West Ham Olympic Bid Collapses

[worcestersauce]

So let me understand this, the Cockney rent boys(CRB's) sell their ground put the money in the high yield account whilst paying a peppercorn rent in the OS during which time the stadium will be modified and a huge debt built up whereupon the CRB's will come riding in like white knights to take over the stadium wiping out the debt on the OPLC who will be so grateful that they'll ok the removal of the running track.
I think I've got that right.

 

[bigturnip]

Clearly West Ham have got some kind of assurances from the OPLC, otherwise why would they be so happy about the situation?

I see it going like this:

• Stadium is converted into 60,000 seater for 2013/14 season.
• West Ham rent the stadium for 4 years until the 2017 Athletics World Championship.
• OPLC then decide running track is unsustainable and set up a new bidding process, hoping that Spurs will have finally committed to the NDP, leaving West Ham as the only real bidder.

Sounds like a good plan to me, everybody's happy except Seb Coe and the athletics brigade who can't survive without public funding.

 

[sherbornespurs]

I can see why an initial short term lease of perhaps one or two years for the Olympic stadium would make sense.

The government, particularly a Tory one, won't entertain the stadium being in public ownership for any longer than is absolutely necessary - they'll want it handed over to the 'free market' as soon as humanly possible.

The intriguing thing is what happens to the stadium infrastructure in the long term, and I guess this may depend on whether London gets the 2017 World Athletic games.

Let's face it, after 2012 the UK probably won't stage another olympics for a hundred years, the same would be true if London is awarded the 2017 World Athletic games.

Given that these are the only two athletics events that could ever hope to fill an 80,000/60,000 capacity stadium there is absolutely no reason to retain a running track after the 2017 games, should they be awarded to London. If the running track was retained thereafter it would be at this point the stadium would become the 'White Elephant' that people talk about, every other athletics meeting could be held easily at either Crystal Palace, Birmingham or Gateshead with capacity to spare.

I seriously think the long term future of the running track will be put on the back burner, certainly until after London has held the World Athletics games (whether it's 2017 or later).

To summarise; let's put in that claim for compensation of costs for what turned out be a deeply flawed proces - and get on with building our new stadium in N17.

 

[ethanedwards]

Clearly West Ham have got some kind of assurances from the OPLC, otherwise why would they be so happy about the situation?

I see it going like this:

• Stadium is converted into 60,000 seater for 2013/14 season.
• West Ham rent the stadium for 4 years until the 2017 Athletics World Championship.
• OPLC then decide running track is unsustainable and set up a new bidding process, hoping that Spurs will have finally committed to the NDP, leaving West Ham as the only real bidder.

Sounds like a good plan to me, everybody's happy except Seb Coe and the athletics brigade who can't survive without public funding.

Coe's ego knows no bounds, and up until now has been basking in the glory of the supposed legacy. Looks like a large item purchased from Ann Summers, has just been inserted.

 

[nailsy]

Sounds like the new bidding process will be just as fair....

However, Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, denied that the stadium would be a burden and backed West Ham's efforts to rent the stadium.
"We will keep it in public hands but we will effectively rent it to a football club, almost certainly West Ham, and that will cover the costs,"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ol...-left-homeless-as-stadium-deal-collapses.html

 

[felmani26]

Clearly West Ham have got some kind of assurances from the OPLC, otherwise why would they be so happy about the situation?

I see it going like this:

• Stadium is converted into 60,000 seater for 2013/14 season.
• West Ham rent the stadium for 4 years until the 2017 Athletics World Championship.
• OPLC then decide running track is unsustainable and set up a new bidding process, hoping that Spurs will have finally committed to the NDP, leaving West Ham as the only real bidder.

Sounds like a good plan to me, everybody's happy except Seb Coe and the athletics brigade who can't survive without public funding.

Surely the retention of the track is the real bone of contention here and I was under the impression that this was non-negotiable under any guise, be it West Ham occupying the land on a tenancy agreement or not.

 

[worcestersauce]

Actually listening to Boris today it is pretty clear he is thinking of West Ham as tenants presumably he believes that we won't be interested therefore leaving the way open for them so why don't we officially bid for the tenancy? If we put in a better offer they will be back to square one, what then? It would surely throw a spanner in the works of whatever little plan they have cooked up between them, they have obviously been negotiating this already, and if they reject our offer we can go for a Judicial Review. Surely someone really does have to ask now that it is perfectly clear that without state aid they simply can't afford it, is it right, fair and impartial that the OPLC, mayor of London and the Government have colluded to set up a deal to delay the final sale until West Hma can afford it and conveniently remove the competition for them in the process.
Actually I wouldn't be surprised to see us make a pre-emptive bid for ownership again thus saving the taxpayer millions of pounds, I'd like to see how they get out of that one and explain why they are rejecting a perfectly good offer at the expense of every man woman and child in the country, what is their reason for not having another bid process? There can be no good reason other than West Ham can't enter it.
Suddenly I can't shake off the feeling that everything is still to play for again, after the initial hesitation the stench of back room deals and vested interests is rising like methane from a shit filled swamp.

Surely the retention of the track is the real bone of contention here and I was under the impression that this was non-negotiable under any guise, be it West Ham occupying the land on a tenancy agreement or not.

Only for the short term just long enough to save face and maybe get the 2017 world championships and no longer, thats why they were so desperate to avoid the JR as a guarantee to keep it was what we were insisting on.

 

[Real_madyidd]

thedailymash:

SOMETIME football club West Ham has added 'winning stadium bids' to its list of inabilities.

West Ham recently had a go at building a new club shop​

Tottenham has defeated the Ray Winstone factory's bid to leave the Olympic stadium half empty by using the legal equivalent of an 89th minute shot ricocheting off Rob Green's face and into the net.

Rather than hosting 20 barely-suppressed riots each year, the stadium will now be rented out to events that have a hope of making any money and will not necessarily have to involve racial abuse.

West Ham chairman and Minder character, David Sullivan, said: "We want to show that we're more than just a hopeless football club so we're updating our website to make sure it crashes every two minutes and we're going to release our own computer game that can only be played on a ZX Spectrum.

"By adding 'being rubbish at hanging on to a purpose built stadium handed to us on a plate' the time has come for us to push ineptly forward."

The club's building-based awfulness stems from their current stadium's actual name, The Boleyn Ground, with experts agreeing that having a fat, sweaty bearded bloke humping away on top of you for ages then having your head cut off is slightly better than watching West Ham play football.

In a bid to broaden their lack of appeal they have also adopted the most effeminate chant in football, the ludicrous self-belief they somehow won England the world cup and a film in which people are meant to believe Frodo can beat people up.

But Sullivan feels that construction awfulness is the club's future, adding: "I'm having a look at whether we can tear down the Bobby Moore stand and have it rebuilt using Ryvita."

 

[worcestersauce]

Sorry if this has been posted already but I couldn't see it:
From the official site:

"We welcome the OPLC decision to end the current Olympic Stadium bid process. We firmly believe that the bid we put forward was, in fact, a realistic sporting solution for the stadium, along with a substantial return to the taxpayer, community programming and athletics provision."


Hmm:think::think: You can hear the wheels clicking into motion from here.

 

[Stoof]

That's surely just a shot across the bows?

Don't fuck with us, eh?

And also, maybe a thank you for Scotty P. With a kiss. No! Two kisses.

 

[SpurSince57]

Well, I can hear Donna's best Pradas clicking into action as she gets the bullshit up to full flow.

 

[sloth]

Surely the retention of the track is the real bone of contention here and I was under the impression that this was non-negotiable under any guise, be it West Ham occupying the land on a tenancy agreement or not.

I don't think you've quite grasped what democracy's for.

It's not, as is often misconceived, so the majority of the people can vote in who they want to make decisions on their behalf.

It's in fact so that every five years or so the stupid people who voted the current lot in can change their minds and vote the other lot in and altogether they can blame the previous bunch for fucking everything up.

Applied to the OS, in five years when the current bunch of decision makers are no more, the new bunch of decision makers will blame them for being such numpties and promptly sell the stadium to the highest bidder with or without the running track.

 

[sloth]

From Stobart and Veysey on Goal.com

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896...ve-no-interest-in-renting-olympic-stadium-as?

"Tottenham will tell Olympic chiefs that they have no plans to lease the Olympic Stadium after West Ham’s deal to permanently take over the Stratford venue collapsed, Goal.com can reveal.
Spurs are working “flat out” on redeveloping White Hart Lane and have “no interest” in renting the 2012 arena after next summer’s Games.

Goal.com understands that the Northumberland Development Project (NDP), which will be built adjacent to Spurs’ historic home, remains the club’s priority because there are less financial benefits in renting the Olympic Stadium and they do not want to retain the running track, a key part of the legacy aspect of London's successful bid.

Spurs, who proposed knocking down most of the stadium and building a 60,000-capacity, football-only venue, lost out to West Ham as the preferred bidder in February.

But the announcement by the Government today that it had pulled the plug on the deal for West Ham and Newham Council to take on the £486 million venue next year, and that it will be rented out to the winner of a new bidding process will not affect Spurs’ plans.

“Financial benefits are greatly reduced from renting, Spurs wouldn’t be interested,” an insider told Goal.com. “The club have no interest in Stratford and there hasn’t been for ages. They are working flat out on NDP.”

The Government said it had called off West Ham’s deal after legal challenges by Tottenham and Leyton Orient, plus an anonymous complaint to the European Commission, led to fears that court action could drag on for years while the stadium remained empty.

However, Tottenham did not drop their judicial review of the initial award of the stadium to West Ham because the OPLC failed to provide guarantees that the east Londoners would have to lock in the running track in the stadium forever."

 

[felmani26]

I don't think you've quite grasped what democracy's for.

It's not, as is often misconceived, so the majority of the people can vote in who they want to make decisions on their behalf.

It's in fact so that every five years or so the stupid people who voted the current lot in can change their minds and vote the other lot in and altogether they can blame the previous bunch for fucking everything up.

Applied to the OS, in five years when the current bunch of decision makers are no more, the new bunch of decision makers will blame them for being such numpties and promptly sell the stadium to the highest bidder with or without the running track.

That may well be the case Sloth but it's still subjective.

To be quite frank, I don't care less if West Ham/Leyton Orient/whoever actually become tennants in the OS, i'm just trying to ascertain what leverage we now have in trying to get some form of significant subsidy for the NDP from the implications of today's events.

 

[SpurSince57]

We can hardly cry 'Foul!' over Newham's subsidy to the Spammers and then expect public funds ourselves.

 

[felmani26]

We can hardly cry 'Foul!' over Newham's subsidy to the Spammers and then expect public funds ourselves.

Not as explicit as Newham's loan but in the guise of regeneration purposes.

 

[midspur]

Where's the incentive for Boris to give us any cash for NDP?

Because the area needs rejuvenating and the area needs THFC and Boris & Co knows this.

 

[tototoner]

from OS

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/articles/olympic-stadium-111011.html

We welcome the OPLC decision to end the current Olympic Stadium bid process. We firmly believe that the bid we put forward was, in fact, a realistic sporting solution for the stadium, along with a substantial return to the taxpayer, community programming and athletics provision.

 

[sloth]

We can hardly cry 'Foul!' over Newham's subsidy to the Spammers and then expect public funds ourselves.

Not as explicit as Newham's loan but in the guise of regeneration purposes.

Nothing wrong with public subsidy for private companies per se. It's just you can't subsidise with public money one private company over another in a competitive tendering process.

 

[Scott Spur]

OK are we sure that the £17M from Boris is still on the table? Am I right in thinking that DL told Boris to shove it last week?

If so, we have had the rug pulled squarely from under our feet and that would be why Karren Brady is so smug??

I'm probably missing something......??