Olympic Park Legacy Company pull the plug

Admin wrote:Hernia at it again

“The fact is, though, when you look at the design, it’s a magnificent athletics stadium but you can’t play football there.

“West Ham can do whatever West Ham want to do, I will object to having a major club right on my doorstep threatening to put me out of business. You must expect me to fight my corner.
The Olympic stadium is not fit for football— Barry Hearn

“My confusion, though, is how to do you play football at a stadium where the first row of seats are at ground level? The angle going back on the seats is so gradual that if there’s someone tall in front of you, you can’t see what’s going on. The seats are 40-50 yards away from pitch. If that’s football, then I’m out.

“You’re going to rebuild the stadium by knocking it down, which was a good idea by Tottenham and what should have happened, but the government aren’t brave enough to bite the bullet [and make that decision].

“Now we have to wait to and see whether West Ham go into there. I understand from them that they have a whole list of requirements that they want before they move in.

“That’s in breach of the bid document [because you’re effectively] asking them to rebuild it internally. West Ham are not filling up Upton Park, why do you want to go to a 60,000 seater stadium for?

“This stadium is a very good athletics stadium. If you want athletics in there you won’t find many better stadiums in the world. We’ve won the 2017 World Athletics Championships, but we have to wait five years for 10 days of athletic competition.

“The government have made it a condition that the athletics track has to stay for 99 years, and that is a long time for a stadium to stand a white elephant. I think they’re going to have a problem.”

OLAS wrote:If ther were to put in retractable seating the roof would have to be extended and the floodlights moved further in towards the pitch. The pitch would also have to be raised to fit in the undersoil heating, without effecting the toxic waste.

It will be a perfect excuse, for the board and the OPLC to deny us fans any retractable seating and under floor heating. When Ms. Brady was asked would she compromise if the OPLC didn't agree, she said 'I don't know'. We all know that Brady, Gold and Sullivan would have sat round a table and discussed all possibilities, so when she says she doesn't know, she really means yes, but don't tell the fans, we are trying to pull the wool over their eyes.

London 2012: West Ham's Olympic Stadium bid flawed, says Barry Hearn
By Dan Roan

West Ham's latest bid to move into the Olympic Stadium is "fundamentally flawed" and should be disqualified, according to Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn.

West Ham have declared their renewed application to move from Upton Park after the collapse of their original attempt following legal challenges from Orient and Tottenham Hotspur.

The Championship club have applied for a 99-year lease of the stadium, but Hearn is now demanding the bid is rejected.

"I am 100% certain that West Ham do not have the permission of the Football League, a fundamental criteria of the bid process" Hearn told the BBC.

"The Olympic Park Legacy Company [OLPC] have no choice but to disqualify them."

In December 2011 the OPLC listed certain minimum requirements for bidders, including "governing body consent.

According to the OPLC's Invitation to Tender document: "Each bidder who proposes content of a sporting nature must have written confirmation from the relevant governing body that the said governing body supports fixtures being played at the stadium..."

Hearn believes West Ham failed to meet that condition by 23 March, the deadline for bids.

"We have now, through our lawyers, written to the OPLC, asking if this clause was satisfied as we believe it wasn't, and we've asked for West Ham's bid to be disqualified," he said.

Hearn says he is now writing to the Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Sports Minister Hugh Robertson.

Leyton Orient are challenging the legality of the Premier League's decision last year to allow West Ham to move to the stadium on the basis it failed to take into consideration the adverse effect on Orient.

West Ham were relegated last season.

"I think they've relied on a Premier League letter saying that they're quite happy," said Hearn.

"But the Premier League are irrelevant because West Ham are now a Football League club, of which we're also a member. So we're looking for our rights to be upheld.

"I don't think the Football League have made any ruling on this at all. The case would be heard by the league's board. It makes West Ham fundamentally flawed in their bid process."

"The OPLC has constantly moved the goalposts, but this is one where they've really put a noose round their own neck. If they move the goal-posts again, Leyton Orient will once again seek a judicial review against them."

Leyton Orient themselves considered moving to the Olympic Stadium, but withdrew on the basis that it was "not fit for football".

Hearn fears West Ham's move to the 2012 stadium, which will be converted into a 60,000-seater venue after the Games, will jeopardise the League One club's future by tempting fans away from Brisbane Road.

"We're totally opposed to West Ham taking occupancy of the stadium," said Hearn.

"My mind boggles at the problems they will give us. It would be extremely harmful to Leyton Orient.

"All the shenanigans over the stadium have gone on for years and years and years. It's fundamentally flawed in design. They should knock it down and start again."

West Ham face competition from three other bidders.

The club told the BBC: "West Ham United has submitted a bid to play matches at the Olympic Stadium from 2014. The rules of the competition impose duties of confidentiality which all bidders must abide by and therefore we make no further comment."

A spokesperson for the London Legacy Development Corporation said: "We have said all along we would not be commenting on what is a confidential process."

The Football League declined to comment.

Hearn's cheeky Stratford bid

Filed: Wednesday, 30th May 2012
By: Staff Writer

Leyton Orient are set to approach West Ham United with view to ground-sharing the Olympic Stadium, according to reports.

The League One club, whose outspoken Chairman Barry Hearn has been against West Ham's move to Stratford since it first emerged that the club were hoping to move across the borough have intimated that they are set to approach United with the offer imminently.

According to a report by David Smith in tonight's Evening Standard, Hearn will "seek talks" with West Ham's co-chairman David Gold and David Sullivan in an attempt to shoe-horn his club into the deal.

Meanwhile a 'source' told the Standard: "It ticks all the boxes. Why not ground-share? It already happens all over the world."

However given Hearn's vocal opposition to West Ham's move, it is unlikely that any offer will be considered by co-owners Sullivan and Gold, who were told recently that they were "overwhelmingly likely" to be awarded tenancy of the stadium by London mayor Boris Johnson.

Despite last week's deadline day for bids being delayed by eight weeks, Johnson saw no reason why that would hurt West Ham's bid for use of the stadium.

"I don’t think we should read too much into this," he said. "It is very important to get all the legal nails hit squarely on the head so that the thing does not come unstuck. That is taking a bit of time.

"I still think it is overwhelmingly likely that there will be a footballing solution and that would be a good thing. But It is very important that it should be legally watertight.

"This is a major piece of public infrastructure with big state aid implications that we are trying to transfer to commercial concerns and that is always going to evoke very complicated legal problems."

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ThreeWheeling wrote:

Jiggs wrote:If Dave, Dave and Karen have anything at all about them, they will heed the warnings we've had so far and tell the OPLC to shove it where the sun don't shine. They need to show us 'they didn't get where they are today' by allowing arse'oles to take the piss.

The thought of them taking a risk on this rolling one year lease, with a group of tossers that change their minds at the drop of a hat, is finguck scary ....

Oh, and wot Daz and Motty said about tarting up the Boleyn, and Hearnia is a cnut.

gold said last night it will be a 250 year lease :affraid:

Dave keeble ‏@dober_man

@DavidGoldWHU Hearn on talk sport earlier on his u turn. After months of slinging mud at us he now wants to get in bed with us, odious man.
Retweeted by David Gold