In a video on a new microsite launched to keep the club's fans abreast of developments, the first lady of football talked through the particulars of the £190 million ($286 million/€222 million) transformation with post-conversion technical illustrations of the site that hosted the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The south east side of the stadium will feature a club shop and club ticket office - both will be open all year round, which will be completely dedicated to West Ham and run by the team's staff, while a community pitch will be situated in the foreground of the Stadium for the club's community projects.

Brady confirmed that the ground will have multiple entry points around the stadium, with turnstiles, making it very different from how it operated during the Olympics where visitors were swiped in at the approach of the stadium.

The roof, which has already been unveiled as 84 metres in size, dips in slightly and is the largest spanning tensile roof in the world.

It will cover every seat in the ground, including all those that are retractable, and aside from the weatherproofing benefits, Brady said that it also helps to ensure a lively atmosphere in the venue.

"When you're inside, some of the visuals that we've seen from places across the world where they use this type of roof, you really get a sense of how intimate and enclosed it makes the entire stadium," she said.


Speaking about the southern approach of the venue, which is where many people have said they would like to see the champions' statue featuring Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Sir Geoff Hurst - three West Ham players who played in England's 1966 World Cup winning side - relocated, she explained that this is when you "start to get an idea of the real size and scale of the Stadium".

The automated seating system, which uses drive motors to move all four sides of the bowl, will either bring the seats forward and closer to the pitch in football mode or further back when in athletics mode to allow for the running track.

"The seating distances compare more than favourably with the top stadia around the world including Wembley and the recently build Emirates Stadium," Brady said.

"I can promise you that no seat will be further away than that offered at Wembley Stadium."

She also revealed plans for a bridge between the upper and lower stands on the east side of the stadium to create a kop style stand.

"Because it was really important to us to create the kop style stand the east stand will have a bridge installed that will connect the two stands together to create one major stand," Brady added.

She confirmed that two of the stands will be named after club legends Moore and Sir Trevor Brooking, and while the details will be finalised after a consultation with the fans, the club suggests that these will be situated behind each of the goals like at the Boleyn Ground.

Meanwhile, Brady said there would be 995 toilets and twice as many catering units as there are at the current ground, which will be located within the stadium as opposed to kiosks outside as with the Olympics, with the aim being to cut halftime food and drink queues.


The vice-chair finished by moving to reassure West Ham fans that the team's matches would take precedence over other events, but said that the commercial opportunities must be realised in order to develop a "world-class team".

"When I came to West Ham in January 2010 and embarked on a journey for the Olympic Stadium for West Ham I had two things in mind," Brady explained.

"One was that it absolutely had to be a world-class football stadium and secondly that our fixtures will always have priority over anything and everything else that happened in that Stadium.

"I hope in terms of the first thing, by looking at the visuals and understanding what this conversion means post Olympics, you get a real belief that when I said you could trust us that we would deliver a world class stadium, where the seats were close to the pitch, where there was a roof that covered those seats, that would provide us with an opportunity to be in one of the best stadia in the world.

"I think and hope now that you could see that you could trust us and you knew you could trust us."

She did admit, however, that there have been obstacles to overcome in getting to this point.


"It's not been easy in the past three years trying to get that but I am proud and pleased to say that myself and my team have worked very hard for you to get you this kind of stadium," Brady told the fans.

"There's lots of fantastic stadia in the UK but there's only one Olympic Stadium and that gives us a fantastic real chance to grow our business commercially.

"And why would we do that?

"We would do that so we can provide on the pitch the best team possible for our manager to go out there and win things for all of us.

"That's our ambition, a world-class stadium with a world class team.

"And through the commercial opportunities afforded to us by going to the Olympic Stadium, that money can be driven from the commercial revenue and it can be invested in the team so the team and the stadium are a powerful mix of the best that football has to offer in the United Kingdom.

"This is a journey we have to go on together.

"I want the stadium for West Ham, but I want you to want it too.

"Therefore, your opinion is important, your belief and trust in us as people and as a board is incredibly important to us.

"And if we can go on this journey together.

"If we can deliver the Stadium and you're behind us I know it can be a tremendous success."

West Ham is expected to take up their tenancy of the stadium for the start of the 2016-2017 football season.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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