Amanda Jacks from the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) received emails from 127 supporters following a plea for London Stadium supporter feedback on this site and others. Amanda summarises the feedback and her meeting with key stakeholders below:
“Last Monday I met with representatives from Newham Council, London Stadium 185 and Westfield Stratford City having sent your feedback in advance of the meeting giving those attending an opportunity to better understand the issues concerning you.
So I could achieve as much as possible from the meeting I agreed to respect confidentiality thus ensuring a full and frank exchange of views. It also meant that I gained a broader understanding as is possible of the wider picture. Ultimately, it is my job to represent supporters and please do rest assured that respecting confidentiality did not leave me feeling compromised in any way, or unable to represent you as a match going West Ham fan.
The common themes of your reports were stewarding, segregation, persistent standing, the migration process and a lack of police presence inside the London Stadium.
Stewarding
– Efforts are being made to recruit stewards who used to work at the Boleyn Ground. Any steward that worked at the Boleyn Ground can still register for work with OCS, state that they only want to work at West Ham matches and be supported in registering for the requisite NVQ level 2 qualification in spectator safety.
– There is a new and large team to manage at the London Stadium and this naturally presents a challenge as it would in any context. A lot of work is being done behind the scenes to ensure, for example, that stewards are placed where they are best qualified and suited to be. More than 700 stewards are deployed at London Stadium on Premier League matchdays.
– Supporters can expect to start seeing the same stewards in their part of the ground but it may take a few matches to work out best fits.
Segregation
– The rails remain but a much wider ‘sterile area’ either side of the away fans in both the upper and lower tiers will be in effect from the game v Accrington Stanley. This will be the case for all fixtures.
– There will be more response stewards in the away fans area
Persistent Standing
– WHUFC are working to move supporters to the most suitable areas in the stadium so like-minded fans are, as far as possible, together. The relocation of supporters is outside of the control of anybody at the meeting but fans wishing to move are asked to contact WHUFC supporter services.
Policing
– It is not true that the Police are not allowed into the stadium. They are and will attend if required.
– A police officer does work inside the stadium within the control room.
– A larger police presence outside the ground may be expected
Sadly, as some of you have personally witnessed, there has been an increase in reports of anti social behaviour and abuse towards the stewards, some of it of a discriminatory nature. An ‘app’ is in the making that will enable supporters to report such behaviour and language directly to the control room inside the Stadium enabling a prompt response.
Self-policing generally worked well at the Boleyn and intervention by the ‘red coats’ was comparatively rare and it’s hoped that the culture of self-policing will be revived. Supporters witnessing any form of anti-social behaviour can text the control room using the supporter incident number.
Wesfield City, Stratford
– The management team at Westfield arguably have an extremely challenging role to play. They have to ensure the safety of their own staff and contractors and at the same time balance the needs of their many and varied tenants (and their staff) and visitors to the Centre. The measures that they’ve put in place around access through the centre have been done so to manage these competing needs. They accept that some of these measures will mean inconvenience to some and they agreed with my suggestion that if supporters better understood the reasoning behind access restrictions then there will be better acceptance of them. It’s hoped that they will provide an explanatory note in the match day programme soon.
– West Ham fans are very welcome to visit the centre and use any facilities or shop and dine following the safe exit from the stadium.
It is fair and reasonable to say that none of your concerns were of any real surprise to those at the meeting and nobody tried to pretend all is well at the stadium. Further, no issues were downplayed with everybody acknowledging that supporters’ legitimate complaints and experiences were just that and should be treated seriously and not dismissed as minor or unimportant grievances.
I will freely admit that I was somewhat cynical ahead of the meeting as to whether or not the level of discontent among a sizeable proportion of the supporter base was properly understood. I’m happy to say that I left the meeting reassured that while not underestimating the task ahead to ensure a positive ‘match day experience’ for all, everybody is entirely and wholeheartedly working towards a common goal of ensuring just that.
All parties agreed that it was vital that lines of communication are kept open and that supporter feedback will only ever be treated as a positive and with this in mind all parties are happy to meet with me again towards the end of the year to review progress. I am more than happy to continue to receive your feedback and will collate it with a future meeting in mind but if you have any urgent or pressing concerns I will be deal with those immediately.
I hope this report goes some way to putting your minds at rest but if you have any further questions, please do let me know.
Best wishes
Amanda Jacks FSF
