Posted on the Spurs Odyssey Forum by PrettyVacant:
Bit of inside info on the next phase of the Olympic Stadium debacle.
The Olympic Stadium may be going back into construction in 2018.
Basically, the stuff about the cost of turning the stadiumfrom foitball to athletics and back again that made the press is effectively all true. Ish.
The big cost is not simply the dismantling and rebuilding of the temporary stands (the lower tiers) every time. It's the (so I'm told) nine days it takes to do and the lost income that leads to. Note, that means for a one day event, the Olympic Stadium needs nearly three weeks between football matches. That means summer only.
Long term that means it is almost impossible tomake money from. Because it means only the summer spell can be used, and with the season starting in August and ending in May, that's a mere three month spell cut to just two months really (due to turnaround time of nearly 3 weeks) in which events are viable.
And that exact same period is the height of competition. Spurs will soon have the option of a major all-year events programme thanks to a retractable pitch making turnaround time one of hours not weeks Wembley. O2. Twickenham. Etc. They all can too due to relative infrequency of use. But the Olympic Stadium will find itself competing for events not only with those big venues, but with seasonal rivals too (the royal parks are now big venues for summer festivals, hence the value of other stadia being able to take events all year round.
Since events are the main means of the owners making money, and with some weekends in summer likely to include athletics meets (a contractual obligation) and thus diminishing revenue opportunitiestoo), the implications are huge.
So the owners are looking at a schedule, possibly one stand at a time, of reduced capacity, to install actual retractable seating (with all the mechanics that involves).
That is likely to cost tens of millions at best, and take years due to having to accomodate the sitting tenant (west ham).
It may also see big payments made to West Ham if the contracts specify availability of stands for matches. One stand removed per season hurts their capacity, and the changes to actual retractable seating are to ensure taxpayers get some of their money back, so some compensation to west ham who won't benefit at all seems likely.
And here's the thing. If it costs £50m to do, it could, once finished, make that back in just a few years. Because that would allow more profit making events and it might reduce change round costs by as much as £5mil a year too.