please empty your brain below

I have mixed feelings about this. It seems an incredible waste of the stadium to knock it down. But Spurs would attract bigger crowds who would then therefore make better use of the Olympic park itself (the vast bulk o the cash spent wasn't actually on the stadium remember, that is just the most visible and iconic element). Haven't seen the bids, I don't think they are public, but I expect the Spurs bid is also better for the taxpayer.

I am not so sure the distance from tottenham is a huge issue in reality, although emotionally it is. If you go to White Hart Lane or other local stations before and after games, the vast majority are coming from or heading to central London, unintuitive as that sounds. So Stratford's connections would be very useful, especially with extra trains running up the Lea Valley Line from Stratford to Tottenham, Enfield etc. I dread to think how much worse access to WHL would be with another 20,000 seats as queues to get into stations can be long already.

That said, Stratford is supremely connected to east London and Essex and from a transport point of view would suit most hammers much better than Upton Park. It is also, as you say, in the former borough of West Ham.

Tough call.

In my opinion it has to go to West Ham.

I think this one is going to show where 'the powers that be' stand on public v private: keeping promises and working with the community, or bowing to the holy dollar. Ooops, I mean pound.

I hope it doesn't go to West Ham. The idea of keeping the running track makes the proposal a non-starter for me - football simply doesn't work when the pitch is miles away across the other side of a running track. No-one goes to watch athletics anyway outside the Olympics, so I can't see the point of keeping it.

But then I'm someone who hopes the whole bloated and wasteful event will somehow magically disappear anyway...

In these cash-strapped times couldn't the two clubs form a joint venture and share a stadium?

If West Ham move to Stratford they will actually be moving "back" to West Ham as the current ground is just within the old borough of East Ham. Wouldn't that be satisfyingly neat?

Having not been to a major football stadium for many years I was treated to a tour of the Chelsea Ground on Tuesday this week, I really had forgotten what it felt like to be so close to the pitch and after being a firm supporter of keeping the running track at the Olympic Stadium I find myself suddenly in favour of it being rebuilt elsewhere as a purpose built venue in its own right.

The biggest issue I have is that this should have been sorted long before the bid. If the bid had been made with this in mind we could have had a stadium that only needed minor changes to turn it into a football stadium (look at the City of Manchester Stadium for example as how this could be done).
Crystal Palace is the historical London Athletics stadium, and to me it makes good sense to massively redevelop that stadium to bring it up to approaching a world class sporting venue.

Let's consider the stadium's future uses:
Leaving it as a 25,000 seater athletic stadium would mean it'd only get used once/twice a year, and Crystal Palace would probably need to be abandoned as a proper arena.
If West Ham got it. The times it's used for Athletics, it would look patheitically empty (would 60,000 turn up for an athletics meet?) I bet Crytal Palace would still be used for UK Athletics, as it would look better to fill a small stadium than 1/4 fill a big one.
However, this would allow us to easily and cheaply bid for the Worlds or European Championships in the near future.


So yes, I say give it to Spurs (Even though West Ham would be the more logical team) and develop Palace - use some of the structures from the Olympic Stadium if needed!

Also, why is Newham lending £40 million to West Ham!?

When I said it should go to West Ham I was aware that no one goes to Athletic track events apart from the Olympics. Crystal Palace is under used now so I do not see the need for another. I am thinking that after a few years of the Athletics track standing unused West Ham will start to re-tier the seating and cover the track, bring the spectators closer to the field of play.
The spaces vacated further back in the stands could be used for catering, conference centre rooms and all the other money making ventures that most new stadiums seem to have these days.
If West Ham do get it I think they are going to put a new roof on the stands so the spectators remain in the dry, so some changes will be made upon occupation.
Tottenham Hotspurs now have permission to build a new stand and most of their supporters do not want to move to Stratford.
I suppose if the Olympic Park stadium is demolished some of the materials can be recycled after such a short period of use.

Seems like an obvious decision to me - it has to be West Ham. I only hope the powers that be don't allow all the money to be spent on the new stadium only for it to be used for 4 weeks (don't forget the paralympics)

@ Greg Tingey

As much as you and I agree vehemently on WF transport issues, come from the same place and frequent (seeminly) many of the same websites indicating a degree of comonality I feel compelled to say this:

Negative much?

Tired of your whining about the olympics to anyone who'll listen, this still has the potential to boost OUR East London in so many ways.

BTW - try taking the train from Chingford/HP to Hackney Downs and Walking to Central to catch train to Stratford, not ideal but hey ho, we won't be seeing the HFC anytime soon.

Also, WHEN network Rail build the Walthamstow link between the two stows things will improve.

FWIW I'm West Ham and the thought of Spurs relocating to East London makes me fear we'll turn into Fulham/QPR to their Chelsea within a generation.

Sorry to semi Hijack by the way DG - great work as usual.

CF

I went to Spurs v Charlton the other Sunday and the rail link from Stratford to Tottenham Hale was shut. If they can't get that right...

In all seriousness, though, this can't go to Spurs - the area's traditionally West Ham, and the improved transport connections mean THFC will be breathing down the necks of Charlton and Millwall (and even Gillingham) as well as WHU, Orient and Dagenham and Redbridge.

This makes as much sense as Charlton moving to Crystal Pala-... oh.

the olympics is a two week festival of deeply unpopular sports.
how many partcipants of the beijing olymips can you name? let alone any gold medal winners? If you can name even three people you are doing better than most

Almost no one goes to watch athletics and there is absolutely zero need for an athletics stadium. It should certainly be knocked down, and something more useful built instead.

was also at Spurs/Charlton on Sunday, and I like White Hart Lane. all it's kebab shops give it character, and don't want the lillywhite to move there.

@CF, you forget about G.T's constant whining about the tube, too. :D

Sydney's Olympic stadium was built with two stands of extra seating that were designed to be demolished after the Olympics. They also introduced retractable seating after the Olympics had finished that slide in for Rugby or Football games and slide out for Cricket or Australian Rules games that are played on an oval field.

The retractable seating replaced the athletics track but there is an 18,000 seat athletics stadium next door to the main stadium (I think it was used for training during the games).

I'm surprised London didn't consider that the athletics track might be an impediment to rectangular games.

If only some of the money spent on sport could be used instead to keep threatened public libraries open. A few years ago a Croatian philosopher was on the radio with a brief opinion of football: "Vy votch one stupid guy kick a ball to another?" Still, better than war, I suppose.











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