West Ham Vice-Chairman Karren Brady met with the new West Ham United Supporters Advisory board on Wednesday evening at the London Stadium.
The two-hour meeting was attended by West Ham supporters representing Bondholders, 1966 season ticket holders, West Ham United Independent Supporters’ Association, disabled supporters, young & elderly supporters, away season ticket holders, the West Ham Supporters Club Pride of Irons as well as large supporters groups and ClaretandHugh.
West Ham Executive Marketing director Tara Warren, Head of Ticketing Nicky Keye, Chief Operating Officer Ben Illingworth, Operations Director Steve Gotkine, Disability Officer Julie Pidgeon, Supporter Services Manager Jake Heath, as well as a representative from London Stadium 185 and the Met Police, were also on hand to answer supporters questions.
A wide range of topics were covered including stewarding, catering, the concourse, accessibility and away games.
Among questions asked and answered by the club were:
– More shelving will be installed at the London Stadium in the near future.
– The Champions Statue should move to the London Stadium next season pending final approval by Newham.
– The third phase of Champions Stones would be installed in March 2018 at Champions place.
– Wifi at the London Stadium was only an ambition but there is no immediate sign of it in the near future.
– Mobile operators are looking to improve reception at the Stadium and surrounding areas.
– Stadium capacity increase plans are reliant on stadium operator submitting a request to Safety Advisory Board which has yet to happen.
– The West Ham flag initiative would be extended using more areas of the London Stadium, digital flags will be displayed for the first time from the Leicester game.
– The club will explore the possibility of soft drink bars with the catering contractor to allow shorter queues for those who do not want to drink alcohol.
– The club will be investing a further £3m into Chadwell Health training ground and extending the facilities.
– Stadium operators have purchased another 140 search wands to speed up searching but overcrowding was sometimes experienced on bridges 1 & 5 despite bridges 2, 3 and 4 being largely empty. Supporters should listen to stewards and follow mobile electronic signs to avoid queues.
– The club will look at introducing Sky Sports News and previous West Hams game onto the TV’s around the concourse area.
– The club will be releasing full minutes from the Supporters Advisory Board in seven days time at http://www.whufc.com/fans/supporter-advisory-board
Given how strongly Claret & Hugh felt about Brady’s comments in her Sun column regarding Slaven Bilic (” horrible in the extreme!”), I’m surprised no mention was made at the meeting concerning this or the board’s potentially damaging forays into social media.
Oh it was mentioned at the meeting. Many of the staff stayed behind for another 90 minutes
Well was there any response? Any acceptance that media comments by the board should be reined in or, ideally, dropped altogether? Is the discussion likely to feature in the full minutes?
No chance of that lol. Carvalho debacle and money available in Jan , how much , is sakho being sold in Jan ? Do we have to sell before buying in Jan ? Wheres the next level promised. Why wasn’t bilic sacked last year , is Sullivan going to dig deep instead of just bull💩ing, etc , I’m sure Sean will tell us what was said !! 😂
Weird report as nothing of any value has been reported as being discussed except a 90 minute ‘after meeting’ session which isn’t being reported. Confused surely it can’t have been such a complete waste of time….I mean good news about the shelving and all that….
Would’ve liked to know if there are plans to stop treating home supporters like away supporters at the end of home games by making them walk the wrong way round the concourse due to letting away supporters out at the same time making the concourse and bridge outside where the away fans are inaccessible to home fans. I do not know if a single ground in the country where this happens. All away fans are kept behind for 15 to 20 minutes except at West Ham. Diabolical treatment.
I’d also like to know if the board have any idea how frustrated the fans are at their online antics and public speaking about club issues which makes us a laughing stock of a club and a club without class…..?
Not true about being kept behind at other grounds
i have attended 4 away games this season so far and never been held back once.
The SAB could be so much more, the problem lies in that the club pick fans to pick the SAB, too many nodding dogs I’m afraid,
Hi Sean, will the full minutes include question and responses to the 90 minute afterwards discussion, although I am not in favour of muzzling them I would certainly be curious to know how they responded to the poor way they handled Bilic leaving in terms of press releases ?