Sir Geoff Hurst backs West Ham's bid to lease Olympic Stadium

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Olympic Stadium

Sir Geoff Hurst believes former club West Ham must move to London's Olympic Stadium to fulfil their ambitions of becoming a "top" Premier League side.

The Hammers are one of four bidders under consideration to lease the £486m stadium after the Paralympics.

"In the long term [moving] is far more beneficial," Hurst, 70, told BBC Sportsweek. "The future of the club, I think, should be in the Olympic Park."

"I feel strongly that is where we have got to go," added the World Cup winner.

West Ham won the backing of Olympic executives ahead of Premier League rivals Tottenham to lease the stadium, before the deal was scrapped last year amid legal wrangling.

The Hammers, who have played at current home Upton Park since 1904, submitted another proposal in March after the bidding process was restarted.

League One side Leyton Orient and the UCFB College of Football Business have also tabled bids, while a plan to turn part of the stadium into a Formula 1 track is another under consideration by the London Legacy Development Corporation.

Hurst, the only man to score a World Cup final hat-trick after his heroics for England against West Germany in 1966, says he is "1,000%" in favour of West Ham moving to Stratford.

The Olympic Stadium, which currently has an 80,000 capacity, will be reduced to 60,000 post-Games, while Upton Park only holds 35,000 fans.

"Nobody has a greater feeling about West Ham United at Upton Park than I have," said Hurst, who scored 248 goals in 499 matches spanning 13 years for the Hammers.

"We want to be in a big stadium with more access, we want to be a top Premier League club. With the support we've got, which is fantastic, we should be mid-table and above in the Premier League.

"We don't want to be yo-yoing up and down as we have been doing."

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240 comments

  • Here's a novel idea, why not keep the Olympic Stadium as an Athletics stadium. That way it can be used for World, European, Diamond League Athletics meetings. Now that is a legacy. Nothing can be done with the stadium before the 2015 World Athletics meeting anyway.

  • @27
    For the very reasons that you have stated is exactly why it should not be given to a football team. The Olympic bid was about creating a legacy for future generations; we therefore should be promoting 'unpopular' sporting events.

  • Geoff Hurst is employed by west ham for matchday hospitality. Not a huge surprise he' s in favour is it?

    Btw i am a club member at west ham and i can tell you for a fact that the vast majority of home games do NOT sell out. If we're playing wigan in the olympic stadium it's going to be half full at best.

  • I think people will find that there are several large athletics stadiums in Europe which are more than able to operate without a football team holding several national athletics events, a couple of international athletics events, concerts etc. The London Olympic Stadium is also big enough to hold 20/20 cricket. When they have 50000 in Brussels to see Diamond League meetings, it shouldn't be hard

  • The one comment I have heard over and over throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games is how much of an inspiration our athletes are compared to the overpaid yobs we have in British football. To then turn the Olympic Park into a football stadium is at best short sighted, and at worst downright ridiculous. Come on LOCOG, please, please don't let this be the legacy of the greatest games ever.

  • I would love to see the stadium remain in the hands of Athletics but bottom line - a 60,000 seater stadium will only be properly used on a regular basis by a football team. Those who don't get this, voting down posts are living in a postOlympics dreamworld. 50k at the D-League in Brussles? Maybe the one immediately after the Olympics. These athletes won't even run in UK cos of onerous tax regime.

  • I know of many West Ham fans who will refuse to go to the Athletics Stadium at Stratford and will only attend away games. That will leave the debt holders Gold and Sullivan with many more 'discounted' tickets to flog. Look what happened Bayern and Juventus when they had their 'Olympic' stadiums.They could not wait to ditch them and get out. For West Ham, an absolute disaster in waiting.

  • Having been to the stadium a few times sitting in different areas, I've genuinely thought the views were exceptional no matter where you are sat. People worrying about it not suiting football from a viewing perspective really shouldn't. The atmosphere, however, is a completely different question. Unless West Ham can fill the ground it will be flat at best; typical of any big ground not sold out.

  • This is all about the present owners plan to move to the OS, then to sell the club, on the back of its new prestigious location. As a West Ham supporter I have no problem with the business plan. The club needs a large infusion of capital to compete in the PL. Mind you having watched Forest beat Malmo in the Olympic stadium in Munich, you can kiss any atmosphere goodbye.

  • Although I don't want West Ham's bid to be accepted it's seem like the only logical answer.
    It will be good for the away fans (and home fans for that matter) that didn't get Olympic tickets to experience the olympic stadium, and watch there team beat West Ham inside of it.

  • Very strange it has taken Hurst over 2 years to make this statement supporting the Stratford bid. To counteract that can I remind you, that former players and managers, Billy Bonds and Harry Redknapp are both firmly against.

  • Unfortunately if it was kept as an athletics only stadium it would make about £4 per year as there simply isn't the appetite to watch athletics as much as football.

    How many of you have been watching the Diamond League?

    If you as tax payers want some money back for the stadium, football is the only economically viable option.

  • @200. cienfuegos - The stadium will be reduced anyway to cater extra facilities needed for a football club. West Ham could easily fill 50-60000 a week and guarentees money goes into the infrastructure and upkeep of the park surrounding it. I hope the majority of it is kept open as a public park with markets and activity for local residents. Keeping it as athletics only wouldnt be cost effective.

  • why not sell it to a club and the highest bidder wins? at least we would get some of the money back we spent.

  • @ 184
    I would imagine the contract West Ham sign on the lease would be similar to the one City signed for the Commonwealth stadium?

    I just think if you leave the stadium for legacy purposes, it will end up being a fancy building that is rarely used and becomes a symbol of the wasteful part of the Olympics.

  • As a West Ham supporter I would be thrilled to get this,but I do wonder if we could actually fill the stadium though. Orient have zero chance of filling it however. If we got it, the stadium would be in constant use instead of becoming a white elephant gathering weeds.

  • I went to the Olympic stadium at he weekend and was surprised how compact it is. Even with the track there the atmosphere would be great. Hope the hammers get it and I can see qpr win there!!!!!!!

  • 127 - Whoever gets it will pay market rate - rent.

    We may have paid for the Olympics as a nation. Your point? You could have attended. You may have had to travel further but you did not have to suffer the packed trains and restricted road lanes either.

    The fact is that without West Ham in there it will rot away and fall into ruin, costing the taxpayer a lot more.

  • The Olympic Stadium needs West Ham more than West Ham need the Olympic Stadium. That is the simple truth, and the reason why West Ham will inevitably succeed in their bid.

  • Out of the 4 bids under consideration, only the one from West Ham has any substance to it. Do we really see this magnificent stadium being occupied by (with all respect) Orient, F1 once a year or a sports college nobody has heard of? If only the values of Greenwood, Lyall, Hurst, Moore, Peters, Brooking, Bonds etc. could be represented by the current crop, then they would really deserve it.

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