21 Comments

Good progress made in the London Stadium

london-stadium-fansAs more and more home games are played in the London Stadium the issues become less and less meaning the stadium begins to feel more like home. The  earlier troubles with segregation and fighting seem a distance memory and we now seem to have turned a corner with the quality of stewarding.

The club have launched a wide range of initiatives as part of the Board’s ongoing commitment to improve the match day experience at the London Stadium.

SLOThe have now employed thirty match day Supporter Liaison Officer’s (SLO’s) who are now working at London Stadium. They are still interviewing and plan to have fifty in place by the end of the season. The SLO’s have been incredibly well received by supporters and they include some former Boleyn stewards who saw it as a crucial role working directly for the Club.

BoleynFormer Boleyn Ground stewards have been encouraged to work at London Stadium by the Club on two separate occasions – before the move to London Stadium when circa 300 moved initially. Karren Brady has more recently written again to these stewards.

Some former Boleyn ground stewards were approaching retirement age so have decided not to continue working but ClaretandHugh have been told there is a good response to the latest letter which among other things includes an offer to help fund their training for the NVQ requirement.

os1The application process from the latest club letter is still ongoing with communications being processed but so far an additional ten former stewards say they want to re-join the London Stadium steward team. The Club say they recognize that former Boleyn grounds stewards bring invaluable experience and as a result they are now routinely placed in areas where empathy with football fans is an advantage. In other areas around 75 per cent of stewards are typically deployed in the same areas in order to build a rapport with fans and they are keen to build on this for the remaining home fixtures.

flag1Another area that has improved in the queues on entry because of searching. To assist with the statutory search requirement at London Stadium an additional 50 wands have also been purchased and are now in use to speed up the process added to the change that children are no longer routinely searched.

 

flag2The new flag initiative is building momentum and every flag submitted so far has been approved. At the time of writing the club have ten large flags stored at the club ready to be displayed with many more expressions of interest which they expect to see adorning London Stadium once that have been designed and printed.

flag4The club have also encouraged supporters to bring their own flags of up to 2x2m to London Stadium to all home games.

On the catering front – London Stadium caterers Delaware North visited the Ribman on Saturday it is hopeful his food will soon be available for supporters in the near future. West Ham has helped facilitate this process and say they are happy to work with any other concessions interested in joining us at London Stadium. Delaware North are also working with a number of pie and mash suppliers to find a suitable operator who can deliver the authenticity and quality that our supporters have said they want.

Shelving for the stadium concourse has already been approved by Karren Brady and following quotes is now being tested at London Stadium and should be installed subject to the usual building approval process by the Stadium owners and operators.

 

 

About Sean Whetstone

I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk. A Blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball, I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh. Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons! Follow me at @Westhamfootball on twitter

21 comments on “Good progress made in the London Stadium

  1. Vast and noticeable improvement all round. It is definitely improving and it’s hard to see what people will moan about before long. Frankly it will come down to you either like the stadium or you don’t, forget all the teething issues, and if you don’t like it then you have a choice not to attend.

  2. I should be careful what you write young Sean.I see you are getting it in the neck again on whtid.They never stop do they the curmudgeonly buggers.

    • Sean & this place get cut to ribbons on a daily basis on there but he has a hide as tough as a rhino it seems.What does amuse me are the comments about polls on here.They conduct their own polls all the time.Everytime someone posts a question i.e. Should Randolph or Adrian be in goal they all give a reply/answer which in effect is A POLL from their users!!

  3. funny how a little time, patience, dialog and pragmatism seems to be ironing things out. it’s almost as though that’s how issues get best solved in normal every day life situations…

    the only fundamental issue with the new stadium is the running track and distances. funnily enough, I suspect that through time and patience (possibly up to 10 years), dialog (between the govt, stadium owners and our board) and pragmatism (from all involved including the wider public), we will end up with a decent solution to that too.

    • I was in the TB lower on Saturday most of the supporters were standing and although the stewards watched on there wasn’t any aggro and I didn’t see them intervene, seems most people are finding their place now.

  4. There was always going to be teething problems & issues to be addressed.As master says it is a case of some patienceUnfortunately a % of our fans decieded from almost the off not to give it a go after moving.I really believe that it is going to be there loss in the next season or two.Their choice of course but their loss as well.

    • I hope you are right H&P I have been to 15 or 16 games so far this season including preseason and cup, I have spent more than a season ticket and have had to miss a couple of the more expensive games because it is not cost effective, if those that don’t like the stadium give up their season tickets, it will give the fans who attend many games like myself / others a chance at a season ticket and a fairer price for our support.

  5. What’s this shelving you’re talking about, Sean?

  6. I enjoy my LS match day experience, then I have been pragmatically positive about it since day one. Only issues for me are distance from the pitch and empty seats around me, we have a seat next to us which has been empty for every game bar Bournemouth back in August.

  7. Same as Pop,i always went there with the intention of enjoying it or worst case scenario make the best of it.I still have a good crack with my mates & we are going to be there for a bloody long time so get on with supporting the lads.If some fans find it unbearable & dont want to go anymore fair play to them but i still enjoy my day out every home match.Closer to the pitch of course we would all love that but it aint going to happen for the foreseeable so we got to live with it.Got to keep that glass half full & enjoy life 😂

  8. The people still going on about what we have got from the deal ‘at the taxpayer’s expense’ & how unfair it all is should read an article by journalist David Walsh in yesterday’s paper. He explains that the Maracana in Rio had a massive renovation for 2014 WC & 2016Olympics and is now ‘unused, overgrown & vandalised’.

    Poor decisions were made over the London Olympics that we had nothing to do with, & the outcome is not ideal for us or the wider community. But we are beginning to make it work for us now. The next time the moaners & groaners start yet another ‘ investigation’ into the deal perhaps they should ask themselves whether a massive White Elephant in Stratford would have been a better outcome.

    • I saw a show where one of the Brazilian World Cup stadiums is now unused & the area round it is used as a bloody bus depot or lorry park.Something stupid like that 😁

      • You are correct Rad i think it was the stadium in Brasilia that is now a bus depot.There was a clip about it on the news once.What a waste of what i believe was $500 million to build it.

  9. All Rads said earlier about glass half full could have been my post exactly.WEIRD. It’s like he read my mind. COYI X.

  10. I admit I am one of them people that never ever wanted to move and to tell the truth I still don’t like it and I don’t think I ever will but that is my problem. Saying that though I agree a lot of the problems are getting sorted at the new ground long may it continue come on you irons

  11. would moving the LED advertising nearer the pitch make any difference? this might trick the eyes into thinking it was a smaller pitch. no doubt it would obscure the viewing from the first few rows though.

  12. I’ve not noticed any changes and there’s definitely no shelves to rest your beer on in my part of the East Stand!

    My seat and view are fine but I’m not impressed by the mass of scaffolding that is behind the Stands – as I’ve said many times before the Stadium is a ‘lash up’, converting it back and forth between football and athletics modes is barmy, no way the Stadium can ever break even for donkey’s years!

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