Eyes down for big West Ham beer challenge

All eyes will be on beer and food prices this Thursday for the second home game of the season at the London Stadium for the Hammers.

There was uproar among West Ham and away supporters when it was revealed that the cheapest pint of beer Amstel had risen to £6.80 for the Manchester City game with Moretti draft priced at £7.30 per pint. This produced reaction on social media and a number of tabloids picked up the story on beer prices as well as the price of burgers at £9.50.

West Ham promised to investigate and hold London Stadium owners and their subcontractor’s caterers Delaware North to account.

A senior club source told Claret and Hugh “We are hopeful they will agree to the average prices or face a legal challenge. We will not tolerate a position that is less favourable to our supporters than the agreed standards in the Concessionaire agreement”

West Ham have protection via ‘comparable clubs’ clause in their London Stadium concessionaire agreements signed by Karren Brady in 2013.

Clause 18.11 of West Ham’s agreement states the prices for food, refreshment and beverages and corresponding service levels must be equivalent to at least the mean average of other comparable London Premier League clubs.  Prices must be fixed for the whole football season and should not rise mid-season.

Comparable clubs are defined as three leading  Premier League clubs based in London with a capacity of 40,000 or above.

That translates to Arsenal, also run by Delaware North, and Chelsea and Spurs, run by rival company Levy UK part of the compass group.

Claret and Hugh understand some of the beer prices published by the Daily Mirror could be incorrect so they are being verified. The comparable clause excludes promotional prices for beer or food in other stadia and prices of beer which not available across the whole stadium. We wait in trepidation to find out what the prices of qualifying food and drink are at Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal.

The Daily Mirror article suggests Spurs charged £4.49 per pint for their cheapest beer last season, Chelsea charged £5.70 while Arsenal charged £5.90 per pint.

Again if those figures are true that would create a mean average of £5.36 per pint last season against a pint of Amstel in the London Stadium priced at £6.20.

It begs the question why were there no challenges last season or previous seasons before that?

We will update this story again when we receive further information.

 

About Sean Whetstone

I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk. A Blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball, I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh. Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons! Follow me at @Westhamfootball on twitter