It isn’t only in the area of transfers that West Ham United are playing catch-up ahead of their first season as a Championship side since 2011. Last time the Hammers dropped into the second division they were still playing football at Upton Park with its fan proximity to the pitch and ability to create a hostile environment for visiting teams.
Now the soulless bowl of the London Stadium will be an unknown quantity in the second tier – so far from the pitch, it has been suggested that 45000 season ticket holders won’t be able to generate the latent hostility of the Chicken Run of a bygone era.
The east Stand at Upton Park was very close to the pitch and intimidating for visitors
As such, the Hammers don’t even feature in a new report describing the six loudest stadiums in the Championship.
Footballleagueworld.co.uk’s authors Jack Price and Ben Wignall have the temerity to suggest Portsmouth’s Fratton Park ground will be the loudest in the division with Derby County second and South London Rivals Millwall the third.
I suspect West Ham’s fifty thousand-plus match day supporters will have something to say about that: However the design of the Olympic Stadium, as we know to our cost, sends the noise up and out, rather than remaining within the arena.
West Ham will have the largest attendance of any Championship side and will have to hope that size trumps design: Having been at the stadium for those never forgotten European nights in recent years ago, I’d say the home support can be every bit as loud as anywhere.
Given the football and results to get behind, West Ham fans will produce every bit as much as Fratton Park with its paltry twenty thousand capacity. Sounds like a challenge to me. Bring it on.
“the Hammers don’t even feature in a new report describing the six loudest stadiums in the Championship”
Going by the title, I thought this meant we were outside the top six ranked sides in the championship. I was about to say, good — less expectation!
If the team play well and are winning there will be a brilliant atmosphere. But alas the last couple of seasons there has been mainly rubbish played by us.
Can you just remind your readers of how many trophies Upton Park intimidated us to in the last fifty years?
Given the massive advantage you seem to think it generated, how did I miss that?
It’s only a ‘soulless bowl’ when guys like you are still whispering about it instead of realising that ten years down the line, this is where we’re going to playing for the foreseeable future and making a bit of noise to encourage the team wouldn’t go amiss.
I am the only one completely bored of the constant Upton Park talk…
The Boleyn was tired, c**p Lego castles and by no means this fortress people talk of. We lost more than we won!!!!
Bore off and move on people. It’s been a decade. It ain’t coming back.
Been to plenty of games at the Boleyn Ground when there was little or no atmosphere especially in the 70’s but equally went to some special nights. Eintracht Frankfurt in 76 was amazing, beating the blunts 5-0 in the league cup 72. The Ipswich play off game I swear the floor was moving with the noise!.
Not been to the Olympic Stadium but been told at some of the games in Europe it was a cracking atmosphere. With 9K Pompey fans there for the league cup 1st round pretty much guaranteed a 60K crowd. Place should be rocking, let’s hope Nuno realises the importance of this early game and plays a full strength team COYI ⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️
Everyone who went to the UEFA games knows that a massive sound & atmosphere is possible in the London Stadium — if the team is playing well and the supporters are engaged and excited. A lot of that was because of its sheer size. Apart from the European campaigns there has been precious little to cheer in recent seasons. By the way Upton Park was also a morgue when the team was doing badly — I once saw the team booed off after winning because the match was so dismal. With 40,000+ season ticket holders attendances of up to 50,000 might be expected in the Championship … if the team is doing well. But if the team is playing poorly there is not likely to be much atmosphere or associated intimidation of the opposition. Building atmosphere has to start on the playing field, not in the stands.
I’d bet my house on there being 60,000+ for West Ham opening home game…. less than 6 weeks away!!