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Olympic Stadium: Mind the gap re-visited

The Daily Mail ran a story in December last year about the gap between the lower tier and upper tier at the transformed Olympic Stadium. That story can still be read HERE

When David Gold was asked about the Daily Mail story in the Season Ticket Holders’ Fans Forum last December he replied:

“Trust me, that model that the Mail used was clearly the worst possible projection for that image. It is no more than a drawing so they have exaggerated the situation by 50% at least, again it’s the worst part of the stadium, in other words if you pick the east/west sides that’s at the centreline the gap is tiny. They are using the North/South ones where it is true it is larger. That image was misleading, completely misleading. When you see the plans you will be….. I am trying to find another word for gobsmacked….you will be amazed!”

The official image below shows the Olympic Stadium in football mode for 54,000 seats. Are you amazed?

The grey shaded areas are the 6,000 seats plus which will be screened off in football mode to allow the football mode design to comply with UEFA standards for a category 4 stadium. You can see large potions of the north and south upper tiers will be screened off. The seating behind the north and south lower tiers will also be screened off. The side opposite the tunnel (West stand) has been designed to have almost no gap to create a ‘Kop like’ stand. The North, South and the tunnel side (East stand) will have significant gaps between the lower tier and upper tier.

Below is an official diagram from the architects Populous showing Wembley Stadium overlayed on the Olympic Stadium. This clearly demonstrates the reason why the north and south upper tiers will be screened off and why Karren Brady stated that no seat will be worst than Wembley stadium.

What does this really mean to us as fans? I don’t know to be honest. I am a season ticket holder in the Sir Trevor Brooking lower stand at the moment so I imagined I would move to behind one of the goals in the lower tier with my fellow supporters around me. Will the three of the lower stands feel isolated from others? What will this do for atmosphere? I don’t know the answers and probably won’t know until I sit in my seat on day one of the 2016/2017 season.

The artists impression below was found on an architects website by Nigel Kahn. Although some West Ham flags and scarves have been used to obscure some of the gaps you can still clearly see the gap to the right of the picture.

However there might be one solution, I understand the LLDC may be looking at the possibility of using demountable seats to fill the gaps in the East stand like the ones pictured below. These could help create a more intimate atmosphere and allow them to put more bums on seats at the same time.

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