Controversial plans to push the ‘London’ aspect of the Hammers brand into an exclusive corporate area at the Olympic Stadium have emerged.
ClaretandHugh understands the area will be named Club London rather than Club West Ham.
We understand the matter came to light at the recent Bondholder and Corporate Member meeting.
The plan could well be greeted with a wave of protest from the many fans who saw the inclusion of the world ‘London’ as the start of a slippery Irons slope.
Earlier in the year a section of fans complained that the word London was the thin end of a wedge which would one day see the club renamed West Ham London.
The joint chairman sought to reassure fans that would never happen but it looks as though the London branding is set to creep in elsewhere within Hammers branding for the Olympic Stadium.
It is assumed Club London will be modeled on Club Wembley which comes under frequent criticism for the empty seats after half time at the national stadium as the corporate members stay in the lounge eating and drinking.
The price for a corporate membership at the Olympic Stadium is though to range between £2,400 and £3,600 per year with a commitment for a minimum of three years in addition to a initial joining fee.
One of the corporate areas within the Olympic Stadium will be called the Arnold Hill suite after Thames Ironworks founder.
And there’s, a huge irony This is slightly ironic as Arnold Hills was a teetotaler and president of the London Vegetarian Society. He was also an active member of the Temperance Society which promotes moderation and personal alcohol restraint.
He was a great supporter of amateur sports and is said to be disappointed when West Ham transformed into a professional team.
One wonders what one would make Mr Hills would make of the suite named in his honor where the ‘booze’ is freely available.
One can only hope that personal restraint will be exercised!
Not too sure what all the fuss is about to be honest. In this day of and age corporate entertainment is a necessary evil.
Although I would prefer the areas to be named after west ham legends a name is just a name really.
After all at the end of the day these corporate areas generate huge amounts of money for the club and there are going to be 54,000 seats at the OS so I would expect there being enough room for everybody.
It was obvious there was something behind the inclusion of the word ‘London’ in the new Club Crest so there’s no real surprise in this latest news – but it’s still an underhand way of doing things!
And that Michael is my big issue – honesty and transparency are key in every walk of life
I’ve read that the main stand at the Olympic Stadium is going to be all Corporate – us at present in the central area of the Alpari will not have equivalent seats available at the OS – we are expected to move into the equivalent of the existing East Stand.
Around 3,500 will corporate, not the whole stand but they will take up a lot of the middle of the prime seats in the main stand in the middle.
Won’t the Club London seats belong to the LLDC & not West Ham? If we are only anchor tenants for the winter months, how can we be selling tickets for events which are nothing to do with us, taking place outside of our tea navy period? That makes no sense.
Ray, it is not clear yet how the income from Club London will be spilt or whether they will get seats for other events.
It’s a bit underhand I guess but everything they do is jumped on by some of the fans. Finances are so important in today’s football and this is a chance for us to clear £110m of debt and make sure we are financially strong going forward & I back the owners in trying to make as much out of this OS move as possible WHY NOT cuz we won’t ever get a chance like this again … An Olympic stadium built on our doorstep given to us for a few million quid. However there’s a lot of change happening in a very short period of time & it’s all big change as well so I totally understand it can be tough for people to adjust to but I think it’s all going to be for the best in the long run. At the start of the 2016/17 season we will have a new stadium and a new badge, new players and hopefully a new manager… I’m excited.
This reaction is probably the opposite to all the others I have seen haha. But yes, some very good points and I totally agree!