They just can’t seem to get things right down in east London, either on or off the pitch, West Ham looking like relegation candidates and now, apparently, looking at ground share options for their London Stadium which was, frankly, built for athletics and not football.
According to the Daily Mail, West Ham’s stadium, built for the 2012 Olympics, is being considered alongside the likes of Wembley, Twickenham and Craven Cottage as a potential new home for London rivals, Chelsea, whilst their Stamford Bridge ground is being refurbished.
That hasn’t gone down well at all with the supporter who is only ever identified as ExWHUEmployee. Speaking on the West Ham Way podcast, he really let rip, and there was no disguising his anger.
“Chelsea are considering a ground share with us if they redevelop Stamford Bridge. Now, their new owners want to do a whole new makeup of the stadium which will apparently take four years to do,” he said.
“And one of the options about them doing that, whilst it’s being done, is that they’ll share a stadium with someone whilst the building work takes place.
“The London Stadium has been identified as one of those potential stadiums, apparently. I’ve not heard that from sources, I’ve just read it in the news like anyone else would have.
“But I thought that was quite interesting to highlight. And that could be a real, real interesting issue. If we’re in the Premier League and say both of us, and fixtures get cancelled and rearranged, and if we’re both in Europe as well, how all of that would work. It’d be awful.
“[…] I mean, it would be horrendous.”
West Ham did ground share before of course. During the days when the east Londoners used the Boleyn Ground (or Upton Park if you prefer) as their home, Charlton Athletic took advantage of the Hammers away days in the 1991/92 season to also play their home games there.
They were different times then and, importantly, it was a ground made for football, rather than what West Ham have now.
Can't tell from a distance, but there's a fair old gap between the first, retractable tier of seats and second tier pic.twitter.com/PzQaieSzOB
— Tom Williams (@tomwfootball) August 4, 2016
For all of its bells and whistles, London Stadium is not a football stadium. The upper and lower tiers don’t even meet but are connected by walkways which are the result of trying, unsuccessfully, to convert it into a fit-for-purpose Premier League ground.
As a season ticket holder I’ve never liked the London Stadium
I ENJOY AWAY game far more.now going to real football
Stadiums
Knock it down and start again