A West Ham teenager who claims to be a member of the West Ham Junior Supporters’ Board has challenged West Ham Vice-Chairman Karren Brady publicly after failing to get her attention privately.
The teenager set up a Twitter account in which to send the Baroness a number of public messages frustrated with the progress on the JSB. The public posts read: “A message to Karren Brady… I am Amilah and am a member of the Junior Supporters Board. In my application to join, I said that my priority for joining was to work with the club to get rid of the fees charged by the club to children to be match day mascots”
Dear Karren Brady – a message to you from a Junior Supporters Board member who wants to be a businesswoman like you in the future. If you want to contact me directly by email to discuss this then the Club have my email address.
The first meeting was on 30 March last year. I was given the opportunity to present why I thought it was wrong that West Ham seems to be making over £100,000 a year from kids to be mascots. The club bloke at meeting basically said it’s that expensive cos it’s a really good opportunity.
We got the meeting minutes sent over six months later on 1 October, four days before the next JSB meeting on 5th October. The minutes didn’t accurately record what I’d said. I asked for them to be changed. I emailed asking for certain bits of info so we could discuss on 5th October.
At the meeting on 5th October we were told that the club would not give any of the information that we’d asked for.I think someone said something about charity places being given away at the Palace match. But I’m not sure because it’s four months later and there are no minutes yet.
Since then there has been no update on progress on any issue discussed by the JSB to my knowledge, no minutes of last meeting, no date of next meeting. So when I saw an announcement about the JSB and mascots on 24 February I was very surprised and very disappointed.
Why was I disappointed? Cos we’d heard nothing for four months. You then announce three mascot places as if the JSB had agreed with this. It felt like you were announcing this just because of the protests and you were using me and the JSB for good PR. You didn’t even tell us it was happening.
I thought maybe I’d missed an email. So I emailed again on 29th January to ask for any update on the last four months. I’ve totally been ignored. Where are the “productive discussions” with the JSB you announced on 24 Jan?
If you’d proposed three places from the dozen you give every match, to the JSB, I’d have said that’s not good enough. It’s a token gesture. I calculate the club is making approaching £150,000 a year from mascots. That’s 0.08% of the club’s annual income but is so damaging to the West Ham brand
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from The Apprentice it’s that a company’s brand is vital. You’d add value by just making all the mascots free like so many other rival football “brands”. Digging your heels in on this just makes the brand less attractive #NotGoodBusiness
I don’t know if you’re going to kick me off the board for contacting you publicly like this but I’ve tried to do it the official route and no reply. I’d like to invite you to the next JSB, if there is one, so we can talk directly to the person in charge who can actually make decisions
The club people running the JSB are lovely and have got us involved in lots of other stuff outside the JSB. I’m really grateful for what they do for us. But if the JSB is supposed to contribute to changing how the club works for the better then it needs people who make decisions to attend
Just to say me & my family supported the move to the Olympic Stadium, all three generations of us as Season Ticket Holders, we saw the potential for a better more successful club. The cheap kids Season Ticket’s are brilliant so thank you for that. I just wanted to contribute to the Club but I don’t want to be used by the club
We may just be teenagers, but we’re not stupid.”
Paints a lovely picture doesn’t it?
Is anyone surprised ? I think not . They do not give one iota about how the fans feel .
They will ban you for life. Knowing them.
This is the problem with the kids of today. Text language. 2b for instance. How much harder is it to write to be. Two extra letters that’s all.
Agreed, I can see a ban coming up.
Well done to that young girl for speaking up – she and many like her are the future of our club – So don’t pick her and then not listen her when she has something to say . She is part of the Junior OSB and is pictured on the West Ham website.
It is typical of the new West Ham way. Everything related to West Ham now is slow,deliberate,not costing money and if there is something they don’t like, its ignored.Good luck with your future meetings,as you say,if there are any.
You pay your money, or don’t. Welcome to the real world Amilah.
Wow – you should be really proud of that completely pointless response… Suggesting that the next generation just pay up, shut up and live a life consumed by apathy might have worked for you, but it’s not representative of the kind of world I hope my kids thrive in…
Well done Amilah. Not so well done Cranhamhammer…
Wow, sorry Mr Buddy. I was saying that there are tooo many people about who whinge their life away. Complaining about everything they don’t understand or disagree with. It’s not about the next generation it’s about life. Sometimes you have to just get on with it. And unfortunately whinging on social media is representative of all people today.
Well done Amilah, Maybe it hasn’t clicked with them yet, that you are a part of the new generation Hammers Family. And listen, they should.
I think Karen Brady is the most wonderful perso I have ever met.
The trouble is, like you, I have never met her.
And what about the top club in the Premiership? Kids take out membership for £20 a year and are selected as match day mascots by ballot…
Well done! Articulate , polite and reasonable.
There are so many things about this club which, with a little care and thought, could be remedied without a significant amount of work. I’m unsure why the club’s management continue to make things difficult for themselves. I respect what they’ve done in their own lives to amass the wealth that has help keep us going, and I’m largely on board with the bigger decisions they make, but whomever is charged with the day to day ‘little’ stuff needs to learn a modicum of compassion and common sense, it seems…
Come on WHU, stop making things harder than they have to be.
I tell you what the board have done many things wrong but I can’t knock them for this. I’m thankful I can take my kids to games because they’ve made it so affordable in the first place. I can’t then complain about the cost of the match day mascot thing. There’s thousands of kids at the games these days that wouldn’t be there otherwise. Mind you the clubs not stupid. It’s only a matter of time before these kids become full price paying adults.