The London Stadium "has accounting value of zero"

Interesting piece by Oliver Wainwright in the Guardian on the  shortfall in the promised affordable housing in the Olympic Park, that was supposed to be the result of the 2012 Olympic Games. He also blames Boris Johnson for going ahead with the ArcelorMittal Orbit, a folly which is now £13 million in debt. 

There's also a revealing paragraph on the London Stadium, which points out that the London Stadium, owned by the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), is losing £10 million a year. Wainwright writes: "As a damning report by the London Assembly’s budget and performance committee noted last year: “It is ironic that by having fewer large-scale events, thanks to Covid-19, the park is haemorrhaging less money than if it were business as usual.” In the latest accounts, the stadium was listed with a value of zero."

The LLDC is handing back its planning powers to Newham Council in two years' time and will eventually be disbanded. With  the London Stadium technically valued at nothing, even though it cost £760 million to build, this surely puts West Ham in a very good position to buy the stadium at a knockdown price and redesign it as the club sees fit.

Home win?

My piece in the Guardian asking if the London Stadium is finally starting to feel like home for West Ham fans has generated a lot of debate with 274 comments. Some agree that it's getting better, some fans still hate it, and it isn't much liked by away fans. While there's a few people still banging on about the fact West Ham got it on the cheap after taxpayers' paid for it. It's not perfect, but as we proved against Sevilla and Liverpool and Chelsea this season, with a winning team it can work. And as my pal Nigel commented on twitter: "No one loved Upton Park more than me, but even I admit it’s time to move on." Click on the link to read the whole piece.

Was this the game where the London Stadium started to feel like home?

On Sunday the London Stadium started to feel like a football ground. It was certainly the best atmosphere we've had since the move. It's never going to be as intimate at Upton Park and it's still a challenge for the short-sighted, but when the crowd sing throughout and there's a feelgood atmosphere about the club, it makes a difference. 

Finally it felt like the London Stadium was an intimidating place for the opposition. Check out the deep roar of "Come on you Irons!" as Bowen takes the corner from which Zouma scores and the acapello version of Bubbles at the final whistle. And the fans behind the goal going mental after the second and third goals.

It helps that we've got a new song featuring West Ham being massive and Tottenham getting battered everywhere they go, which must make it difficult for Harry Kane to visit his local chippy. Squaring off the ends has also seen an improvement in atmosphere. Moyes always maintained that if he got the team right the atmosphere would improve and he was right. The wide open spaces of the London Stadium used to be an invitation to Man City and Liverpool to score four or five — now they will be worried about a visit to East London.

Will the London Stadium start to feel like home?

It now seems there will be full crowds at the London Stadium next season, the third wave of Covid permitting. One thing I noticed at the West Ham versus Southampton game was that the squared off ends did make a difference and made the stadium feel a little more intimate. 

It's now five years since WHU left Upton Park. It still hurts, but after a year and a half without any live football fans are going to be noisy and glad to be back in any sort of stadium. And West Ham will be returning as a side that finished sixth and made it into the Europa League. We've never had a successful team at the London Stadium before so it should make a difference. Next season will feel like a new start and the corporate bowl might finally start to feel like home.

Squaring the circle

One piece of slightly better news is that the planned squaring-off of the two ends at the London Stadium looks set to be in place for next season. The fans behind the goal will be four metres closer to the action and it should help to give the London Stadium more of a traditional football ground feel, even if it's still a bowl at the sides. Just the thing (on current form) for all those of us who want to see Millwall, Rotherham and Wycombe at close quarters in the Championship... 

More like a football stadium?

It seems the squared-off ends at the London Stadium will be ready for next season. It would mean 300 fans at each end might not be covered by the roof, but singing in  the rain is surely a price worth paying for something that feels more like a proper stadium. This could make a big difference to the atmosphere. The minutes of the Official Supporters Board October meeting reveal the following:

Bobby Moore and Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Tier seating configuration, KB says good progress has been made in partnership with E20. The work is currently out to tender and on track to be installed over Summer 2020 and therefore the new stands should be installed for next season. The plans show that after the installation the new distances between the stand and the pitch will be very similar to the area behind the goals at the Emirates and much closer than Wembley. 7 KB explained that there would be about 300 seats (of about 3,600 each end, Bobby Moore and Sir Trevor Brooking stands) where the seats would not be covered by the roof and that all season ticket holders in the stand will be offered the closest like-for-like seat but if their seat was now not covered by the roof and they wanted to move they will have the opportunity to relocate. General view of OSB members was that they expected all seats including wet ones to be popular. KB said the SAG had a concern that fans in uncovered area may move when game is on if it rains and therefore a proper management plan will be in place and 300 supporters moving during a match would cause issues. KB says the Club expects the seats near the front to be highly desirable. The meeting agreed. KB says she and PC have spoken to companies who have submitted tenders and the new stands should feel more permanent and an enhancement of what is there now.

From the London Stadium to Thames Ironworks

The London Stadium from the Lea Valley Walk

Enjoyed a West Ham-themed birthday promenade last week exploring the Lea Valley Walk. My journey saw me trek from the London Stadium down to Trinity Buoy Wharf at Leamouth, opposite the site of the old Thames Ironworks shipbuilding yard. 

Following the Lee Navigation from White Post Lane at Hackney Wick, I soon found myself in the surprisingly leafy and peaceful environs beneath the London Stadium. Leaving the stadium behind it's on past the twin locks of Old Ford Lock and the lock-keeper's cottages that were converted into the Big Brother house. One link with West Ham is the site of the converted Percy Dalton's peanut factory — as famously sold on the North Bank.

The old Percy Dalton's peanut factory

After going under several large roads in Stratford the river takes us to the historic Three Mills with its working waterwheels. It was built in 1776 and is the world's largest tidal mill. Then it's on down Bow Creek (avoiding the Limehouse turn to the right), with fine views of Canary Wharf, and on to to Cody Dock, which now has a cafe and number of workspaces — though the silted-up old dock reminds us of how important the River Lea once was as an industrial shipway. 

Sadly the riverside path is closed beyond the dock, but an alternative route takes the pedestrian down a Sweeney-esque road of scrap-metal merchants and back to the Lea at Canning Town.

View of Bow Creek from the Ecology Park

It's certainly worth a look in the Bow Creek Ecology Park, an oasis of green opposite the new multi-coloured tower blocks of City Island. The walk ends at East India Dock and then Trinity Buoy Wharf, once used for testing buoys and lighthouses. There's a cafe with a taxi on the roof here and across the Leamouth lies the site of Thames Ironworks, now a metal company. Strangely, this being hipster land, there's also a ship with orange mushrooms spouting from its roof, possibly a reference to West Ham fans sometimes being kept in the dark and fed on manure. You can then return home from either East India DLR or Canning Town tube.

It's a walk that takes in West Ham's current home and the site of the place where it all began. And on a sunny day it's all rather beautiful, in a post-industrial kind of way. 

Looking across from Trinity Buoy Wharf to the site of Thames Ironworks

Stratford's field of dreams

Interesting to see the pictures of the London Stadium converted for today's baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. There's a diamond made of clay imported from Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania and 141,900 square feet of imported artificial turf. Looking at the Guardian's time-lapse photography the conversion seems to have involved some digging down into the ground below the pitch, which makes me wonder why the same thing can't be done to bring the fans closer to the pitch for West Ham games — no mention of the contaminated soil we have heard about before. 

We should perhaps be thankful that Andy Carroll is no longer with us, as he might have become the West Ham player to be injured by being buried in clay. Let's hope it is converted back in time for Man City on August 11. Though playing City on a diamond in an oval might just confuse them.

London Stadium still not a massive moneyspinner

Interesting round up of all the Premier League club's accounts for the 2017-18 season in the Guardian. West Ham made £25m from "match receipts and football related", a figure that is just over a fifth of the £119m made from broadcasting rights. It's a healthy profit from the stadium, but not that much more than clubs made with grounds similar in capacity to Upton Park. Brighton and Southampton both made matchday profits of £19m for example. 

No doubt profits from the London Stadium match receipts will have gone up last season (2018-19) with more Cup games and more £99 Under-16 tickets going up to Under-21 rates. But even so it's a long way from the promised revenue that would take West Ham to the "next level". Now PL clubs are more reliant than ever on TV money. Even clubs like Bournemouth with a 15,000 capacity get their £119m from TV. The London Stadium might help attract a better class of player, but on its own it's not going to lift West Ham into the top six.

A tale of two stadiums

Interesting piece in tonight's Evening Standard comparing West Ham and Tottenham's stadiums. It looks back at when both teams were vying for the London Stadium. 

Spurs' plan was to demolish two thirds of the stadium, presumably keeping the Billy Bonds Stand, and rebuilding the rest as a dedicated football ground. They estimated this would cost £250m, though with hindsight it might have been closer to the £1 billion they spent on White Hart Lane. Spurs have been left £600m in debt by their new stadium. So West Ham's move to Stratford for £2.5 pa rent makes economic if not emotional sense. 

The London Stadium is probably still a few rows of seats away from being a proper stadium. But squaring the ends off would certainly help and ultimately you could envisage a rich new owner buying the place and knocking down at least one side to bring it closer to the pitch. 

Still, it would have been nice to see Tottenham's new stadium had I got through the Kafkaesque ballot process of applying for a ticket. But one thing Spurs don't have is a claret carpet. How could Mr Levy have forgotten to include this? Let's hope we're the first team to win there tomorrow.

London Stadium from the air

Is that a spaceship? Thanks to my pal Richard, a Gooner, for sending me this picture of the London Stadium taken while returning on a flight from Prague. And you thought Row 73 was a long way up...

Come on feel the noise

Almost unnoticed, the noise levels are going up at the London Stadium. It's not the Boleyn and the athletics track is still a big problem, but the crowd is getting louder. Watching Match of the Day there's a huge chorus of Bubbles going round the stadium as Chicharito finds Anderson who curls it into the top corner. 

It certainly helps that the crowd is behind a manager who plays attacking football and that a new talisman has arrived in Anderson. There was a massive roar after Fabianski saved a penalty against Cardiff and even when Man City hammered WHU 4-0 the crowd were still noisy and behind the team. The rhythmic clapping and stamping also has quite a primeval effect and must intimidate the opposition. It's one way round the vastness of the LS bowl. 

In our third season the fans are starting to accept it's too late to go back to Upton Park. "Is this the Emirates?" asked the Palace fans. No, it isn't anymore. The London Stadium is now full of "oles" (never advisable with our defence though) and it's starting to almost have a feelgood factor. All this, and we might even get our claret carpet in the January sales at Westfield.

London Stadium capacity up to 66,000

Good news is that after considerable legal battles West Ham have settled out-of-court the unnecessary dispute with landlords E20 over the London Stadium's capacity. Capacity at home games will now go up to 60,000 and eventually 66,000 — though you wouldn't want to be one of the punters in Row 73. Relations seem to be thawing with the landlords, mainly because new LLDC chief executive Lyn Garner has a better relationship with Karren Brady and seems to realise that it's better to be helping rather than fighting your anchor tenant. We're even getting a new claret carpet, presumably once the sales are on in Romford Market. 

For Faulks' sake, sort it out Hammers

You don't get many West Ham fans called Sebastian. Literary geezer Sebastian Faulks is revealed to be a West Ham fan in the Evening Standard magazine. The Birdsong author lists Bobby Moore as his most iconic Londoner, if being born in Barking counts as being a Londoner. When asked what he would do if he was Mayor for a day, Faulks replies: "I would move West Ham United back to the Boleyn Ground and donate the Olympic Stadium to Mr Farage, Mr Rees-Mogg and Mr Johnson to run round in circles until they dropped." 

We've got our carpet back — and West Ham would consider buying London Stadium

Some interesting revelations from Karren Brady's appearance before the London Aseembly. The Daily Mail reports that an agreement has finally been reached about the carpet round the pitch. Sadly we can't have leopardskin, but it is going to be claret with a WHU badge and a dark blue border — something the LLDC could have agreed to a year ago. 

Brady also said that West Ham would definitely be interested in buying the London Stadium, "if it became a dedicated football stadium" with the odd concert and rugby match, but no athletics. She pointed out that West Ham originally offered to buy it during the bidding process, and that is surely Sullivan and Gold's long-term plan. You do wonder how long the LLDC can afford to lose around £20 million a year. 

Brady also claimed that the LLDC's estimate of the cost of staging each match had gone down from £250k a game to £43k a game, a figure she still disputed. At least relations with the LLDC appear to have improved slightly with the appointment of Lyn Garner as chief executive. 

Hopefully all this scrutiny from the London Assembly will ensure a better relationship between tenant and landlord — and better value for the taxpayer.

Stadium woes and carpet baggers

The relationship between West Ham and its landlord appears worse than ever. There's yet another undignified row between West Ham and the London Legacy Development Corporation. First the LLDC claimed that West Ham's rent does not cover the cost of staging matches, followed by the club denying this and counter-claiming that the LLDC had "misled" the public about the costs. The LLDC then demanded a retraction, with the club refusing. The root problem is surely that the LLDC regrets making a poor initial deal (running for 99 years) with West Ham — you can't really blame the club for accepting a relatively low rent.

On top of this there's the ridiculous row about the carpet colouring. West Ham has offered to pay the £380,000 cost of changing the carpet to claret, while the LLDC fears a claret carpet might put off potential naming rights sponsors (which it has singularly failed to attract despite big expenditure). The carpet just might make a psychological difference, even if it's David Sullivan's shagpile. Surely it's better to have a successful core tenant and that in turn might generate a deal for naming rights. It's time for the squabbling to stop.

The tracks of my tears

Interesting to watch the Roma versus Liverpool game in the Champions League. The Roma ground looks worse than the London Stadium in terms of having a huge athletics track going round the stadium and large gaps behind the goals. Yet the Roma ultras were still able to whip up a fervent atmosphere, even more so when they beat Barcelona in the quarter finals. The London Stadium is imperfect and the rake isn't right, but I still think most of our problems are related to terrible transfer dealings, poor management and owners and poor results. Should West Ham ever compete in a Champions League semi-final we'd create a pretty torrid atmosphere too, even in Stratford. Though on current form this theory is unlikely to be tested within the next hundred years,

On the shelf

Looking at the Supporters Advisory Board update one of the issues mentioned is "shelving". Apparently there have been complaints there isn't enough shelving for people to put drinks on, so the club has spent £40,000 installing new shelving. Though for me the word shelving conjures up images of some nice stripped pine bookshelves for literary fans to store their half-time books on. 

I'm not sure what tomes would be appropriate for watching West Ham at the moment, but perhaps we could start with a library of Hard Times, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Trial, Heart of Darkness, Remembrance of Things Past, War and Peace, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Pride and Prejudice, The Sound and the Fury, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Paradise Lost, The Grapes of Wrath and, of course, Les Miserables.

Seven London Stadium questions…

Well, the popcorn has settled on the first season at the London Stadium and according to the club, most season ticket holders have renewed. We all know about the initial problems, although to some extent the segregation and stewarding issues have improved. At times the stadium could seem like a bland soulless bowl when we were getting thrashed at home, though when we beat Chelsea, Palace and Spurs we all tended to forget where we were and it seemed like Upton Park again. It’s now being put back into athletics mode after a series of concerts and we’ve got another 99 years of our lease to try and get it right. A few questions still on my mind are:

1. RETRACTABLE STANDS

Has a satisfactory new company been found to move the retractable stands? The previous company went bankrupt and there was talk of it costing the landlords £8m a year to move the stands.

2. CLOSER TO THE PITCH?

Is there any way of redesigning/recalibrating the retractable stands so they can come forward a few more feet? That would make the ground seem more enclosed.

3. HALFWAY LINE SEATS

The biggest distance from the pitch is the seats at the halfway line. Would it be possible to fit a few more rows of temporary seats around the halfway line to reduce the bowl effect?

4. HOARDINGS

Would it be possible to rearrange the advertising hoardings so they were in a square shape? Psychologically that might male the ground feel more like a traditional stadium.

5. TECHNICAL AREAS

Could the subs and coaches benches be moved close to the managers’ technical areas so that Slaven looks less isolated?

6. PITCH LEVEL

In the long term is there any prospect of lowering the pitch and getting some more seats in if the club offered to help pay for this? And is there a problem with toxic waste if this is done?

7. REFRESHMENTS

With so much TV money coming into football now, how about knocking £1 off all stadium refreshment prices so the fans feel the club is on their side?

No place like home for the Hammers?

Yet another two-page feature in the Guardian today on the London Stadium issues, asking if it is, "a terrible experience or a step forward?" The feature mainly rehashes the stories that have already been covered this season, though writer Jacob Steinberg admits that many of the stewarding problems have been resolved. As he says, the undeniable truth is that the success of the move depends on West Ham becoming a better team on the pitch. 

What I would like to have seen is more coverage of how the stadium might change in the next few seasons. Can the cost of moving the retractable stands be reduced, is there any leeway for having square advertising hoardings and might it be possible to sneak a few extra rows of seats in towards the half way line? 

The atmosphere has improved since the Palace win, as Tony Pulis noticed after the West Brom game. As the piece says, the new pitch is only five yards longer than Upton Park. Getting results against Spurs and Liverpool would go a long to proving the players are adapting to it.