead to a terrible atmosphere, I could see them losing a large chunk of their "real" support because of this, and that could be trouble further down the line
 

Phischy

The Spursy One
Feb 29, 2004
1,000
1,152
London is one of the great cities of the World and the EPL is possibly the most competitive/greatest tournament. West Ham with the correct marketing could sell themselves as the (only?) place in London for tourists to see football.

Juve don't have this advantage - they have a relatively poor championship in a decent enough place but no world beater. People don't go to Rome to see Lazio or Roma. The earlier poster who suggested the transport links and the proximity to the City/Canary Wharf is dead right in my opinion. Ripe for investment. Drop off the wife in the shopping area for a couple of hours and go and see football - that's if there are any tickets left!
I do agree with this. But, when Juve had delle Alpi, the Italian league was better and had a much better reputation, they were there in the days of Gazzetta Italia on Channel 4 and the notion that the Italian league was better that Spain, England and certainly Germany. Times have changed, but one day the Premier League will have a period of decline and they'll have the exact same issues as Juve do now.

On the other hand, the cheap prices (relative to the rest of the Premier League) and fantastic transport links will keep people coming. However, tourist fans and twice as many people paying half as much (I know that's not perfect maths) only means that the support will be far less vocal and there is no huge cash boost to West Ham from tickets and increased corporate. Which is why I agree with Dillspur too...

Which will lead to a terrible atmosphere, I could see them losing a large chunk of their "real" support because of this, and that could be trouble further down the line
West Ham have a huge opportunity, but they are also taking a big risk.

The opportunity is to get many more people through the door (more, in fact, than have ever come to watch a West Ham home game) and to turn those people in to lifelong fans. If they get the atmosphere going and people can actually see the football and do so without paying much it could really catch on. It's their chance to become a big player and steadily increase their revenue when the people are willing to pay increasingly more for tickets. (I can see it now - Brady saying, yes I am sorry ticket prices have increased by 30%, but they are still x amount cheaper than any other London club in the PL)

It's not a huge financial risk like us (£400m etc.) but it's a risk that the stadium will never truly work for football, that they will alienate the real fans and the vocal support will diminish. Arsenal made mistakes here by splitting up the vocal fans, in the vast expanse of the Olympic Stadium this could be devastating. If they learn that tourists don't want to come to see West Ham, they want to see the big name teams and they want to experience proper atmosphere, they could find themselves still only getting 30k to 40k but charging those people far less than they did at Upton Park.

If I was a West Ham, I would be excited about the potential, but deeply concerned about the poossible negative effects of moving to a stadium like that.
 
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BehindEnemyLines

Twisting a Melon with the Rev. Black Grape
Apr 13, 2006
4,571
13,158
I heard a rumour that they don't have a stadium for the Europa qualifiers - anyone know if that's right? I heard it was booked out by UK Athletics and they can't use the Boleyn?
How hilarious it'd be if the Brady bunch came knocking on our door? :D

Someone please tell me that's true!!!!!
 

Phischy

The Spursy One
Feb 29, 2004
1,000
1,152
I heard a rumour that they don't have a stadium for the Europa qualifiers - anyone know if that's right? I heard it was booked out by UK Athletics and they can't use the Boleyn?
How hilarious it'd be if the Brady bunch came knocking on our door? :D

Someone please tell me that's true!!!!!
I don't know for sure, but u think their contract days they get first dibs or precedent any time they need it, which is why the athletics legacy is such a fallacy. But I don't know whether I'm right or what the rules are.
 

spursfan77

Well-Known Member
Aug 13, 2005
46,680
104,956
Apparently the anniversary games are scheduled for the 24th and it takes 7days to convert the stadium, so if they get drawn at home in the first leg then they will have issues....... I'd refuse to swap legs if I were their opponent, as why would you want to lose home advantage in the return leg?
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...round-europa-league-olympic-stadium-athletics

This is the moment levy picks up the phone and says to the dildo brothers "you can borrow whl for a game. Will cost you £50 million though!"
 

BehindEnemyLines

Twisting a Melon with the Rev. Black Grape
Apr 13, 2006
4,571
13,158
It'd be funny if they came to an arrangement with Dagenham & Redbridge.......then realised they have to play all their matches in the same stadium over the season.
 

philip

Well-Known Member
Jan 4, 2009
1,347
2,490
Apparently the anniversary games are scheduled for the 24th and it takes 7days to convert the stadium, so if they get drawn at home in the first leg then they will have issues....... I'd refuse to swap legs if I were their opponent, as why would you want to lose home advantage in the return leg?
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...round-europa-league-olympic-stadium-athletics

I'm sure they'll come to some agreement with the guys who bought upton park to play there. They haven't started demolishing it yet, have they?
 

Roynie

Well-Known Member
Oct 2, 2007
3,116
3,882
I'm sure they'll come to some agreement with the guys who bought upton park to play there. They haven't started demolishing it yet, have they?

It would surely depend on whether they are allowed to use more than one stadium in the same season for EL games. Let's hope they are not, LOL!

EDIT: That said they got knocked out in the preliminary rounds last year so only one game to play at home then!
 

class of 62

Well-Known Member
Apr 29, 2009
1,408
1,197
This is the moment levy picks up the phone and says to the dildo brothers "you can borrow whl for a game. Will cost you £50 million though!"

seeing as west ham ham only ownly rent it for match days firstly he should get in first and book the Olympic stadium for all thoses dates for " private functions" just to make sure its booked so in any event they cant use it!:D

anybody ever enquired about renting a stadium for a day !!!
 

Mckenna88

Active Member
Jan 28, 2011
67
173
Honest question here,

I don't know too much about all this but people saying they could be ripe for a takeover, why would someone want to take them over when they don't actually own the stadium or land and the only real assets are the players? compared to say us who will own the land, stadium (although with debt to start with)
 

Col_M

Pointing out the Obvious
Feb 28, 2012
22,637
45,675
Apparently the anniversary games are scheduled for the 24th and it takes 7days to convert the stadium, so if they get drawn at home in the first leg then they will have issues....... I'd refuse to swap legs if I were their opponent, as why would you want to lose home advantage in the return leg?
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...round-europa-league-olympic-stadium-athletics

Do opposition teams get income from away matches ( like the Magic FA CUP trademark.)
 

ethanedwards

Snowflake incarnate.
Nov 24, 2006
3,377
2,498
Honest question here,

I don't know too much about all this but people saying they could be ripe for a takeover, why would someone want to take them over when they don't actually own the stadium or land and the only real assets are the players? compared to say us who will own the land, stadium (although with debt to start with)
They will probably get to buy the stadium for a knockdown price in a few years, atletics legacy, pull the other one.
 

Rob

The Boss
Admin
Jun 8, 2003
28,014
65,116
This is the moment levy picks up the phone and says to the dildo brothers "you can borrow whl for a game. Will cost you £50 million though!"

Isn't there a rule that you can only use 1 "home" ground during the competition?
 

Phischy

The Spursy One
Feb 29, 2004
1,000
1,152
Isn't there a rule that you can only use 1 "home" ground during the competition?
I know that's true for the Premier League, but I've never heard it about European competition. I've never known a team to use 2 grounds though, so could very well be true.
 

Phischy

The Spursy One
Feb 29, 2004
1,000
1,152
Honest question here,

I don't know too much about all this but people saying they could be ripe for a takeover, why would someone want to take them over when they don't actually own the stadium or land and the only real assets are the players? compared to say us who will own the land, stadium (although with debt to start with)
I think it's about perceived value. There's two elements, the first is real assets, but owning the ground doesn't mean a huge amount in itself. The value of a real asset like that is not in the ownership of it, which is actually a liability not an asset, it's in the future sale of that asset. The future sale of it only means something if you can make more from selling it that from buying it.. I.e. buying a warehouse to turn the site into houses. Football stadiums rarely offer that possibility, so although they are an asset with a value and they cost money to buy (as part of a club or on their own) they are far from a deal breaker when it comes to buying a football club (unless you're actively pursuing moving the club to a different and cheaper area, in which case you need the asset to offset the new build costs; again, which wouldn't apply to THFC post stadium build).

So, then you have to consider the second element - revenue generation (both existing and potential). That's a simple equation: income - costs = profits and potential dividends. If, like West Ham, you have a stadium which costs very little to run each year, then it doesn't matter whether you own the thing or not. So they are attractive because the fixed costs aren't necessarily that high, but the future earning potential from football seems almost unlimited in the current environment. For example, if you know you'll have made back your outlay after 6 years and as a buyer you're comfortable with that and the risks involved, then why not, from that point forward, assuming the business plan works, it's just money in the back pocket. That's where Levy and Enic are now, they run THFC at a profit and they earn very well in dividends as a result. But it's that, not the stadium as an asset which makes us the most attractive and it's the increased revenue a new larger stadium brings, rather than its existence on the balance sheet which is why anyone would be interested in us.

All you need to know is when you're going to make your money back and how much you'll make either in terms of income or from a sale after that. The Glazers knew that with United, which is why a bank was willing to fund their purchase, and the chances are West Ham now present a similar opportunity. The problems happen when people pay over the top or damage the club's ability to earn by getting that club relegated, which is why so many owners cut and run at that point (i.e. the business plan has failed - no more money available to invest in order to get the club back up, so sell the investment and move on to another opportunity).
 

Hoopspur

You have insufficient privileges to reply here!
Jun 28, 2012
6,332
9,703
I know that's true for the Premier League, but I've never heard it about European competition. I've never known a team to use 2 grounds though, so could very well be true.

I'm sure smaller clubs in Europe have used their national stadium at times when theirs is not found to hold enough in a slightly later stage. Something makes me think Scandanavia.
 
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