Saturday 10 September 2011

West Ham are Juventus in reverse.

Juventus began what they hope will be a brighter era for the club by opening a new stadium with a drawn friendly against Notts County. - 3
Interesting to read that Juve have just opened their OWN new stadium, a move designed to financially strengthen the club because, in Italy, clubs rent rather than own stadiums. This should open a few Claret and Blue tinted eyes. I have warned all along that if a football club doesn't own its own stadium, it doesn't own anything of substance so, if you hit stormy waters on or off the pitch, you are in big trouble.

Sullivan and Gold don't give a damn about this of course. These two West Ham fans like Parker, may be in it for the money. Sell the Boleyn and pocket the dosh, then sell the club for double what they paid for it to any money laundering scumbag who happens to be in the market at the time. Cushty.

There's another lesson to be gleaned from the new Juve stadium as well. It has a capacity of 41,000 with the front seats only seven metres from the pitch in order to provide an intimidating atmosphere, standing in stark contrast to the old ground which was often half full and where players complained that the crowd's distance from the pitch created a subdued atmosphere. If Juve ever come to play a friendly in the OS it will be a case of back to the future for them then!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

My friends and I love your blog, HF.

Not necessarily because of what you write but more that we've started a drinking game where we take a shot everytime you make a negative comment about Parker. Two shots when the comment is in an article that has nothing to do with Parker, like this one.

We're all permanently drunk.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

You talk constant shit!!!

Hammersfan said...

Do I? So Juve haven't just opened their new stadium then? And it isn't the exact reverse of our proposals for the move to the OS then?

Anonymous said...

Parker was never a West Ham fan.

Anonymous said...

Have you seen the said stadium - it's complete sh1te, plus at 41,000 capacity it seats almost 30,000 less than its previous home - hardly progress.

Anonymous said...

Lovely bit of cut and pasting HF - your IT skills are improving.... you've managed to lifted a whole paragraph from yahoo.

Hammersfan said...

1210, just two sentences actually.

1203, the point is that they were unable to fill the old stadium and the atmosphere was awful because the fans were so far away from the pitch. It's better to have 41,000 in a 41,000 capacity stadium than 41,000 in a 70,000 capacity stadium. Keep in mind that we were having to offer deals to fill a 34,000 capacity stadium last season!

Anonymous said...

Yes but their new stadium is crap or did you miss the bit about English stadia being light years ahead.

Stani said...

Oi, this was my argument months ago. I posted an article on this very blog! :)

spyinthesky said...

7 yards from the pitch yep that is really intimidating about as intimidating as the East stand at Upton Park. The emirates is much closer and I don't hear much intimidation going on there these days.

Bayern Munich also have their own new stadium but they went from decent to best German side in the time they inhabited their own Olympic Stadium.

Sav said...

Having a very long lease is almost as good as owning a property. The lease can be used as collateral too HF. Also, we are talking about a property which is probably worth at least 10 times than Upton Park. And also a stadium which makes the project West Ham United more viable. It certainly improves the repayment capability of the Club (given the much higher revenues from a bigger stadium). That also makes West Ham a better financing proposition for most banks rather than if it remained at Upton Park. Trust me, I know what I am saying. This is what I do for a living.

Hammersfan said...

Trust me, the banks are at the heart of West Ham's problems and the world's problems Sav!

Anonymous said...

20:33 never had you down as a conspiracy theorist. The UK in case you hadn't noticed doesn't make anything any more - well not since the 70's. We make money through financial services... how do you propose UK plc operates without banking?