The announcement that the London Stadium has awarded a new seating contract to the Arena Events Group is more about saving money than it is moving supporters closer to the pitch.
The stadium owners went out to public tender to replace the north and south lower stands in a contract estimated to be worth £11.5m over 7 years which has the potential to reduce London Stadium losses by over £1m per year it currently costs to move the seats.
The squaring off of the Bobby Moore and Sir Trevor Brooking lower stands will look more visually appealing to the TV cameras but the real number of seats moving closer to the pitch is small in comparison. The whole stand will move forward but there will be winners and losers as the stand is squared off.
A total of 300 season ticket holders will move into wet seats and it these seats that will be closer to the pitch as all current front row seats are covered by the stadium roof. The previous claim that thousands will move closer to the pitch has been replaced with the word ‘many’ in the club statement made earlier today.
The final design will discussed with the OSB later this month so there could be some late changes before the summer installation
25% of the fans brought closer are away fans
Hooray! For once, a positive outlook from a fellow fan! Good job, Lukestar! 🙂
Just saying 50% of away fans moved closer (1500 out of 3000), less than 8% West Ham fans moved closer (4,500 out of 57,000). Although by end of games these days it’s probably about equal. Difficult to find much positivety! Must go gotta catch my train 🚂 to Southend!
It seems some ‘supporters’ try to find as much negativity as possible and ignore any positivity
The usual over promise under deliver we can expect from Sulliva, Gold and Brady
London Stadium’s action – they own the stadium
The stadium needs knocking down hugh really! I sometimes wake up and think has all this been a knightmare and we are still at Upton Park. Unfortunately reality then kicks in! What a mess,,Thank you to the owners for ruining West Ham United football club..
Helpful.
Yes yes, Hugh, but it’s no fun criticising other people or showing some semblance of neutrality or positivity – let’s just keep putting the boot into our beleaguered owners… [eyes rolling emoji]
i have always liked the london stadium…i like the fact so many of us can support the team …and i like the uniqueness of a round stadium…the distance to the pitch is not an issure for me and i dont feel we should have to create a hostile envirioment to win football matches….
yes Yes YES! More positivity! Good on you, Cheddars! I agree mate. As much as I loved (and always will love) Upton Park and the memories it delivered, we needed to move on.
People bang on like Upton Park was this amazing cauldron of intimidation for opposing players and fans. It might have been in the 80s when we were crushed into the North Stand, but in recent years, UP could be just as flat and quiet… People need to get a grip. There’s always something that could be better.
The atmosphere was still good for big matches! The point you are missing is that it was our HOME!! You do not don’t need a big stadium to do well! Leicester won the league with less than what Upton Park held! Proves my point! The majority of money is in the TV deal!
And the TV money is used at every club for paying the players Hammersone
A hostile atmosphere can help the team win matches. It seems some fans have no interest in creating such an atmosphere
There is a major design flaw on the stands at the moment as the seats face the pitch 😂⚒
A whole 300 seats? Out of 60,000? That will really change the atmosphere!
Surely its the crowd that create the atmosphere not the seats
London Stadium are the owners not West Ham
Hugh, but the owners moved us there. The buck stops with the owners of the club I’m afraid!
Good news that fans are getting closer to the pitch. I’m not sure who will be saving money but good luck to them.
So ,this club initiative with the help of their OSB was a win win and helped save the LLDC money? Were any of those fans, that will be affected by this, consulted?
Was there an apology for the original statement’s inaccuracies?
GSB really need to take a deep breath and stop reacting to the bad press they are getting, because all they are doing is adding petrol to the fire,imo.
Next they will be banning fans that have t shirts on they don’t like!!
What about the gap behind, between the lower and upper tier. Is this decreasing or increasing?
This gap is horrendous and needing closing in.