Following trouble at the West Ham v Burnley game in March, Karren Brady and Sadiq Khan got into an argument over the number of stewards at the London Stadium and whether there had indeed been a 15% cut of the security budget cut to save money.
The London Mayor wrote back to Baroness Brady to say there had been no requirement to reduce stewarding and security expenditure during the season and that security and stewarding costs were running at £95,000 to £110,000 per game depending on the categorisation. He confirmed that Burnley had cost the Stadium owners around £95,000.
Claret and Hugh have obtained the number of stewards per West Ham match under the Freedom of information.
11 September 2017 Huddersfield 960
19 September 2017 Bolton 948
23 September 2017 Tottenham 1,037
30 September 2017 Swansea 975
20 October 2017 Brighton 944
4 November 2017 Liverpool 968
24 November 2017 Leicester 975
9 December 2017 Chelsea 971
13 December 2017 Arsenal 972
23 December 2017 Newcastle 977
2 January 2018 West Bromwich Albion 948
20 January 2018 Bournemouth 1,021
30 January 2018 Crystal Palace 1,024
10 February 2018 Watford 1,019
10 March 2018 Burnley 962
A West Ham insider pointed out that the Burnley game had 60/70 fewer stewards than the previous three games and questioned where the 962 stewards were actually deployed. The insider insisted that the reduction came in the stewards guarding the pitch.
Following the Burnley game, the number of stewards and costs rose sharply with new stewards donning football boots and safety glasses guarding the pitch.