60 Comments

Gold stands firm in face of fans petition

David-GoldDavid Gold has again called for fans to sit down in the London Stadium.

Despite him and David Sullivan calling for the fans to do so in a statement on the official site, a petition has now been started for the possible introduction of a safe standing area in the ground.

However, this remains against Premier League rules at this stage and the club have made their position clear.

One fan, promoting the petition on Twitter the Gold follower asked: “ David, if you would like to see Safe Standing, could you please retweet this petition?

DG immediately responded by declaring: ” We won’t get a licence for 66k and have the biggest capacity in London if we stand. If you love West Ham sit down dg.”

And he slapped down another fans who reacted: “Why are you so obsessed with having the biggest ground? We’ve already jumped from 35k to 57k.

The co-chairman said: “You may be happy being the fourth club in London. I’m not.”

 

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

60 comments on “Gold stands firm in face of fans petition

  1. Size of club has nothing to do with size of Stadium, otherwise Newcastle would be a top 4 team.
    The club just are just stamp collecting fans, we have gone from 21,000 to 26,000 then to 52,000 Season ticket holders in two seasons, they should concentrate on making the new comers stay with them and keeping the old punters happy than looking to increase to even more. We have at least 99 years in this stadium, there is plenty of time to look at the increase.
    Gold is looking foolish with his tweets on this, but then again he’s always been foolish to be on there

  2. Fair enough would be good to have 66k especially for non ST’s like me but they really should try and accomodate the fans that want to stand, put them next to the away support to generate noise, otherwise we will end up like the Library or Emirates as it is now known. I think the club should be going into bat for us on this because I don’t see it ending in a good way anytime soon, as someone wise once said if the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, Muhammad must move to the mountain πŸ˜‰

  3. Gold is right.
    Until we are allowed by law to have safe standing, sit the f**k down.
    Then we can all progress together.

  4. Fans on one site are determined, they will stand whatever the capacity may be reduced to, they are not bothered?

    • Not bothered? They should be; bit by bit they will be identified, and after warnings have their STs revoked; these are not my words but those of a former security guy…

  5. Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t gold say the other week that if and when we get 66k then we can see how well Celtic standing experiment goes and act accordingly !
    But listening to those comments above from him he has no intention of doing so ?
    By having standing areas it reduces numbers and to reduce numbers you would have to cancel season tickets ??
    He’s making a rod for his own back here , just say its not going to happen and sit down !
    Its all about the Brand not the supporters ! If they all turn against him then he’s got a problem ? πŸ™

    • Gold has always been in favor of safe standing, but I don’t see how it cuts the capacity.

      • Rads pointed out that the rails that need to be installed and new seat decreases the capacity ? This was also said in the Celtic blog on C&H ! If you think about it it makes sense ! Plus it would cost a fortune ? There’s bad blood starting to boil !
        Brand or happy supporters ! Their choice !

        • I find that very hard to believe that the capacity would be lessend, by a few rails. At worst it would stay the same. Seats take up far more space than rails.

          • Not the standing seats !! They are smaller . There was a picture that accompanied the Celtic post by C/&H , its compact , ask Hugh to revive it ?
            A few rails ? They are on every tier , if you really think about it in terms of mass then the amount of steel explains the loss of space ?

          • I cant reply to your last post John so I put it here.
            OK I need to look into it myself, as I don’t know enough about it.
            tx Johnboy.

          • Yeah I am not sure Johnboy, as also being a Celtic supporter I have been to Celtic Park a few times although not for over 10 years I am pretty sure there is more room in front of the seats at the OS than there is at Celtic Park but I don’t dispute it if you say so, I guess this explains when taken in context with his comment that he wants West Ham to be the biggest club in London that they wouldn’t want to reduce it and be below the Gooners, Spuds and Chelski when we are all in our new Stadiums. They need to come up with a solution, they don’t even need to change the stadium just to concede a stand or more where people are generally accepted to stand and move ST’s from some areas to the designated, it sounds simple but obviously this is a political issue when we are tennants and not owners of our stadium.

          • Don’t take my word for it lads , I’m just putting 2+2 together and what I’ve read somewhere ? My thinking is if you add materials you take up space , but if as mentioned you could put a rail in with as it is now then there’s no problem you would think , but then H&S come in and bolloxs it all up !
            What the /f do I know , I’m just a salon worker sweeping up used nappies and mopping the floor ! πŸ˜‰

        • Lol Johboyy.I never said it reduced capacity.What I said was that all the seating needs to be ripped out in a section of the ground to incorporate rail seating.What I said was who will pay for that,it ain’t our ground to do it.What happens when other events like athletics take place.They probably won’t want a section of rail seating.It ain’t ours to do any of this is it πŸ˜‰

          • My mistake old boy ?
            I must have read that bit somewhere else !
            Finally got you’re back away from the wall then πŸ™‚ haha , you’re mates made an appearance ? He’s a lot calmer today , I think the surrey parish
            Union let him loose for the day. πŸ˜‰

  6. Those standing should use their heads and wait till we are up to 66,000 to start the campaign cos the same people will wonder why we can’t get the magical player we are all craving,and besides that I’m a claret member and on the waiting list.COYI

    • So if you got your ST at the expense of a stander who has it removed, I bet you would jump at it and promise not to stand etc etc…You couldn’t be blamed for that…I wouldn’t anyway, especially as you wouldn’t know as a fact that that was why you got your seat !…and even if you did know, you might as well have it as soemone else would only grab it….What it really means is that standers are on a losing wicket…bit by bit they will lose ground. Which is a shame. The club bangs on about tradition; those are the very folk who who would be removed. I’m a tw@t from leafy Surrey, but I can easily see where the soul of the club lies….

    • 9,000 extra season tickets would bring in, if all adult and no children, 2.5 mill, as all seats would be in the band 5 section.
      what magical player we gonna buy for 2.5 million then.
      The club are using the β€œit holds the club back” as a smoke screen, its just BS.
      If you cant get a ticket as a member you should be questioning why the club sold season tickets to any one knowing they wouldn’t have enough for their members.
      When they planned the stadium it should of been 54,000 anyway, so we should be pleased with the extra 3,000 not trying to make fans look like enemies of the club for doing what they did at the old ground, and what the sales people said would be ok when purchasing Sts

  7. West Ham Utd corporate enterprise football club does not like people standing at its running track, and wishes people would embrace this new money making venture and forget their east end roots as this does not (sit) well with our corporate image .. Bye bye Cockneys, Thanks for generations of support..
    The Chairman’s Office

    • It’s funny, I remember sitting in the Bobby Moore lower, and thinking what a bunch c**ts standing up the whole game and stopping paying supporters from watching the game. Of course most were standing up because the people in front stood up. The minority who cause the problem have no respect for other supporters or for the club. Whats that got to do with east end roots.
      I loved standing in the old north bank but things changed 20 years ago not just this year.
      The realistic and loyal supporters office.

    • Pretty much sums it up Steve! Guess old timers like me will have to move with the times and hug the Japanese tourists and other teams fans who’ll be sitting quietly next to me while I munch on a prawn baguette and drink my glass of pimms πŸ™‚

    • Sorry Steve but your being stupid now.COYI

      • I don’t think he is. Steve is expressing the burning heart of the issue…it’s how he feels it…how so many must feel it… It would be a great shame if those voices are lost…

      • Fans that got shafted by bond schemes in the past, fans that got shafted by the +1 scheme and missed out on ST’s so an arsenal fan can attend with his mate, 50000 claret members paying Β£40 a pop on the off chance they might get a ticket out of 5000 available, others who have been ripped of for years with some of the most expensive season tickets in London to be told either conform to our new branding and rules or your out and we’ll easily replace you! Change might have been needed but to forget those that supported the club through thick and thin with there hard earned money over years is a ****ing joke.

        • I dont like all the changes either GW but you know what when Mark Noble & the lads run on to the pitch they are still the same team/players I supported last year at UP.Do I support the team for 90 mins any less,of course not lol.Unlike some I won’t choose to only go to away matches,i will continue to support the team at home as well πŸ˜€

          • That’s always been the way rads , this teams support has never wavered !
            That’s the reason for all the shaftings in the past , the cearn mob were a prime example ! Gw points are and still valid to this day !
            Nothing has changed at all ! Except that they are using a whip while taking you’re dosh ! πŸ™‚

          • I’m a fickle old housewife Rads but will be there next week after a week of blue rinses and spa treatments πŸ™‚ Anyone know if the stadium is fish free? Or is just the internet that is polluted?

          • Haha , just finished the hoovering listening to Freddie on the CD GW ,
            I don’t think the fish are biting today ! πŸ˜‰

          • He will arise like a leaping salmon jumping from a stream soon John to impart his self importance across the Claret and Fish forum.

      • I can confirm that the stadium is riddled with the putrid stink of a certain rotten fish

  8. It seems Gold has truly nailed his colours to the mast. It seems to me he’s saying that numbers count more than atmosphere, to try to become title contenders. But doesn’t money count more than numbers to do that? In which case the club might need to abandon the cheap ticket policy?
    Personally, I think the cheap ticket policy was actually the club finding a spin on needing to offer cheap tickets to try to boost numbers by way over 50%, which at that time, seemed almost impossible. Ask ANY marketing manager that he needs to boost sales by 50%, and he’ll probably say ‘Can’t be done’. But Karen + the board have gone way beyond even their wildest dreams by having a futher 50k on the waiting list!! Unprecedented (I think), incredible; that’s an increase of 200% from the Boleyn.
    HOWEVER, coupled with the exorbitant phone charges (which show a grubby underlying keeness for money), I reckon it won’t be long before ticket prices rocket for 1 excuse or another, and the cheap tickets policy quietly sidelined.
    So, in this, it seems to me Gold has put Β£ before atmosphere. The club DO have a massive (insurmountable?) problem legally in trying to provide seating, exacerbated all the more by WHU not owning the stadium (and the owners probably being against standing). So petitions aren’t going to change that – or not overnight anyway. But what saddens me about DG’s tweets is that he seems to not have so much interest in trying to get seating; to try and overcome those obstacles. I am a massive DG fan, and I love his funny, concise tweets. Personally, I think he’s a Tweet master; genius….but over the seating issue, he has saddened me.
    The standers WILL sit down, or eventually they will have their season tickets removed; row by row it will happen. (I suspect Karen would like nothing better than to remove the MCP neanderthals as she might see them)…and by the time standing becomes nationally available AND the new owners are persuaded to allow it, those standers will be long, long gone. My fear is that the London Stadium will become the library that none of us want to see…..

  9. First time poster, but had to register to comment on this. Firstly, there is no reason why safe standing would reduce the capacity. All that is needed is a rail fitted on the front edge of the step in front of the existing steps. This could then easily be unbolted for athletics, etc. The reason the capacity is reduced at the mo because of standing is because of the safety certificate. Secondly, Gold has always supported safe standing, but while it is illegal in the premier league a petition for it is a complete waste of time.

    • Its a fact ? The stadium isn’t designed for it ? I’ve already spouted the same argument !
      Its not achieve able ! It needs a complete refit , who is going to pay for the putting up and taking down of the rails , never going to happen in you’re lifetime , if and ever it is changed for standing then it stays ?
      H&S would have a field day with this , f/me just look at the issue now with standing !
      Its got doom and gloom printed all over it?
      Get on with it , its golds and the petitioners problem , I’m just going to enjoy my smuggled in prawn butty and plastic hip flask ? πŸ˜‰

    • A petition by supporters of all the prem clubs would force the Government to at least talk about it. It only nedds 100,000 signatures ( I think ) and that would be easy.

      • LIGHT BULB MOMENT!! Brilliant suggestion…Amongst all the anger and noise, yours is actually the best possible and practical way forward. Force the Gov’s hands with a petition of 100k, then they constitutionally HAVE to pay attention. Genius. Simple. Nice 1, SWDF….
        It is the ONLY way standing can be introduced. The sooner fans organise, the sooner it can happen. The rest is just wasted effort and emotion….I hope people are listening….

        I hope the girlies don’t take exception to your name!! They are not keen on fish right now!

        • Ah girlies!! You are a card Fishy and you say your humorless but your like our own little Les Dennis with all your funny quips.

          • TThx for reading, GW

          • No problem Banj..Sorry Fishy didn’t want you to feel bullied or harassed in any way by us blue rinse girlies.

          • You don’t get it do you? When I quoted Radai pointing out his bullying ways, it was to Boleyn Boy…Perhaps that’s a tad too sophistocated for you to understand. I don’t give a toss about the bullying personally, but I don’t like the hypocrisy of it generally. I don’t see the need for such aggressiveness… and when I point it out, lock stock + barrel you all miss the point…It’s your own stupidity that you display every time…water off a duck’s back to me, and as you can tell, I don’t shy from stuff.
            And by the way, I’m not Banjo, but hey, I’m used to you all implying I am a liar…when it’s wrong though (as before with all that WHTID cr@p about me), it ain’t nice or pretty…and again, it says far more about you than me. I just hope none of you are in the Police force as there would a lot of wrong people put away on some wrong stupid hunch….

          • Shut up you gobby ********.You are a tosser end of story.Go take your sh#t stirring somewhere else you troll!!!

          • Fishy you called us out from day one, you spout about aggressiveness but play the game with your comments about hairdressers girlies etc. You drag others into your games and then say poor me I’m bullied and harassed when someone doesn’t agree with you and you call that sophistication? Think irony is lost on you Fishy as all I’ve seen is you calling the old guard out which is just like a the man who started the issue between sites out in the first place.

          • GW get rick straight down the salon , he is in dire need of a blue one and a rub down with a lettuce leaf, I recommend the iceburg ? Rads is there this afternoon ! He’s just relieved me ! Read into that what you want ? Haha, it seems the meds have worn off , but he did well did the cod man ! πŸ˜‰

        • Here we go again.The c#nt trying to drag other people into it.Sleeps turn today is it.Wasting your time w#nker!

          • Rick its obvious who it is πŸ˜‰

          • He is a c#nt whoever he is.I will meet him no issue at the OS so he can tell me to my face I’m a girlie hairdresser,instead of hiding in his bedroom tapping away on his keyboard trolling.

          • Punch up, eh Rick? Is that how you solve everything?

          • Who mentioned a punch up.Not me.I said i would be more than willing for you to tell me to my face im a girlie or hairdresser.But of course you wouldnt would you because you are just a sad troll.

        • I have nothing more to say than this.From the first day he came on here he started replying to certain users in the sarcastic abusive manner.He knew exactly what he was doing.This innocent persona cuts no fecking ice with me.He knew exactly who to go from day one.He replied to me in the first couple of days & recalled a comment he had read before that was on here from months ago.From then I knew he had been on here before.Its simple he stays out of my face I stay out of his but I ain’t having none of this not knowing users from here before now.Thats fecking rubbish.

      • And another point; SWDFishes made a superb point – a real and practical way out of this massive standing problem, but what do you do? Unlike Bubs who does make fantastic points, often in a fun way AND stays on the point, you girlies choose to concentrate on the irrelevant sh1t….You do it every time…and THAT’s why I think you are pr@ts.

        • Feck me give it a rest FishNChips give it a fecking rest.I didn’t want to get involved in this but you are just trying to stir things up.You know,we know it.Go to the pub or something instead of acting like a total pr@t yourself.

  10. Fukin jammed solid mate ! Lol, going to retreat to the back of the shop mate ? The floor is getting a bit slippery ! Tell GW to hurry up with the deoderisor floor wash and spray ! πŸ™‚

    • Don’t worry Johnboy I will be in for the afternoon shift.I just have to deal with some starlings bullying a robin in my garden lol πŸ™‚

  11. Running late John had to break up a bit of a disagreement between Beryl and Cynthia over a pack of tena pants told them to calm down and email daphne to sort it out πŸ™‚

    • Got it under control lads , its quietened down now !
      One of you 2 can open up next Saturday ? Ffs I’m feeling all so flushed !
      Don’t forget the deoderisor GW and tell rads we are out of rich tea’s and health supplement
      Vitamin shakes ! Lol its felt like being a fish out of water ? Xx. πŸ˜‰

  12. these ‘****heads’ dont seem to realise(or give a toss) that most of the 57000 fans are ‘TRUELY UNITED’ FOR WEST HAM UNITED to move forward into the 21st Century.The Council & the LDDC are gonna stop us/HAVE STOPPED US.. from adding upto another 9000 WHU fans…& THESE ****HEADS THINK THATS OK,…YEAH…9000 MORE,TRUE WEST HAM FANS,PAYING FOR A SEASON TICKET OUT OF THEIR HARD EARNED CASH, CANT, BECAUSE THE ****HEADS STANDING UP SERIOUSLY DONT GIVE A TOSS….PLZ,PLZ,PLZ, WHUFC SHOULD BAN THESE ****HEADS QUICKLY,AS SO I,& OTHERS THAT LOVE WHU,CAN MOVE HIGHER UP THAT LIST FOR A SEASON TICKET! I’L HAPPILY TAKE THE MUPPET’S SEAT (WITH A PROUD SMILE)!!!

  13. Most of these comments are irrevelant WH do not own the stadium so must abide by the owner’s rules which do not allow standing. anyone who thinks it ok to stand will eventually be excluded Brady says West Ham have 50,000 on their waiting list so any ticket confiscated will be swiftly taken by those on the waiting list, so ” lads ” get in the real world or be a ex season ticket holder.

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