By CandH associate editor Sean Whetstone
The waiting was finally over as 53,914 spectators who smashed the West Ham home attendance record at our new home against a relativity unknown Slovenian team .
Walking up to the London Stadium across the bridge felt like Wembley Wayand the game had a Cup final kind of feel about it. Numerous food trailers outside the stadium perimeter added to that Wembley outing feel.
There was an artificial beach with funfair on one side and Swan peddle boats on the canal for hire on the other. Not the kind of amusements you would have found in Green Street. 
There is also a great park to explore and relax in the sun before kick off.
As we were there early we went to club store to a busy shop with all 40 tills in operation for the first time. Gone are the days of waiting ages to be served. We got served within 60 seconds of attaching ourselves to a small queue.
Next stop was the ticket office, again a short sub minute queue and we were directed to one of 25 ticket windows within a minute. I managed to upgrade a kids ticket to an adult ticket without fuss paying quickly by a debit card.
At 5.45pm on the dot the doors opened for the stadium with a good selection of food reasonably priced compared to other venues like Wembley available. We opted for the street food counter and went for the pulled turkey roll which was good quality.
Taking to to our seats in the West Stand block 113 row 19 was the big wow moment with the sight lines were much better than anyone expected and a great view of the action and the pitch.
The acoustics of the place are pretty great and atmosphere will grow game by game as season ticket holders get used to our new surroundings.
Just before kick off we visited the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream stall in the concourse to get a tub of ice cream. Many others were eating pop corn from the fresh pop corn stall.
Obviously it helped massively that we won the game 3-0 but the match seemed special under the iconic triangular floodlights and illuminated West Ham United sign.
Leaving the game was also far better than I imagined as I departed bang on the 90 minute before added time had been played. Although it was busy and slow moving I managed to get from my seat to a Stratford station Jubilee line train in 20 minutes. We weren’t stopped once by those men with stop and go signs.
Overall my first experience at our new home was amazing and I still have a smile on my face. I can’t wait until Sunday against Juventus and then again the first premier League game against Bournemouth when we smash the home attendance record again 60,000.
Well done West Ham, Well done E20 Stadium LLP Well done London Stadium 185!
A great debut which will only get better as time goes on.
Great write up, Sean. I’m amazed at the cynical attitude of a lot of us Hammers – I swear I could barely hear the tannoy over people ***** moaning and complaining. Unreal. Evolve or die – this is football, guys. That’s all it is.
Having said that; less typie more talky. When’s the podcast back? I need Moore of it!
They need to be more forceful in directing people not to go round to the front of the stadium and then across the bridge (i.e. past the Acquatics Centre), because that was a massive bottleneck. I also retain my objection to the Westfield route being closed off, as that could also have helped to deal with the bottleneck that built up along the main road towards the station.
A great write-up that mirrored my experience which was nothing short of sensational. How could any fan moan and groan about that stadium. The biggest concern I had was tens of thousands of fans bearing down at once on Stratford Station. There was no need! I left the stadium at 9.40pm and was sitting down at home in Chelmsford at 10.45pm. Long gone the days of trying to drive away from Upton Park in chaotic traffic jams and arriving home at 11.30pm. Very well done to the stewards and a massive thank you to Ms Brady and the two Daves. Eat your hearts out Spuds, keep dreaming Orient and we are after you Chelsea.
Yes completely agree Sean it was different but as good as any match I have ever been too, having been to watch the rugby At the OS I was worried about the queues but I alongside most of the crowd remained right until the end and we were slowed a few times by the stop go people but from leaving the stadium to getting to the station it only took 25 minutes, last night I was in the 1966 seats which were very comfy, I was next to some season ticket holders who were grumbling before the game about how far from the pitch they were but by the end of the game I am speculating but they seemed to have been won over. I did notice a poor guy in the adjacent stand to out right went to sit on his chair and the whole thing detached itself from the frame, I am not sure if it got fixed or not…
Short & sweet,superb night.I was worried my young lads wouldn’t like it after UP but I shouldnt have had reservations about that they thought it was amazing.Tbh that’s all that mattered to me that my lads loved it which means they have a new home to enjoy for years to come COYI
And dimi didn’t play either??
Sorry, but I felt that the powers that be were determined to make life as difficult as possible for anyone trying to get to/from the stadium. Completely unnecessary in my opinion.
Re hashing the game in my mind last night brought back the Antonio puzzle. I admit that I, like many others was highly critical of Slav on this, but a bit more thinking made me realise Slav. Does have a big problem here, in that he has a quality player that he can’t fit into the team, with a whole slew of quality players all fully deserving of the one available spot. This triggered another thought. Virtually everyone of our (is it five?) attacking midfielders could step into the striker position and do well.
This brings up the question, do we really need another striker?