West Ham have sold 278,805 tickets for the first five games at the London Stadium, breaking the home attendance record three times in the process.
All official football attendances are based on tickets sold rather the number of supporters through the turnstiles so the absence of the ticket trader has meant a few hundred empty seats for the the two Premier League games for season ticket holders who had no legal way to re-sell their tickets to games they couldn’t attend.
The London stadium has 67,000 seats in football mode but 7,000 of these are covered over on match days. A further 3,000 seats are currently not in use while the London Stadium Safety Advisory Group restricts capacity to 57,000. Many of these 3,000 seats are in the Sir Trevor Brooking upper stand.
Official Attendances at the London Stadium so far
Europa League Third Round Domzale 53,914
Betway Cup Juventus 53,966
Premier League AFC Bournemouth 56,977
Europa League Play off round Astra 56,974
Premier League Watford 56,974
The upcoming EFL cup game against Accrington Stanley is selling less well. Over 22,000 tickets remain on general sale for the game next Wednesday despite the tickets being priced as low as £10. West Ham recorded a home attendance of 28,930 at the Boleyn Ground for the visit of Sheffield United in the league cup in 2014 but there was a Tevez factor to that match. The previous season 23,440 attended the league cup game against Cheltenham at the Boleyn. The game has surpassed both of those attendances with the likely crowd around the 40,000 for next week.
Reality has hit us punters – I’ve got a Season Ticket in the 1966 Seats, I’m a little hazy on the actual prices but I think I paid £25 to see Domzale – a nothing competition but just to be present at the first Olympic Stadium game.
I paid £50 to see Juventus – an exhibition game but you could see the gulf in class.
I attended the Bournemouth game and was disappointed with the performance – albeit a lucky result.
I paid £30 to see the Astra game – again very disappointing performance but still a rubbish competition.
I attended the Watford game, West Ham started like a train but were humbled and it ended up as another disappointing result.
During these visits the atmosphere has been strange, the people around me are different at every match, where have all the staunch supporters gone? It’s very disappointing and not the West Ham I’ve supported for getting on for 50 years.
I’m not interested in the Accrington game and am giving it a miss – it’s very disappointing at the moment and not very enjoyable.
Next Season – who knows?
The staunch supporters are still there just in different seats.Im not unsociable but I have never really given a damn who im sat next to.
I always have a good natter with whoever is sat next to me & when all said & done I go to watch the team so who is next to me makes no difference if I’m truthful.Just my view on it hehe
Maybe after 50 years you are set in your ways too much Michael.Embrace the opportunity to meet new fans not the same handful every match 🙂
I’m with you in the 1966 seats Michael and have so far seen most of the same people for the openers – missed Juve as I refuse to pay £50 for a friendly (maybe for a full Barca side) and also Astra s I felt we’d be sh*t anyway and could not care less about that competition, indeed given our start the last thing we need is Thursday travelling. Where my daughter and I are its been pretty good so far, good view though obviously would prefer to be closer as would we all – it will work well in time. I guess quite a few people still on taking holidays then the regulars will bed in though last few years its been noticeable how many season ticket holders don’t bother even with cheap cup tickets. What does annoy me most is that in the sales pitch for these seats no mention was made of the fact we’d have to pay over twice as much to keep them for cup matches – an extra £15 on 1,966 seats is only worth £29,490 to the club and I don’t see the point in charging us extra with the annoyance that brings – should be a flat rate for all
There’s a group of ‘regulars’ immediately around me now – but you turn up and someone’s sitting in your seat and they turn out to be tourists in the wrong row, and there’s lots of tourists!
I’m happy with the view, that’s one of the few positives so far – along with the improved journey.
It’s all down to the Football, if the Team start to play like last year than all these negatives will miraculously disappear!
..and yes I agree – getting ripped-off for Cup games gives me the pip!!
To be fair many season ticket holders are not interested in the early rounds of the cups and I include myself in that, especially the league cup.
I think the novelty of the new stadium has worn off for season ticket holders
Yes – spot on – the negative stuff around the whole Olympic Stadium thing is not helping the Matchday experience – a couple of wins or some good performances and all this nonsense will be forgotten!
I think as well as the Stadium being new the +2 idea can’t help for continuity, it should be reduced or ditched as it is a well intentioned catastrophe. At the minute I think a lot of people are attending because it’s new, later in the season we should see things settle down.