18 Comments

Journalists slam London Stadium

Mirror Football writers have given their verdict on the world’s worst football stadiums and the London Stadium received two votes.

Andy Dunn

“As far as competition for the worst major football stadium goes, West Ham United’s home is in a league of its own.

The only argument against it owning the title is that, well, it is not actually a football stadium, so maybe it should be disqualified.

Soulless, rented, spectators miles away from the pitch, there are no saving graces.”

Aaron Flanagan

“The London Stadium is an incredible venue for athletics, but for football it is every bit as bad as it looks on TV.

Even on the lower tier, which has been extended out closer to the pitch, you are just too far away from the action.

It’s probably even more underwhelming as a ground because of how great Upton Park was. That place was incredible and the atmosphere was something else.

West Ham just can’t replicate that at the London Stadium. Unfortunately, I just don’t enjoy going.

Claret and Hugh view:

The London Stadium might not be perfect but it is a bit harsh to label it as the worst football stadium in the world. There seems to be a constant agenda and vendetta from certain parts of the media for the for West Ham and the former Olympic Stadium.  We all understand that things could have turned out differently if the stadium had been from the start from conversion to football in mind until that was the politicians failure.

The cost of what it cost to build the stadium for the Olympics and convert it and ultimately the massive losses in running are also nothing to do with its status as a football stadium.

The reality is, it would have ended up a white elephant if West Ham hadn’t have risked it all by stepping in and taking the gamble in moving.

The London Stadium isn’t as bad as some journalists like to make out and certainly not the worst in the world. As usual, we are just easy prey.

 

 

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

18 comments on “Journalists slam London Stadium

  1. Clearly these journos have not travelled the world and have certainly not visited stadiums like Lazio / Roma who have a stadium where the running track is not covered at all and the fans are further away than they are at the London Stadium, there are many more in Russia and other past Eastern Bloc countries where this is the norm, I think it is jealousy because we ( West Ham ) got the Stadium and we are daring to try and climb into the ELITIST top six
    Clubs in England, whwy are we hated so much by the media Hugh? what have we done to deserve this, there are many more Clubs that deserve more vilification than us or is it because Karen got us such a great deal by only renting it that our costs are minimal compared to other Clubs and therefore we can start competing financially with the so called elite 6 and they are worried that their status will be compromised, another reason they want a breakaway league I suspect, they think they have a god given right to the elitism they think they have, well Leicester proved that isn’t the case and they are running scared, hell look at man. Utd. they may not even qualify for either European Competition this season, oh my god what will they do then ?
    End of my rant I will support the Hammers for ever as I have done for the last 60 years, not because I think they are the best but because I LOVE them COYI

  2. What a load of tosh from the 2 journalists. Are they basing their view on where they get well paid to watch matches from?. To compare it to UP is laughable. The old ground was creaking under the weight of the modern game. No proper parking, Poor infrastructure, the old east stand that needed critical repairs / replacement done on its steelwork. The general area round Upton Park was going downhill anyway. SIgns on it, when we moved , several traditional businesses down there there folded.

    Most stadiums around the world now have the fans placed a bit further back than we are used to and quite a few of these stadiums have running tracks. I believe that more work can be done but this may not happen unless we somehow buy the place. American investors please note 🙂

    So I would take these comments from the journalists with a grain of salt. Its very possible that our new ground can have the improvements done – both inside and outside the ground.

    • It not tosh. Most supporters I speak to, don’t like it and see it as a lot worse than our home which was Upton Park. I think if our owners acted with a bit more class in the media we might get a bit more respect back. I think our owners don’t come across well in the media, some of there comments have been very arrogant and don’t reflect the club in a good light…

  3. Sean ; am I the only one that feels something Major could develop concerning the LS .
    We all know it was purposely built For Athletics . Football has moved in which is something it was never intended for . It’s that very fact which leads me to believe there is work going on behind the scenes for some extreme changes and modifications . Wouldn’t surprise me if within three years those changes will begin to become reality . Scenario 1 would be athletics moving out . Scenario 2 would be a Stadium Takeover by West Ham or whomever . In both cases the Stadium would become West Ham property ( or Majority shareheld) paving the way to make it a Supreme Football Venue .

  4. I’m bored with these bar stewards looking for easy copy. I sit in the Gods and it’s a better view than the back row of the West Stand at the Boleyn without a doubt. Plus of course I pay for my season ticket; as do some 20,000 others who couldn’t afford or had no chance of getting one at the Boleyn. Perhaps if they paid for their seats they’d appreciate the opportunity the London Stadium has given.

  5. Ridiculous article! .. Only a couple of weeks ago I was hearing how hostile it is at the Red Star Belgrade stadium and I saw the whole athletics track and I don’t think I saw a roof!! ..

  6. I made a comment yesterday on this article on the Legal case West ham have next week????

  7. A lot of the negativity with the stadium was started by disgruntled Board out West Ham fans unfortunately. The journos plus jealous fans of other teams have just picked up on it.

  8. Load of tosh its not the worst stadium in london
    one word for the jurnos rhymes with well known humphrey bogart film

    • Couldn’t disagree more. Arsenal is better, so is Chelsea,so will spurs new effort, and so on. If you enjoy it good luck to you, but it’s for me I’m afraid…

  9. What’s the point of this article?

  10. I agree with the journalists that is a poor football ground. Compared to what we had it is crap. There is no soul, it’s not even our ground and it’s too far away from the action. We can’t even chnage the bloody colour of the seats. The upper tier is a lot worse than the lower tier. So what if it would have been a white elephant, that was not our responsibility Sean. To top it all off the badge is horrific and is plastered all over it. We also arguably now have the worst badge in the league, done to market the club as West Ham london by angus Kinnear. It’s not moaning it’s just the reality of the situation.

  11. I sit in the upper tier cheap seats at the back and my view is better than what I had at Upton Park. I like the London stadium. It’s not Upton Park but then Upton Park was a bit of a dive towards the end anyway. The whole thing needed tearing down and rebuilding. I don’t dislike the new badge since its only what it used to be before the castle appeared anyway but I preferred the castle. Our new stadium is like a motte and Bailey castle complete with moat and drawbridges. In fact our new stadium is more like a castle than the old one ever was. I would bring back the castle for the 2020 season by popular demand. It would be interesting to see the results of a poll on it. Let’s make London stadium a fortress, literally.

  12. I used to sit in the Bobby Moore upper at LS, about halfway in upper tier. I felt so so far away. It was not enjoyable because of the huge distance between lower and upper tiers, nothing like the BM UPPER AT UPTON PARK. If you enjoyed your view then fair enough Clive. As for green street, I thought it had character, I couldn’t care about being run down, it felt like West Ham’s home when I saw the ground. Also importantly there was less walking distance involved from getting off at Upton Park tube. The badge was done Clive to add the word ‘London’, no other reason. That was what they wanted people to see. To make more money. Unfortunately it was voted 56- 44% in favour. I was very very surprised. Again there was just one choice, which was poor. I can’t stand the badge and it didn’t need changing. The RWHU fan group should of got a petition sorted about the badge back in March but they didn’t. They weren’t properly organised or strong enough. Get LONDON off the badge. The castle was and is part of our history and the badge should never had been changed.

  13. There is always a vocal minority but we live in a democracy where the majority rules and if 56% voted for the badge to be changed then that’s the majority of West Ham fans wanted the new badge. Same as there will be a vocal minority who hate new stadium and play into the hands of journalists and rival fans. I guarantee there are many many clubs and fans of clubs in the world who would love our stadium. 60000 fans will choose to continue to pay to sit in it so I’m guessing they don’t all hate it that much.

  14. Poor ground? You should see the state of 99% of the grounds in my native country (italy).

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