Teenager stands up to Karren Brady
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.”