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13 Brentford Rd 12:59 Sun Sep 24
The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

Taken from Alan's paper thread.......

http://stadiumdb.com/news/2016/12/san_sebastian_real_sociedads_detailed_schedule_of_anoeta_revamp
HITC

Real Sociedad give West Ham hope over future redevelopment of London Stadium

Damien Lucas

"A large section of West Ham United fans are unhappy with how the club's heralded move to the Olympic Stadium has panned out.

The Hammers' move to Stratford from their beloved Upton Park has been beset by problems from the start.

The first season at the London Stadium was marred by in-fighting among the club's fans to segregation issues, violent scenes between home and away supporters, a general dissatisfaction with the distance from the stands to the pitch and concerns over the atmosphere at a ground many refer to as 'soulless'.

Many supporters felt there were broken promises over the move and that has seen a lot of vitriol directed at co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold and their vice-chairman Karren Brady.

Ahead of the move, Hammers fans were promised a genuine retractable seating solution in communications from the club.

In reality they have been left with a temporary lower tier built on a complex scaffolding which will reportedly take weeks to deconstruct and reconstruct each season at a cost of £8 million - some £7.7m more than the original estimate.

The distance from the stands to the pitch is a major bone of contention for many fans with the bowl shape of the venue the biggest problem as the stadium was not built with football in mind.

This season things do seem more settled and the Hammers fans have proved once again how loyal they are to the club by selling out 52,000 season tickets once again.

But having signed a 99-year lease many supporters are disillusioned at the prospect of a long-term future at the ground in it's current state.

Supporters have been led to believe that even if the owners did one day buy the stadium outright - as Dave Sullivan revealed is a serious consideration for his dad David - redeveloping the ground to be closer to the pitch and more suited to football is an impossibility.

However, there could be hope for the Hammers from the unlikely source of Real Sociedad in Spain.

That's because the La Liga club are in the process of undertaking a major reconstruction of their own inherited bowl shaped athletics stadium into a football arena with the stands right next to the pitch.

Estadio Anoeta officially opened on the 29th of July 1993 with the European Youth Athletics Championships. The first match at the stadium was played a few weeks later when Sociedad entertained Real Madrid in a friendly.

But supporters have never been happy there, primarily due to the distance between the spectators and the pitch which has resulted in a cold atmosphere.

In the mid-2000s the club put forward plans to remove the athletics track and redevelop the stadium, a project dubbed Gipuzkoarena, but it failed to get off the ground.

They tried again in early 2014 with proposals for Anoeta, which includes the extension of the lower tier closer to the pitch, increased hospitality areas and an enlarged roof, and an increased capacity to 42,000 seats.

Those plans got the go ahead in 2016 and the works are now underway and are scheduled to finish by the start of the 2019-20 season.

A series of images and videos on stadiumdb.com show just how Sociedad plan to achieve the redevelopment and they will give Hammers fans great hope for the future.

Northern Sold 11:26 Tue Sep 26
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

`People renewed because football is an addiction`.


100% spot on.... I went cold Turkey 4 or 5 years ago... now I just fall off the wagon 2 or 3 times a year ... and I'm a much better person for it... Just say NO

MikeHammer 11:24 Tue Sep 26
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

Anyone else hear that drunk Brazil say this morning that he heard that West Ham fans broke up part of the stadium on Saturday. Not sure if any truth there is in this - it sounded like he said his cab driver told him ! If just rumours- why allow the idiot to air such false claims?

side effect 10:19 Tue Sep 26
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

People renewed because football is an addiction. Sadly the owners know that. Also the masses hoped it would be better this season and many haven't missed a home game for years and want to keep this obsession going. A bit like me not having anylon alcohol for 3 years and want to keep this boring feat going

mr so & so 10:10 Tue Sep 26
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

As unlikely as it is if we were to ever redevelop this dump, don't we need to own it first.

goose 11:11 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

Only 98 years to go...........

B6NY B 10:21 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

Saturday 3pm this week, so no excuses. Trains all running. Tottenham Saturday was as busy as I've seen it. It didn't empty as I thought it would on the 3rd which was good to see.

Tomshardware 10:00 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

I'm still amazed at how many renewed.

Gavros 9:35 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

I was wondering what had happened to the WHO Pride of Irons group.

Now I know.

lincslink 9:23 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

It is a soulless stadium, even the concourses at half time are quiet, and Spuds singing "your fucking shit" without a response. It's fucking gutting.

Any Old Iron 5:05 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

Riddle - You're absolutely right of course. To lose the gaps they'd have to tear down the lower tiers and rebuild. So the cost goes even higher.
All in all, whichever way you look at it, we're only going to have a football stadium to call our home if a we get a new zillionaire owner who's prepared to spend some serious wedge on building one.

In the meantime, we're fucked.

Any Old Iron 4:58 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

madeeasy 4:00 Mon Sep 25

Oh, right-ho, use the ends as the sides, what a great idea. Except that the ends (the new sides) would be even further away from the pitch than they are now. Brilliant!

And who, apart from the owners and bean counters, give a shit about hospitality. I'd prefer it if there was zero corporate seats at football grounds as they kill atmosphere. Just look at Arsenal and Wembley.

And I see that you've swallowed the Brady bullshit about the furthest seats being the same as Wembley. As if that's a good thing.

J.Riddle 4:44 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

Any Old Iron 8:38 Sun Sep 24
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........
The only way the khazi can be turned into a football stadium is for the stands of one end and one side to be demolished and the pitch to be re-positioned and new stands built, all of which would be close to the pitch.
The cost of this would probably be north of £250 MILL so as long as the BERKS are in charge it ain't going to happen.

This sounds workable, but you would still have the horrendous gaps on the two remaining stands? I don't know if they can be filled or perhaps they would have to rebuild the two remaining lower tiers?

As you say the 2bobs will not invest anywhere that kind of money.

However I can see the 2bobs borrowing the money (this will mean we can't afford players for years, but all profits go to a good cause "G&S Holdings"!) to buy out the freehold from the government who will want to get rid with £8m cost of moving seats and other expenses, with the Athletics moving in years ahead to Birmingham or other. The Qataris bought the Olympic Village at a 50% discount so I would guess approx £200m as the 2bobs would effectively be purchasing the land, infrastructure and approx 1/3 of the stadium as the rest would have to be demolished.

The 2bobs would then sell it on at a later date, but it doesn't look like it will happen unless a multi-billionaire comes along with an offer they can't refuse and for at least 8 years when the 2bobs will be free of the LLDC profit of sale clause, giving plenty of time for the 2bobs to milk it dry.

stewie griffin 4:34 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

I'm quite partial to a Slush PUPPY

suffering iron 4:33 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

I didn't sit in my normal seat for the Bolton game, I bought a ticket behind the goal in the upper tier.. I'd done a lot of moaning last year and genuinely wanted to see it for myself.

I was about 5 rows back above the big screen down the away end.

I was absolutely flabbergasted. It was MILES away, how does anyone with anything short of 20/20 vision see what's going on? Even I was struggling down the other end.
The gap between the two away sections is just laughable.

I text my mate at one point to ask how we were getting on. He was in Wales and said we were 2 up....

2nd half I moved round to behind my normal seats, so around 233 ish.
Marginally better I suppose...

I can't fathom how anyone can sit there every week and enjoy watching a game of football.

It's a farcical stadium.

To rub salt in the wound I saw that Slush Puppies have been introduced next to the popcorn stand. It's as if it's being done on purpose.

Made me appreciate my seat a bit more but I still hate it passionately.

A re-build will never happen imo.

Best starts dealing with it a bit better than I am then :-)

stewie griffin 4:33 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

I think NEWPORT is the one that's possibly worse, but given that's in WALES, the original point is hard to argue with

neilalex 4:31 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

They're not on a par unless you're watching the game from the next postcode and feel completely detached from the actual experience of being at a football match.

13 Brentford Rd 4:12 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

They were conference grounds with sheds as terracing and huge gaps between stands with car parks.
Maybe on a par then ;-)

BetterthanKaka 4:07 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

No Rd, if they were football stadiums then they are better than our pile of shit.

madeeasy 4:00 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

Any Old Iron 8:38 Sun Sep 24

If they turned the pitch 90 degrees could it fit in between the stands?

Then perhaps build the 2 ends as sides.

I think the biggest thing they have missed the trick on here is hospitality. they have massively undersold the venue for that.

I can't see it being knocked down and rebuilt in the next 20 years though, but one day...

13 Brentford Rd 3:57 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

I saw a few that were worse in League 3 on TV this weekend.

madeeasy 3:55 Mon Sep 25
Re: The Stadium - There may be hope afterall........

The strangest thing is it could be achieved. The furtherest seats are about the same as wembley.

At wembley they have large parts which are fully retractable as they did it when they hosted the race of champions. i am not sure if they do it for other events or not.

It needs some decent money spent doing it but it can be done.

The cost of moving it each year being 8 mill is a fucking joke. i cant believe it takes that much man power to do the job and shows that every step of the way that a lot of people are on a lot of bungs.

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