The West Ham United Official Supporters’ Club met with the owners of the London Stadium last week in their search for a new home.
The seventy-year social club told their members ‘We had a very positive meeting with a senior Executive of LLDC last week and he has taken away our thoughts and ideas and is going to explore a number of potential options within the Olympic Park. This relates to both a temporary and a long term home for us. We will keep you up to date on any developments as soon as we can. As mentioned previously, the sale of our property in Green Street completed last month and we are now finalising how much capital we will have available to use to secure the future of the Supporters’ Club.’
The club were made homeless when Stour Space refused to renew a rental agreement this season.
On the legacy clubhouse located in Castle Street they added: “We are pleased that we now have an agreement in principle to allow a change of use for the old Clubhouse which will now allow us to test the market for potential tenants. We have considered the financial implications of re-opening it as a Members Only Social Club which is the only use currently allowed under the existing lease but we do not believe that this is financially viable and it would be a significant drain on the Supporters’ Club resources. Once we have explored the viability of changing the use of the premises we will be able to put it before Members to make a final decision on the future use of Castle Street.”
For the foreseeable future, Forman’s restaurant will continue to offer WHUSC Members guest entrance to their “Smoke & Bubbles Club” right by the stadium in Hackney Wick on production of a valid WHU Supporters’ Club Membership card.
The Supporters’ Club will continue to fund the entrance fee for our Members and this entitles you to a free beer from their bottle bar in the foyer. Please show your membership cards and collect your drink vouchers from the front desk on the 2nd floor. If you are coming from the stadium side of the river then cross the new footbridge that is located between the Bobby Moore Academy and the artificial football pitch (see map) From Hackney Wick station, go past Stour Space and take the next left where Forman’s right in front of you.
Please note that the drink vouchers are not accepted at the main bar. Anyone that you might see using a voucher at the main bar is a full member of the Smoke & Bubbles Club which has different rules for its members’ free drinks compared to guests. Feedback from the first visit to Forman’s was that it is a good modern venue and is obviously perfectly positioned for the stadium but the bar queues were long at peak times. This will hopefully be resolved once they have an additional bar built which they say will be in the next few weeks. Remember that they also have a mobile bar outside on the terrace if you’re just after a draught lager. Bar prices were also a topic of discussion but the supporters’clubn have no control over those so the usual subsidised Supporters’ Club prices cannot be offered, unfortunately. Hopefully, the free drink on arrival offsets this for most members.
Supporters’ Club members can still bring guests along to Forman’s too by paying the £5 standard guest entry fee that also entitles them to a free drink token.
Any prospective new members or those renewing still from last season should visit https://whusc.co.uk/membership for more details and to sign up or renew.
I find it absolutely appalling West Ham United F.C. and the board have not helped the supporters club and got it a permanent base.. I think it’s terrible..
Actually the club are helping behind the scenes but it is not in their power to give them a building within the park .
Newham previously offered the social club a building prior to the move when Robin Wales was in charge but this was rejected by the previous committee who wanted to stay at castle street.
Quality blog