West Ham are likely to make less than £600,000 in revenue from changing their concession policy this season. This incredible statistic makes it all the more unbelievable why the club is engaging in an unpopular move for a sum of money which would only cover Kalvin Phillips‘ wages for a month.
The policy change by the club would mean that many of the least mobile Hammers fans would be forced to climb to the top of the London Stadium or pay full price despite being of pensioner age.
Assuming that 1,000 season ticket holders are replaced with adults in bands 1-4 this season, the total amount calculates to just £576,875 if split equally across the eight price bands, with 125 new season ticket holders in each category.
– Band 1 O66/U21: £590 extra, U18: £880 extra
– Band 2 O66/U21: £505 extra, U18: £770 extra
– Band 3 O66/U21: £395 extra, U18: £600 extra
– Band 4 O66/U21: £330 extra, U18: £545 extra
It begs the question why this unpopular policy was introduced despite the backlash from supporters when compared to the ticketing revenue it will generate.
The fan uproar has now reached the national media, with TalkSport featuring an interview with Hammers United, who are backing the fan-led petition.
To see the club alienate the fanbase and treat them so appallingly for a paltry £600,000 seems cruel and unnecessary given the record turnover of £300 million for the last financial year.
I’d worked it out at about half a million, Gonzo, so it is an absolute pittance. ‘Somebody’ no doubt had the great idea as part of an overall business plan to increase margins and build profit. I don’t agree with it but can see the business thinking behind it. But it is the location of new concessions that is worse-100% totally indefensible. Children and less mobile older fans will only be able to buy new concession tickets in the very highest, least accessible seats in the whole LS. That is both stupid and even, perhaps, discriminatory by age. It is pretty shambolic for a ‘family oriented’ club. .. I see it has even made it into the New York Times this morning. Talk about disastrous PR. Disgraceful. I’m off to read the disability discrimination act 2018..
I was offfered £17 for a game I couldn’t attend, my neighbour told me a tourist paid. £79 plus admin charge for my seat. The club love it when a concession relist their seat. A tourist will pay anything for a premiership game.
I am a near 70 year old season ticket holder, with a seat in block 249 since the move. I tried to move to a lower level band 3 seat , but despite renewing straight away as suggested by the club, found myself faced with an increase of over 100%. I am a blue badge holder as I have mobility issues and so am really disappointed that the change wasn’t financially feasible. At least I only have pain to contend with, there is one old boy who sits near me , who looks positively ashen when he makes it to the top of the stairs. He can’t be the only one, and I fear it’s only a matter of time, before it’s even more than a bit of pain that has to be endured.
The club were charging 125.00 for resale tickets vs Liverpool. My mate sold her seat as she couldn’t go, snapped-up in seconds by a Liverpool fan from another country, nice guy, but…the club gave her 65.00 club cash.
This was an AAA match yet there were empty seats in our fantastic seating area. It’s a ‘tourist’ area and the majority of ‘bread and butter’ games the seats don’t sell and we have idiots from the cheap seats coming down and sitting in them The stewards do nothing. So we’ve paid top dollar and they’re paid 25 quid.
What the club want is to keep the best seats for tourists, yet how many clubs are worth paying that money for?
The club have this all wrong but showing their true colors. Our club don’t give a s*it about lifelong fans and legacy. We are customers to be sucked dry.
We must make them suffer for this. Non violent or abusive. Disrupt games with objects that take ages to remove from the pitch, like the German fans did. But we must unite, even those who can afford the price rise.
Unless us fans take action nothing will change.
Greedy perv Sullivan and ass licker Brady, kin need binning off. Also, what is Noble getting paid for? Lope got rid of most of the backroom hangers on. Noble still there……very strange. Bring all these new players in, still be the same until the owners are gone!!!!! 🫧⚒️
I renewed mine and my sons season tickets back in April with the promise of being first to be able to move my seats. My intention was to move us both up a band with a cost of around £400. The actual cost quoted was over a £1000! Firstly, Im sorry but my 11 year old son is not an adult, and secondly, why were we not informed of this when we were dangled a carrot back in April! The children are the future of the club and the club are pricing them out of the game.
So much for a family orientated club, we don’t have to be west ham fans admitted , but most of us if not all of us from childhood , for me as a child seeing Bobby Moore my footballing hero play was everything ,don’t take that away from our younger generation, my father was a Liverpool fan , I have Millwall connections through the Burnige family , so being a west ham fan is not hereditary, my grandson is a west ham fan and a season ticket holder, maybe not for much longer, and maybe his attention will get drawn towards a much more successful club?
Sullivan and part time Brady out