Football is the name of the game sport-wise at the moment, in the UK four ourt of the five home nations are participating in UEFA’s Euro 2016 tournament in France. Expectations are mixed but there are plenty of opportunities for progress through the group stages for all.
Today’s video however focuses more on the domestic than the international arena and the loss of a stadium. Now in America losing a stadium isn’t a massive deal, with arenas often rebuilt or clubs/teams moving around. Be it ice hockey or American Football the idea of a franchise means a team is not necessarily tied to its area. A change of venue may result in a change of team name. In the NFL the Oakland Raiders became the Los Angeles Raiders and then changed back again. The Houston Oilers moved to Memphis and became the Tennessee Oilers and then the Tennessee Titans, and so on. In Europe that simply doesn’t occur. A club is part of the fabric of the community, teams have been playing at grounds for decades, some even over one-hundred years. So when a team can no longer renovate their stadium and they need to move they try to stay as close as possible. It is a very rare occurrence to move to a different town and such is frowned upon by fans generally.
For West Ham United the end of the 2015-2016 season was a time for parting with their stadium the Boleyn Ground, more regularly known to football fans as Upton Park, where they had played football since 1904. Now moving to the former London Olympics stadium Hammers fans paid an emotional goodbye with the club recently releasing a 360 degree video narrated by actor Ray Winstone called #IMAGINEBOLEYN.
VRFocus will back on Monday with another example of 360 degree video in action.
