West Ham has officially confirmed the Olympic Stadium will increase to 60,000 for Hammers games this coming season in August, just as Claret and Hugh told you last week.WHUFC.com released a statement saying: “In conjunction with the London Legacy Development Corporation, Newham Council and Stadium operators LS185, West Ham United are delighted to announce that the former Olympic Stadium will now boast a capacity of 60,000 for Hammers matchdays. The move will see the release of 6,000 additional seats, so that even more West Ham fans will be able to enjoy the team’s debut season on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The Club announced late last year that the number of people registered on the Season Ticket Priority List five times exceeded the number of seasonal seats available. In the months since, the West Ham Board have been working closely with their stadium partners on how to accommodate the maximum number of Hammers fans.”
The club has previously confirmed that 5,000 of the additional 6,000 seats will sold as band 5 season tickets priced at just £289. The news means that over 8,000 seats will be sold at the £289 season ticket price, which is the cheapest season ticket in the Premier League. An additional 8,000 seats have been to under 16 season ticket holders at £99. They have certainly delivered on their promise of affordable football.Claret and Hugh understand that the West Ham Priority List reached a height of an incredible 50,000 in total although around 10,000 of those have since bought a season ticket. An additional 5,000 seats will now be offered a chance to buy a golden ticket but this will still leave approximately 35,000 on the list without a season ticket. The 35,000 strong list will be re-branded the West Ham waiting list and will be one of the season ticket largest waiting lists in the Premier League.
If someone told you a year ago West Ham would have around 50,000 season ticket holders at the Olympic Stadium next season and a waiting list of 35,000 supporters you would say they were mad. How times change and remember the doubters and haters said we would never fill it. Be careful what you wish for.
Which is great for all the people who have already got there season tickets but there are a lot of loyal academy members out there who i fear will never be able to watch there beloved team again.
I think initially the two davids panicked and thinking that they will not fill the stadium allowed season ticket holders to also purchase another two season tickets for friends.If they had allowed only one friend per season ticket holder it would have freed up a lot more season tickets.
I think it is great that we we will be able to fill the os every game but i think the clamor for the few thousand general sale tickets will result in having to go in a ballot.
Spot on Bas…..the +2 deal has unfortunately either moved quite a few people or put them out of the running altogether. They must of been concerned to a point to come up with that scheme. Unfortunately the loyalty of some of our fans has been pushed to ome side, that being said almost impossible to keep all the punters happy all the time.
I am afraid it was worst than that, I introduced two friends at my initial season ticket meeting who chose band 2 seats in the upper tier. I couldn’t buy tickets for my children as I wanted lower tier and band 4 season ticket holders were allowed to buy extra in lower tier. We are now in band 3 in the lower tier.
During a season ticket amnesty I was allowed to buy an additional two tickets for my children in the lower tier. I am not saying it is right but no-one knew it would sell out like it did.
Sean I’m not surprised to read that and haven’t been since Nigel revealed similar details. Don’t get ne wrong the owners have done a fantastic job overall and especially with the pricing…..16,000+ getting tickets at either £289 or £99 is way beyond how I thought this would play out but there has been a price with regards some people’s loyalty.
I think they got it wrong also but in hindsight they did what was best for the club but unfortunately there’s a lot of loyal supporters who have been going all there lives who will now be kicked into touch .I went to the centre yesterday and tried to see if I was anywhere near a s/t as I registered in June 2015 , but the computers were down ? The guy did tell me that they were dealing with the batch I’m in at present and that I’m close ? I asked him about the extra 6000 and he said it was 50/50 wheat her we get them as to health and safety on the trains at west ham ( changeover point ) and the extra 6000 was an issue due to volume !
My reg is in the 32,000 and due to the Dave’s policy of extra places for s/t holders puts the number up to 50 odd thousand ?? IMO this should have been on a first come first served basis and then at the death put the extra 6000 tickets out !! The reason it was in down mode yesterday was due to getting in payments to s/t , fingers crossed I get mine but as with other extremely long loyal supporters who don’t get there’s I feel sad as they are the life blood of this club, IMO the Dave’s have handled it wrong as it would have worked out the way I have mentioned and it would have been on a level playing field ! Sad ?
Man city did it a differenr way but it took years of moving people around. This method has avoided that but you can’t help but feel for the people who’ve either had to spend more or get pushed into the worse seats which were caused by the +2.
I live and work in Manchester so there’s little point in my buying a season ticket. It would cost a fortune in travel costs, plus I’d miss out on midweek games if I couldn’t get time off work. I’m a club member but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the 2 david’s don’t give a stuff about club members.
Having paid extra for a club membership, I struggle to understand why I need to enter into a lottery to try and get a ticket for the last 3 home games (I’m not by the way) and I really fear that the 2 david’s will oversubscribe on the club memberships for the new stadium, so getting tickets for the new stadium I thinks going to be a real struggle.
I’ve got a ticket for Nobes testimonial and I hope for the Watford game (as I brought a ticket before it was postponed) but sadly I think this will be the last 2 West Ham home games I’ll ever be able to go to. It’s a shame as I’ve been going to Upton Park for nearly 20 years.
Living abroad, I gave up my season ticket 13 years ago, so I will never be able to come over as a casual supporter again. On the other hand, it’s good to see them sell so many season tickets, which ensures that the stadium should be more or less full every week.
I have always said we would fill the stadium, and now if we go to 66,000 and then to 70,000, I expect us to fill it again.
The Premier League rules state that 5% of the capacity must be available for home supporters on general sale. For 60,000 this 3,000 so 3,000 tickets will be available to members for each game.
Interestingly enough they are currently around 3,000 on general sale this season at the Boleyn Ground so it would be similar to this season getting one off tickets.
There is another factor and that is ticket trader or what ever replaces it. with 50,000 season ticket holders the amount of people putting tickets on ticket trader will increase. The doubling of season ticket holders will mean many of them might not make each game meaning more tickets available.
I’m in a very similar position and get to a couple of games a year. No more; this makes it almost impossible. I’ve never been a big fan of the move anyway so it’s almostt a natural cut off point for me. I feel for casual fans whose work schedule does not allow to get to regular games. The season ticket policy has killed it for many.
It’s a huge shame and may actually damage the growth of the fan base in the future due to tickets being restricted to a relatively narrow group of people.
perhaps if they do go to 66,000 and then 70,000 as has been sugested, then they will make more of the increase available to casual supporters. For me I’m just lucky that we will be on our cable channels more than before lol.
I feel sorry for casual supporters in the home area, but perhaps a lot of them have now got season tickets. I’ve been around 50 years a supporter, but I am always a supporter of the move, if only for the facts we needed a bigger stadium, with much better access to it.
66,000 is the next obvious step because there are 66,000 seats in the stadium remaining although extra toilets and kiosk would need to be added. Above 66,000 becomes more tricky. The most obvious solution is to fill in the gaps between the lower and upper tier all the way round like the East stand but this requires money which the taxpayers might not be keen to shell out for.
They could have said the extra six thousands seats will be for general sale with members getting preference(i know you cannot please everyone!).
Anyway the real issue with me is they shouldn’t have brought in the season ticket+2 in the first place.
Rant over.