In September and October parts of the West Ham faithful already appeared to have made up their minds on Lopetegui’s chaos-ball as a spectacle long before any planned fan boycott which later heralded the beginning of the end.
From figures released by Newham Council ( C and H today) , the ‘official’ fan attendance and ‘published’ attendance have wild variations of about ten per cent. Which means for three games alone in September and October, over eighteen thousand fans decided not to turn up despite buying tickets. Over six thousand each home game. Multiply that through the season and there are 122,000 empty seats.
The Chelsea home game had an ‘official’ attendance of 62,473 while the Manchester United game at the London Stadium had an ‘official’ attendance of 62,474 and the Ipswich game in Stratford had 62,467 tickets sold. The real numbers were over ten per cent less in each instance.
The missing eighteen thousand fans is great business for the club – they still get the revenue having sold the tickets in advance – but with ten per cent of seats empty is it any wonder that the atmosphere is flat? That missing six thousand each week is equal to West Ham’s whole away attendance at Premier League fixtures- and they manage to make themselves heard. What difference would that extra number of attendees make, week in, week out, to the fan experience.
Two of these games were ‘grade A’ fixtures against Chelsea and Manchester United – normally both huge sellers. Now either the football was so dire that season ticket holders decided they couldn’t be bothered and ignored the opportunity to relist their tickets on the whufc.com ticket exchange, or the weather and lousy London Stadium travel arrangements deterred thousands from summoning the energy and cost required to undertake journeys by rail, underground, overground and bus which cost a fortune and still leave fans with an hour’s walk.
I’ll be interested to see if these statistics change for the Post-Lopetegui sacking era: If the entertainment improves then so should the numbers and the ‘Potter phantoms’ should be a thing of the past.
Board created the problem by not getting rid of Moyes or Floppy early enough, they should have hired Potter earlier too, though who knows maybe when we look back on it, it will have turned out perfectly. Am almost regretting letting the season ticket go now Potter is here and we are playing better football, hope we can continue to improve and have a great end to the season COYI!!!
If the club made the ticket exchange worthwhile to the seller they might get more tickets passed on,
To get 15/20 when they are selling it on for 80 , so selling the same seat twice, I reckon if they have you 50 and they took 30 they would get more tickets moved on.
or alternatively go back to season ticket cards so you can just give them out easily without having to use the crap website….
Oh and the ground is the worst of 92 clubs to watch football…
Even man utd the biggest club in the country. Has inflated attendances . It’s done by tickets sold not attendees. I remember watching arsenal v man city in 2018 during the beast from the east. There was empty seats everywhere but the attendance was still given out as 60 000 .
Are you zig zagging? If you are taking an hour to walk to one of the closest transport options, you are either drunk or stupid. I live in Dartford and I am normally home within 1 hour 15 mins of the final whistle (which I always wait for before leaving), having left the car at Woolwich / Abbey Wood.
I’m tired of seeing the same old seats empty every game, I want to move one row back as it is nearly £200 cheaper but every season I’m told it’s not available, yet rarely does anyone turn up.
I am sure I read the club was going to refuse renewal of seasons tickets rarely used or relisted – I hope it happens so people that want to come support our great club get the chance.
You’re lucky to live so close. some of us have to travel alot further. Rarely missed a game at the Boleyn and LS even on Monday nights with work next day until Lopetegui made us so dire to watch, and always relisted.
Fixtures here, there and everywhere doesn’t help. Not so easy getting home late on Monday nights. Much easier on Saturdays. Other days not too good either. Never a good idea charging £99 for a season ticket. Only need to go twice to save money.
A ‘problem’ that has no solution I fear. Should definitely never be freebies.
When you put a ticket on the exchange the club make a fortune on it and the seller gets peanuts which you can only spend with the club. It’s another cash cow. Then there always seems to be transport issues. Look at the Brentford game. Both c2c and Greater Anglia have engineering work with replacement buses. People just can’t be a**ed and that’s before seeing the dross served up by Loopy
And the more money our club makes the more money they can spend on players. What’s the problem with that?
Both reasons for me Martin – Fan for over 60 years and ST holder but just couldn’t face my 4 hour return trip and nightmare journey to watch the dire football we were playing. Awful fan experience especially with that hours walk, and expensive poor quality food with no atmosphere. Hope for better under Potter but that won’t change the London Stadium which will never be a proper football ground.
Hours walk from where
Usual delays with stop & go signs not helped
by needing a knee replacement especially with the crowds at Stratford. & Westfield. Parking a nightmare if try and drive. Engineering works on Thameslink & EMR not helped and more hassle than it’s been worth. Often 2 to 2 a half hours each way.
Stop and Go Signs? Don’t follow the sheep – no stop and go. Always laugh at the crowds going the wrong way around Westfield. Here’s a clue, exit at the Bell near turnstile J…
Ok thanks I”ll try it on Saturday.
Only did the stop and go boards once. Once was enough now I go a different way to get to the train station where there’s no crowds.
Listen to the atmospheres at the final Merseyside Derby at Goodison and the Celtic game tonight. When did you last hear that at the London Stadium?
Alkmaar is the conference league semi final .
The 2-1 win against Alkmaar was insane, and Sevilla and Leverkusen all 3 unforgettable nights with 60,000 making the place a fortress and an unbeatable atmosphere. Our incredible army of 6,000 away fans go up and down the country out singing the opposition every other week but it’s very rare that we have anything like that atmosphere at the LS. Not helped by the second half of the season under Moyes and Lopetegui just made us unwatchable at times.
£40 train fare plus cost of Season Ticket tube, car parking, plus food and drink makes it an expensive day and even though been a loyal fan for years, people will question if it’s worth it if they had to put up with that. £6.50 just for a pint, £5.50 for a pie and £9 for a burger! Nothing to do with not supporting your club as some have suggested, it’s a way of life for many of us, but tv scheduling on Monday nights doesn’t help especially when you’ve got an early start.
People who can’t be bothered to put their ticket on the ticket exchange. It annoys me where I sit in band five always loads of empty seats does nothing for the atmosphere. Also people who turn up five to ten minutes late for the game and then disappear at half time or come back five to ten minutes late for the second half. People who walk out if we’re losing. None of these so called supporters do anything for the atmosphere or help the players on the pitch.
I try to use ticket exchange. On the few occasions I can’t make the game. Issue is it is a single ticket in Band A and the only time it has sold is when my son also can’t make it. IE: selling a single ticket doesn’t seem to work.
Couldn’t agree more. Football has been so poor but if you don’t have time / don’t want to support your team, stay at home and support a team that wins most weeks. I love the Stadium – Sevilla, Leverkusen – shows what it can be like, but I can’t tolerate a large number of the ‘supporters’ attitude towards our team. It was the same at the Boleyn – so many romantic recollections of that wonderful place but so many times I stood on the North Bank with room to stretch my arms out. I remember losing 2-0 to Norwich with about 10 minutes to go in the late 90’s – the place was almost empty – we pulled it back to 2-2 and the plastics were trying to get back in. Support your club or let someone else go that wants to.
Season ticket holders need to watch out because if you don’t regularly turn up then for next season you may well be denied tickets renewal! Put ours on tickets exchange for a couple of games and snapped up in minutes. Apparently other clubs have same problem. In our case club might think tickets too cheap so no problem not turning up?
It’s not really 18,000 fans though is it? Most of them will be the same people not turning up each time. It’s still quite a lot but I imagine it’s not that different from other clubs. Plus it’s a drawback of making the tickets more affordable than most top flight clubs. Add to that the fact that it’s not worth reselling on the club exchange half the timefor what you get back.