We've ended up opting for seats at the front of the upper tier of the East Stand, which are roughly level with the edge of the penalty area and look like they are close to the action, but also offer an aerial view of the overall play. The East Stand is one continuous bank, apparently. The East Stand will get the sun in the summer, but the new roof is so large it should hopefully stop any glare.
Because it's a bowl the seats towards the corners are actually a bit closer to the pitch than the halfway-line seats (which were £900), which are set further back. We passed on the option of 1966 Club tickets at £1100 though the views looked very good. The top tier of the West Stand is completely corporate, with only the lower tier on offer to us, though this looked fine too.
After the reservation session we took on the really important business of assessing Stratford's boozers. First we tried Tap East in Westfield, which saved a nice pint of Rad Atom real ale and a bottle of Belgian Duval for Nigel. Does food too, but it's very small, and doesn't look like it could cope with 54,000 Irons fans singing songs and spraying beer.
We moved on to the Builders Arms, which was a bit run down but spacious, and had bottles of Doombar, but no real ale on draught. Our next stop was the Princess of Wales in West Ham Lane. There was only one old bloke having a half in the pub and the barmaid looked very surprised to see three customers enter. But it had Doombar on draught (could have been kept better though) and the wooden interior wasn't bad and it had lots of space for football fans.
In that vicinity there is also the Black Bull on the Broadway, the Queen's Head in West Ham Lane that has live music and the King Edward VII. There are also two more pubs in The Grove. So plenty of scope for research before the big kick-off at the OS.
