Many of the 38,000 spectators at the Muller Anniversary Games last night suffered a long journey home after the athletics event finished. One can only wonder what it will be like for a 60,000 crowd.
Journalist Ian Ridley took to twitter posting this picture and saying “Stratford station 1 hour after athletics finished tonight. Good luck West Ham fans”
Sun sports writer Vikki Orfice added “Chaos at Stratford station more than an hour after #AnniversaryGames plus bouncers stopping you going into Westfield” later adding her own photo saying “Scenes at Stratford station 75 mins after end of Anniversary Games plus bouncers stopping you going into Westfield’
Others on social media also vented their frustration.
Hannah Simmons said “Getting to Stratford station from the Olympic Stadium is a nightmare. God knows what it will be like when there’s football on”
Colin Hewson added “Huge slow moving crowd trying to get to Stratford station after Anniversary Games”
West Ham season ticket holder Adam Jackson said:“The queue to get into Stratford train station already long after the Olympic stadium. This won’t be fun in the winter.”
However, Stratford station suffered a fire alarm before the finish of the Athletics event on Friday and this may have had a knock on effect on this occasion. Time will tell whether they have got the crowd management plans right.
I’ve been harping on about this for ages. I’m surprised we haven’t had a couple of ‘open days’ for season ticket holders to go and find out which station (of the many we keep being told make it the connected stadium in the world) suits each of us, the best/easiest way to our seats, where the facilities are, etc. I’m going to both the EL game and Juventus just to find out, but that’s £75 I shouldn’t have to spend.
I can see the ‘it’s not our responsibility, it’s the stadium operators’ being a common excuse, but the problems are completely foreseeable and West Ham really should be on the case. My hope is now pinned on decent info in the ST pack that’s being sent out, but I’m not holding my breath. From the pics in this article, it looks like the OS isn’t going to offer any improvement on the Upton Park tube queues!
I am also concerned.
The way to Pudding Mill DLR Station was blocked off and the organisers seem to want to funnel everyone to Stratford Station regardless of where people want to go.
We got out of the funnelling further on but why did we have to feel like we were breaking out in the first place?
On the plus side, the East stand set up is top draw, just looking forward to watching West Ham win at our new ground!
Not a problem for me an others as I go the other way towards roman rd . But Westfield and other public places under private control will contribute to the problem by banning people who are traveling home from the OS , by kettling the fans brings other dangers that need to be addressed , security at present and near future needs to be set up as soon as possible so as not to have terrible tragedy , let’s hope its not overlooked due to money not available !”
You can’t get that many people on trains in a short time. It’s the same after a concert at the 02 and Wembley Stadium – a fact of life with the big boys.
I’ve been to 3 events at the ground now, more because I wanted to get a feel for the place.
I can tell you getting out has been a disaster every time.
They just won’t let you walk out different ways, they make everyone go to Stratford. If they don’t change this I predict some serious crowd trouble at some of the big games, it is a mess.
To be honest, I think it’s going to be a mare
For us it’s a horror story but If you think it’s only bad for us what’s the negative press going to be like from away supporters on any game let alone a mid-week night game, they probably won’t be able to leave the stadium before 11pm unless they want them to be funnelled straight into thousands of West Ham support. Like Dave and Demon I made a long post about this ages ago after leaving the stadium following the France Romania rugby . They need to find an alternative solution because the Stadium might be the best connected if you are travelling to the game it is the worst if you are leaving and catching a train because you can only effectively go via Stratford, which is a long walk and very slow when tens of thousands are making it.
I was there last night, and yes it took us an hour to get to Stratford Station.Pudding Mill was my intended way out but I wasn’t allowed to go that way.
It seems anyone from the East Stand has no choice but to go to Stratford? People have rightly posted before me that Kettling people in like this can lead to safety and security problems.As it stands banning supporters from Westfield gives you only one option, get on the train and go home, it certainly felt that was my only option last night.
I felt that if I didn’t want to get on the train , I would have had to justify to a security guard why I wanted to do something different from what they wanted!
Say I wanted to meet up with the misses after the game and have a meal in Westfield , looks like I am not allowed to do this because I have been to the football.
Obviously I can’t say for certain this is what its going to be like, but from what I have seen so far it seems to be the route they are going down, and I for one am not very impressed at all.
To summarise :fantastic stadium:
:exit options : restrictive and unappealing.
Apparently David Sullivan has close connections with C&H, let’s hope he is reading this and thinking about what the club can do to ameliorate the situation.
I can absolutely guarantee trouble coming if you start stopping people who do not live or need to go the Stratford way home ,I don’t need to get a train , I will be walking the way I arrived !! Opposite to Stratford !
There are many more who will come the way I come , I don’t recommend a jumped up security guard acting like the gestapo to try his luck !
This will be inviting trouble !
Athletics – and even rugby – fans are probably far more accepting of this stupidity than West Ham fans are likely to be. I will probably stay in one of the Westfield hotels for midweek games and have no intention of going via a one hour queue for Stratford station when my bed is 200 yards off the officially enforced route. This will undoubtedly be brought to a head in an unpleasant way and someone will get hurt in the process. It’s just bolleaux – multiple stations but only one in use, when we’ve had years of DG telling us great it was because it was so well connected. But then he will be snug in his Roller while 50,000 of us will be in the queue.
If Westfield are so worried, are they going to stop fans entering games via the mall of greed, or will the lure of all those wallets for two hours before matches be too much to resist?
All this is very worrying – the idea of ‘kettling’ West Ham fans does not appeal on any level.
There should be great concern for crowd safety, haven’t there been too many examples of disasters for the lessons not to be learnt – Heyssel, Parkhead, Hilllsborough etc.
This makes me concerned about going to the Europa Cup game – this is supposed to be fun!