During a three hour meeting with West Ham Vice Chairman Karren Brady at the London Stadium a wide range of topics were discussed.
These subjects included: the quality of stadium stewarding, ongoing filming of supporters, honouring former legends, making the stadium feel more like West Ham’s home, shelving for drinks around the bar areas, more betting booths, the use of Supporter Liaison Officers on match days, the use of former Boleyn Ground stewards, the request to increase stadium capacity to 60,000, the return of season ticket holders to block 114, retractable seating and the distance from the pitch, searching children on entry to the ground, Westfield and boxing day matches, faster serving of beer at half time, why Palace were allowed to bring in drum on Saturday, whether fans could bring in more flags, accessibility buses and the wait times post match, the distance from Stratford underground to the stadium, the article on the official website by Martin Samuel, food outlets including the Rib Man and Pie and Mash, scarf/badge and memorabilia sellers outside the stadium, The West Ham Supporters Club (Social club), moving seats at the end of the season, season ticket renewals, the ticket exchange system and Dimitri Payet.
Present at the meeting included ClaretandHugh, KUMB, WestHamTilliDie, , Hammers Chat, Blowing Bubbles Fanzine, West Ham World, Sex, Drugs and Carlton Cole, The West Ham Way, West Ham Fan TV and Jack Sullivan.
Feedback from the club during the meeting:
Stewarding is a top priority for the club, they want to employ more former Boleyn Ground stewards and have already deployed former Boleyn ground stewards to blocks 113 and 114 for the last two games.
Filming of supporters has been related to identification of those involved in missile throwing at the Chelsea game and is not intended to be a permanent if there is no repeat of the troubles since at the Chelsea game. LS 185 have promised the club it will cease.
West Ham are still working on bringing the Green Street Champions statue to Stratford and honouring other West Ham legends subject to agreement and planning permission.
Karren has spoken to LS185 to commission shelving around the bar areas to hold drinks subject to approval by stadium owners E20. Caters Delaware North will speed up serving of drinks at half time by pre-pouring pints from the Man City game.
West Ham will allow supporters to send them flags which will be put up for games around the stadium and taken down and stored safety post match. Details will be published soon.
West Ham plan to increase the number of match day SLO’s to 50-60 and pay them the London living wage. The club will increased the number full time SLO’s from two to three. There will be 30 match day SLO’s in place for the Manchester City game.,
West Ham will ask the stadium operators to apply for a capacity increase to 60,000 to the Safety Advisory Group (SAG). If successful 3,000 half season tickets will go on sale at band 5 prices.
Children will be no longer be searched on entry to the London Stadium and LS185 will purchase more wands to speed up the search time for adults.
It is not feasible to move the seating in the lower bowl of the London Stadium closer to the pitch because of the roof and shape the stadium.
The club will vet newspaper articles published on the official website if they could be considered to drive a wedge between the club and their fans.
Karren will look at the feasibility of bringing in more more food outlets outside the Stadium which may include the Ribman and a Pie and Mash stall subject to demand.
The club will look into the current Ticket Exchange and forwarding system to look at ways to encourage supporters to use it to leave less empty seats at league games. They will be more transparent on what supporters get back. They give 90% back of what the season ticket paid with 10% going to Ticket master as an admin fee. They will publish a full breakdown of how it is calculated.
The club are happy to meet with the West Ham Supporters Club to see want help they could render to help them move the social club closer to Stratford
Below is feedback from the meeting from Nicky Hawkins from West Ham Fan TV
