I don't know why he wants this so much. The stadium isn't set up for football, we'd still have to spend a lot of money adding more seats to increase the planned 25k, not to mention having to rent the ground from Newham council. Add to that the fact that it is a shitty open topped dome in which you'll be miles from the pitch and there would be no atmosphere at all.
There was a female athlete on Radio 5 earlier this evening, having a good moan about this. She was basically saying that even though she's a football fan [Arsenal], why should football always get its own way, and that athletics really needed this stadium. I try not to take too much interest in Gold & Sullivan, but can't help feeling they need football more than football needs them. They're publicity whores, imo.
The casino thing makes sense. It's a gamble every time we play anyway.
Quote from: "sendō WHU"The casino thing makes sense. It's a gamble every time we play anyway.Its no joke mate - we know what these fuckers are like close up - if it was my club they had bought i would be shitting myself at this moment
Quote from: "Hookeysmith"Quote from: "sendō WHU"The casino thing makes sense. It's a gamble every time we play anyway.Its no joke mate - we know what these fuckers are like close up - if it was my club they had bought i would be shitting myself at this momentTo be fair to them, yes they took their fair share of money out of the noses and I'd be more than happy to see them slide into lower league obscurity, but they also left them on a sound footing. The same as Doug did to us.
Quote from: "gerags"Quote from: "Hookeysmith"Quote from: "sendō WHU"The casino thing makes sense. It's a gamble every time we play anyway.Its no joke mate - we know what these fuckers are like close up - if it was my club they had bought i would be shitting myself at this momentTo be fair to them, yes they took their fair share of money out of the noses and I'd be more than happy to see them slide into lower league obscurity, but they also left them on a sound footing. The same as Doug did to us.If the best bit about your new owners is that they're like Doug - I'd be worried!
Similar thing to us under Terrence Brown. He was disliked because he'd shit granite he was that tight but he left the club in a good state despite relegation. Compare and contrast to the Icelandic administratoin...
WEST HAM UNITED NEWSSullivan: Hammers planned player fire saleBy Harry Harris, Football CorrespondentMarch 1, 2010West Ham United would have been forced to sell £8 million worth of players in January, £16 million in the summer and £20 million if they were relegated had the club not fallen into new hands, co-owner David Sullivan told Soccernet.David Sullivan: West Ham co-ownerOn the day Portsmouth were due back in court for a Revenue winding up order, having already gone into administration, the true extent of the financial meltdown at Upton Park was disclosed by the club's new co-owner.Sullivan told Soccernet: "The strategy for survival was in place in case there wasn't a takeover, and we were told that it meant that £8 million worth of players had to be sold in January, which would have meant a player like Scott Parker or Carlton Cole going, or maybe even both."Then in the summer, the club would have needed to sell £16 million worth of players to carry on surviving, having budgeted to finish 10th in the Premier League, but it might have been more like £20 million if they had been relegated."It would have reached the stage where the club would have had no one left of any consequence, but when people are desperate they had to design desperate measures."For West Ham it wouldn't have been long before they would have run out of players to sell. Yet Straumer had put in £7.9 million to keep the club afloat on top of all the debts."When Sullivan and David Gold took over the running of the club in January there were debts of £110 million.Sullivan said: "We have already trimmed that down to £95 million, as we have paid of some of the debts with a few little deals, so slowly we are making some progress."But we have to look at the situation in realistic terms. This club had lost £20 million, £40 million and £20 million in the last three years and there are another £20 million losses this year."Ultimately we have to break even, but that is going to take some effort as we are heading for £20 million losses this year again. So, you can see the first big task is to stabilise the club to give it a brighter future."We came in and bought players, saved the club from being forced to sell players, and now we are quite capable of staying up, and quite capable of surviving."
Shameless West Ham owner David Sullivan calls on fans to loosen the purse stringsBy Sportsmail Reporter Last updated at 7:07 PM on 16th March 2010Shameless West Ham co-owner David Sullivan is pleading with their million armchair supporters to spend some money on the club and help them get out of their financial mess.Sullivan and David Gold are desperate to ease the crippling £110m debt which they inherited from the former Icelandic owners when they took control of the club back in January.Sullivan has no doubts that West Ham can become a major European force within the next seven years but they need all their fan base to plough some much needed money back into the club as the majority choose to stay away from Upton Park.Shameless: Sullivan puts on his fisting glovesWith West Ham facing a major relegation dogfight, Sullivan has stressed the importance of their fans playing a major role in helping them to retain their Premier League status.Sullivan said: 'We have a million supporters who probably haven't seen us play in the last ten years and I bet 950,000 of them haven't even bought any club merchandise.'However, these million people would still highly regard themselves as West Ham fans.'David Gold and I are typical of maybe a million Hammers fans. Other than when Birmingham maybe played West Ham, we never saw them in the last 20 years. But, still we regarded ourselves as West Ham fans.'As our accounts published, the club is in a mess, but with the help of our million supporters, we will dig ourselves out of it.'Within five to seven years I believe we can be a power in British and European football. We expect to make progress season on season until we become a great side again.'We need the help now of our million armchair-supporters because we know they are just that - supporters.'Come to a game before the end of the season, buy something from the club shops, visit our website or use a West Ham credit card. We need everyone to do something for the club we all love.'