Let's All Laugh At... Let's All Laugh At West Ham

[Led's Zeppelin]

I don’t see this being bad for West Ham. They have a legally binding contract for the stadium and it will only change if THEY agree to a change in contract, eg buying the stadium at a knockdown price. Even if the stadium sale went public and let’s say Levy bought it to knock down for flats, it wouldn’t happen without WHam getting a sizeable amount of compensation that offsets the contract already in place.

as much as we don’t like it, Wham have a good deal.

Not if the stadium isn’t maintained and starts to fall into disrepair, which is already happening.

Much of it is a temporary structure. It won’t last or be improved by the owner or managers. They could find themselves playing in a stadium a fraction of the capacity they want, and what’s left being a worse toilet than it already is.

There are multiple possible outcomes but being on one side of a laughably uncommercial long-term contract rarely ends well.

 

[superted4]

So what happens to the contract/lease if the stadium is sold? As if it has to stay in place no one will buy the stadium. Surely if the solicitors who drew up the contract have paid out compensation to the lldc then that’s grounds that it’s not fit for purpose.

add in the fact the stadium will not last the test of time. The majority of it is a temporary structure firmed up. It physically cannot last the 99 year lease. Because of the roof it would be very difficult to rebuild it stand by stand.
The more you look it’s an absolute car crash from start to where ever it finishes

 

[Col_M]

So what happens to the contract/lease if the stadium is sold? As if it has to stay in place no one will buy the stadium. Surely if the solicitors who drew up the contract have paid out compensation to the lldc then that’s grounds that it’s not fit for purpose.

add in the fact the stadium will not last the test of time. The majority of it is a temporary structure firmed up. It physically cannot last the 99 year lease. Because of the roof it would be very difficult to rebuild it stand by stand.
The more you look it’s an absolute car crash from start to where ever it finishes

when you say No one will buy the stadium. They will if it’s a knockdown price. Wham could end up with a stadium for less than £10m (for example) in an agreement to cease the contract. They’d push down the asking price as they are in a strong position

 

[Led's Zeppelin]

when you say No one will buy the stadium. They will if it’s a knockdown price. Wham could end up with a stadium for less than £10m (for example) in an agreement to cease the contract. They’d push down the asking price as they are in a strong position

Yes? But all they’d really be buying is the land. And whilst it has value ( although it’s apparently condemned land, which is why it was available, so has little or no housing value) they, if it is WHU who buy it, would have the full costs of demolishing the stadium and building a new one.

It’s not an easy deal for them.

 

[superted4]

when you say No one will buy the stadium. They will if it’s a knockdown price. Wham could end up with a stadium for less than £10m (for example) in an agreement to cease the contract. They’d push down the asking price as they are in a strong position

I’ve read a few fans point of view and they’re struggling to see how West Ham can afford the stadium (not the initial payment) but the ongoing maintenance of the structure. Not fit for purpose.

I know we laugh at West Ham fans but I always remember watching a documentary as their move to the Olympic stadium unfolded and it showed a working man’s club next to Upton Park and showed what they as fans were losing, they were sold down the river with the promises of fortunes to come. They make next to No koney from the stadium, don’t own the stadium, have 3 separate training sites and all 3 are shit holes.

the 2 stooges in charge are jokers and taking the fans for granted

 

[Led's Zeppelin]

Whichever way you cut it, they’d have been better off staying and redeveloping Upton Park or The Boleyn Ground or whatever the fuck they call it, in my view.

 

[Phantom]

It's things like this DM would have been shit hot on

 

[archiewasking]

It's still a terrible stadium for football though, that will never change as long as West Ham are there

Fyp

 

[Phantom]

It is such a piss poor position for the taxypayer to be in and people involved should be held accountable, it was extremely clear from the outset that the amount being paid by West Ham was not market value and was insufficient for upkeep.

Brady thinks she got an amazing deal and she did, but everyone involved knew that there was going to be a time when the running costs were going to be too much to bear, perhaps this point has come far quicker than they expected due to the temporary nature of parts of the design. But perhaps she knows that West Ham will have the upper hand again when it comes to resolving it all.

Big question is what happens next, I do not know what clauses there are in the agreement but clearly being maintained by the taxpayer is not tenable. I can see it being sold to West Ham at a cut rate deal, Levy will be circling if that occurs and of course will be paying attention to what happens to the running track.

West Ham claim they cannot afford to pay the maintenance, well they most certainly can, they may need to raise ticket prices or perhaps manage their transfer and wage bill more appropriately.

Depending on what the contract says the local authority may well be on the hook for maintenance for 90 years but surely there will be periodic review of the rent paid? If there is a way out of the contract I could see West Ham being told they are going to be evicted, leaving them the option of buying it or paying market rate for rent.

Who knows what will happen, I guess we can try enjoy speculating over the shit show. Although certainly don't enjoy that taxpayers are helping a football club when so much of the country appears to be fucked.

 

[Chris Finch]

Surely it just gets to the point the Government sell them the stadium at a cut price?
Win for west ham

 

[McFlash]

Surely it just gets to the point the Government sell them the stadium at a cut price?
Win for west ham

Maybe but how much will it cost them to make it into a decent football stadium?
What they be getting is an unsuitable, poorly built athletics stadium cheap and to make it half decent will cost a fortune, if they don't just have to knock it down and start again.

It may be cheap for them in the short term but it's not viable long term, at least as far as I can see.

 

[TheHodFather]

Maybe but how much will it cost them to make it into a decent football stadium?
What they be getting is an unsuitable, poorly built athletics stadium cheap and to make it half decent will cost a fortune, if they don't just have to knock it down and start again.

It may be cheap for them in the short term but it's not viable long term, at least as far as I can see.

If memory serves our proposal would have basically seen the entire stadium demolished and only the foundations/groundwork retained. So that's your benchmark for what they'd have to do to turn it into a decent football stadium!

 

[McFlash]

If memory serves our proposal would have basically seen the entire stadium demolished and only the foundations/groundwork retained. So that's your benchmark for what they'd have to do to turn it into a decent football stadium!

Yep, and there's no chance they have/or would spend that amount of money.
With costs as they currently are, a stadium comparable with ours would probably cost twice as much.
People like to complain in the Levy/enic thread that ours was late and over budget but hindsight again shows that Levy played a blinder really and timed it all really well.

 

[TheHodFather]

Yep, and there's no chance they have/or would spend that amount of money.
With costs as they currently are, a stadium comparable with ours would probably cost twice as much.
People like to complain in the Levy/enic thread that ours was late and over budget but hindsight again shows that Levy played a blinder really and timed it all really well.

And it's not even just the cost of the stadium. We had to play at Wembley for 18 months despite the fact that enlarging the site and moving the pitch meant we were able to do quite a lot of building work whilst the old stadium was still in use. If they redeveloped it properly they could easily end up having to play somewhere else for 2-3 seasons. Not sure what our deal looked like but I doubt hiring Wembley Stadium comes cheap!

 

[Croftwoodspurs]

Didn't we ensure that there is some clause build into the contract, that the athletic track had to stay, also if it can't be brought by the current owners... It was something to ensure it could not be sold cheaply to them... We were encouraged to bid, but no intention of us being the prefer bid..

 

[Phantom]

Didn't we ensure that there is some clause build into the contract, that the athletic track had to stay, also if it can't be brought by the current owners... It was something to ensure it could not be sold cheaply to them... We were encouraged to bid, but no intention of us being the prefer bid..

I remember some talk of that but it would be a difficult sell from a PR perspective, would we really want to stand in the way of the taxpayer saving some money in todays climate? I could see us making some enquires about it and may look for some compensation but honestly it would be a bad look. I am not even sure the clause really exists in the contract, it is more probable we have some correspondence which sets out that our bids failure was down primarily to not keeping legacy aspects on site.

I could see a public enquiry kicking off if this becomes a big enough issue, however there are so many much bigger issues that this government has caused which make this look like peanuts, HS2 is the primary one, Rwanda, PPE etc

Again all speculation.

 

[WorcesterTHFC]

Yep, and there's no chance they have/or would spend that amount of money.
With costs as they currently are, a stadium comparable with ours would probably cost twice as much.
People like to complain in the Levy/ENIC thread that ours was late and over budget but hindsight again shows that Levy played a blinder really and timed it all really well.

With things as they are now, I suspect Everton's new stadium will be the last major stadium to be built for a good 10 years or more.

 

[TheHodFather]

With things as they are now, I suspect Everton's new stadium will be the last major stadium to be built for a good 10 years or more.

For new-builds you could well be right. But United have to chuck some serious money at Old Trafford in the not-too-distant, surely?

 

[McFlash]

With things as they are now, I suspect Everton's new stadium will be the last major stadium to be built for a good 10 years or more.

And that's if Everton can even afford to finish it!
Levy gets plenty of credit for ours but I also think we were incredibly lucky with the timing and how things have turned out financially.
Or maybe Levy just had the foresight, like he's seemingly had over the ffp issue?

 

[nailsy]

Surely it just gets to the point the Government sell them the stadium at a cut price?
Win for west ham

Not if we outbid them