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Alan 12:58 Thu Apr 20
London Stadium to become athletics-free?

It's from C&H

London Stadium may become athletics free

UK Athletics could be paid to quit the London Stadium after the 2017 London Anniversary Games and World Athletics championships.

The cost of moving the relocatable seats rose to £8m last year instead of an original budget of £300,000 and that has caused the stadium owners into considering that as a major alternative.

Claret and Hugh understands that one idea being explored is paying UK Athletics to relocate the Anniversary Games to their UK Athletics home in Birmingham and therefore giving up their 50-year agreement to use the London Stadium.

Buying UK Athletics out of their contract would cost millions but that could still possibly save the stadium owners a fortune should they not need to move the seats each summer.

The purpose-built athletics Alexander Stadium was expanded in 2011 to take a capacity of 12,700 at a cost of £12.5m and already hosts Diamond league events. It is owned by Birmingham City Council.

Your mum 1:00 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

Interesting..

goose 1:01 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

hahaha you couldnt make this shit up!!

we get a stadium fit for athletics but not fit for football - and then athletics fuck it off and we are left with the cesspit.

Gavros 1:02 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

yeah very plausible, especially if Birmingham win the 2022 Commonwealth Games bid and therefore get government funding to build an athletics stadium.

Rossal 1:03 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

Moving the seats gone from 300k to £8M ?!?!?

Firstly how can someone get it so wrong and secondly how the fuck does moving the seats backward cost £8M

stewie griffin 1:03 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

RELOCATABLE

Trevor B 1:03 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

we'll end up buying the stadium for next to nothing, hopefully then g&s sell up to someone who will level it and build something fit for football.

J.Riddle 1:05 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

Would solve many problems if permanent seating installed over track and dug down to close to pitch, £8m per year would probably pay the interest/repayment on a loan to build a new stadium in Crystal Palace, but 12,700 what will Seb Coe say about the LEGACY?

goose 1:06 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

i wonder how much they would want to sell the stadium outright?? we are locked into a deal that will cost us crica £250m anyway, with no access to naming rights and only a share of some revenue.

Eddie B 1:07 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

You literally couldn't make it up. So we'll have a stadium with seats that are miles away from the pitch for no fucking reason?

Hermit Road 1:08 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics-free?

£8 million for a few scaffold poles.

Woodford Green 1:10 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

I called this a while back. Once the summers World's are out of the way, one athletics meeting a year would not be economically sustainable if the WH board grew the balls to suggest that they weren't happy with the stadium set-up and were reviewing their options. The fact that it is so expensive to carry out the conversion only helps the cause.

The only thing that could add weight to keeping the athletics track is if London steps in to host the Commonwealth games.

Spurs always had the best plan for the site. Hopefully we can somehow find ourselves replicating it in some form.

Westham67 1:11 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics-free?

They should hold a chavs Glastonbury festival during the summer months

goose 1:14 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics-free?

hopefully the opportunity to purchase the stadium at a decent price will alert any potential investors.

Russ of the BML 1:15 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

The Government fucked this up. Too much legacy bollocks at the start of it. West Ham should've been announced as going in before it was built so it could be diesigned with that in mind. Like the Etihad.

wansteadman 1:16 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics-free?

If we pulled out they wouldn't have to pay £8m to move the seating. Not sure that's a threat

Trevor B 1:17 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

Russ

Terry brown tried that, Red Ken and Seb Coe told him to do one.

I have a funny feeling that it was Sullivan's plan all along to make it as difficult and expensive as possible for the LDCC so that they eventually cave and sell us the stadium for a rock bottom price.

Hammers1993 1:18 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics-free?

So let me get this straight, if they do pull the athletics from it, are we able to then re-do the seating and attempt to actually turn it into a football stadium?

Would obviously take a summer to rebuild/shift the upper and lower. Actually connecting them and getting rid of the shitty scafolding would be a start.

Thing is as I'm typing this I see that would cost quite a fair bit, which with our owners we know all won't happen.

Having said that is that 8m fee based on every year having to move the seats and does that come from their pockets?

May be better off spending the summer re-doing the whole seating at a large cost to save in the long run.

I guess they won't care if they're selling up soon though.

goose 1:18 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

Trevor B 1:17 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics free?

i wouldnt put it past him.

Jowell, Coe & Red Ken have a lot to answer for.

J.Riddle 1:20 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics-free?

Makes economic sense if the Athletics move. I wonder what clauses are in that contract to make that happen?

If they can get rid, the government can sell the stadium to West Ham with a loan over a number of years with the 2bobs free of any government sell on fee.The 2bobs won't want to be mortgaged up for years so will look to cash in their winnings and sell on for a kings ransom to proper owners who can see the massive opportunity with proper money to develop the lower tier close to the pitch and invest in a proper team.

AlvinMartinAllen 1:23 Thu Apr 20
Re: London Stadium to become athletics-free?

I remember suggesting this might happen to Know It All on the OS thread years ago, when discussing us possibly buying or renegotiating our lease contract and redeveloping the ground further.

Would be a massive wounder for the yids and especially Lord Sugar who pretty much threatened they'd kick up a fuss if we didn't honour the Olympic legacy promise that won our bid.

Saying that, any conversion costs would be massive and well out of G&S's price range, so hopefully they sell up too.

Wishful thinking, I know.

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