Soon after the takeover our new owners shared with us their dream of moving our home from the much loved Upton Park to the Olympic Stadium. This was met with protests and anger from many West Ham fans. I for one wasn't entirely convinced that this would be the best thing for the club. The thought of playing in front of an athletics track does not appeal to many fans for obvious reasons. After all, no fan wishes to be miles from the pitch and have a running track between them and the action.
All of the debates, discussions and arguments raised many questions as to how a stadium predominately built for athletics would convert into a football stadium. Retractable seating was put forward as a possible solution. This is not a new concept, as it has been done before very successfully - you only have to look at the Stade de France. Since this possible solution has been made public it seems there has been a change of heart and many fans, including myself, have come round to the idea of moving to the Olympic Stadium. I think it's an option we have to seriously consider.
A lot has happened since the fight for the stadium began. At first when we were awarded the stadium, Daniel Levy and Tottenham threw their toys out of the pram and disputed the decision - even though we met all the criteria asked of us when submitting our plans. They didn't have a leg to stand on (or so we thought) during this dispute, considering they were not even willing to keep the running track, which was one of the main criteria for winning the bid. I honestly believe Tottenham had ulterior motives. Their motive was not to win the stadium, but to push their own council into agreeing to their preferred stadium plans and provide the funding required. What better way to do that then to threaten to move from their own borough and set up home elsewhere? Or perhaps their motive was simply to stop us from winning the stadium? Anyway, whatever their motive, the decision to award us the stadium was reversed and the process began all over again.
In between all of the disputes with Daniel Levy and Tottenham there has been Barry Hearn. This guy has contradicted himself so many times he doesn't know what he wants anymore. At first he doesn't want us to move to the stadium because it will take Leyton Orient's supporters away. No it won't, Barry. I don't believe for a second you honestly think that, but if you do you're a bigger fool than I gave you credit for. He then decides the Olympic Stadium is not fit for football and having made these comments, he now has the audacity to want to ground share with us. Hold on a minute, I thought the stadium wasn't fit for football? Make your mind up, Barry. The constant indecisiveness of this media hungry, attention seeking moron is laughable. Even the club have come out and said they find his comments a great source of amusement. He has probably changed his stance on the subject of the Olympic Stadium even further in the time it has taken me to write this article.
Having now seen the Olympic Stadium in all its glory I am convinced relocating would be fantastic for the club. It would provide a platform to pay off a considerable amount of our debts and help us move forward. When will we get a chance like this again to move to a state of the art stadium with fantastic transport links? We have all seen what a fantastic atmosphere 80,000 athletics fans can generate - can you imagine how amazing it would be with 60,000 West Ham fans?
Opinion is still very much divided amongst the West Ham faithful. I must stress this is just my view - you may not agree. One thing is for sure though and that is we should not be afraid of change. Of course it will be a massive wrench to leave Upton Park. It has been our home for a long time and we all have wonderful memories. You can't have a home for that length of time without forming a huge emotional attachment. Moving to the Olympic Stadium would provide us with the chance to create new, more exciting memories. It would provide us with the chance, at the very least, to try and compete with the big boys in the Premiership, rather then just existing and hoping we're not involved in relegation scraps every season. Surely a chance for the club to grow and compete has to be taken over sentiment?
Now the the famous Olympic flame has finally faded bringing with it an end to a truly remarkable games, a new an exciting future for the Olympic Stadium is set to be announced in October. I'm hoping it's a future West Ham United can be part of.
Thank you for reading.
James Wallis
I really enjoyed this read, James :)
ReplyDelete