A great result for West Ham yesterday against a Tottenham team that looked bereft of ideas, and the fans disillusioned with Thomas Frank.
Yet, for my first visit to their stadium there were pangs of jealousy. Sharp lines, sweeping curves give it the presence of a spaceship that just happened to land on the High Road!
The steep stands make you feel like you’re hovering over the pitch, and the acoustics trap the noise in.
Tottenham’s stadium is unapologetically modern. Their massive single-tier South Stand is impressive. The screens are enormous, the sound system is crisp, and the concourses feel more like a high-end food market than a traditional football ground. Even the beer taps, the famous bottom-up pour feel like a small but delightful flex of innovation.
London Stadium, by contrast, tells a different story. Built for the Olympics, it carries the DNA of a multi-purpose venue. It’s spacious, airy, and impressive in scale, but it doesn’t wrap itself around you in the same way.
Sight lines and acoustics are important for any football stadium, and this sadly was largely ignored during the conversion.
Tottenham’s ground feels purpose-built for intensity; London Stadium feels designed for versatility. One is a cauldron, the other an arena.
Soulless by comparison: The London Stadium
What struck me most was how Tottenham’s stadium makes you feel part of the match. The London Stadium doesn’t: How any future owner can impact that is one ‘massive’ question.
Strangely I acknowledge why the club took the decision to leave Upton Park. The Boleyn ground was nostalgic yet not fit for modern day football. The move to the London Stadium offered the club the opportunity to significantly increase their capacity and I have enjoyed attending some amazing night games during our European adventures.
Yet opposition fans have often agreed with many home supporters with the chant “You sold your soul for this s*** hole!”
The idea of a stadium similar to our North London rivals will always remain an idea – even with new owners they would be unlikely to walk away from the current deal – a 99 year lease with no break clause, a small fixed rent – believed to be £4m a year, that halves should they be relegated, and a large annual deficit with tax payers subsidising £19.5m per year in operating costs.
It should be remembered that the former Icelandic owners were similarly hell bent on acquiring the London stadium. They offered £100m to buy the stadium outright which was swiftly rejected. Their plan B was to build a purpose built ground in East London opposite West Ham Underground station.
The reality is the club’s match day income has doubled since moving into the London stadium and the public shoulders the majority of the financial risk and operating losses.
As fans we have to make the best of what we have – the lease finally expires in 2115: A milestone future generations of West Ham fans might actually look forward to!
Look how toxic it is in Tottenham’s stadium. Amplified by the stadium maybe because of the huge price they are forced to pay to sit in it. Atmosphere has more to do with the football you’re watching than the stadium you’re in.
As others have mentioned, the stadium may not be the best acoustically but it is down to the fans to make the noise.
QPR fans are not renowned for being particularly vociferous but from the opposite end of the stadium I had no problem in hearing them last Sunday! It’s the same every match, I am diagonally opposite the away fans, as far away as you could be, yet I can always hear them loud and clear.
Perhaps it is time for some fans to start making a noise in the stadium rather than just on social media outlets?
I get why we moved to the London Stadium, it was a financial deal that we couldn’t refuse and there was the spectre of Spurs taking the site otherwise. Nobody wanted Spurs moving into our manor any more than Spurs
Iike Arsenal camping on their turf. What upsets me (and many other fans as well) is how the move was sold to us with “artists impressions” of fans close to the pitch with stands on wheels that could be rolled in and out between football and athletic events, just like the Stad de France in Paris. Then it was a world class team in a world class stadium fanfare. Yes under Moyes, we have had some regular European nights and some competitive league campaigns and some money has been spent on the club, but we still wait for that world class team and the stadium will never be world class for football
“You sold your soul for this s***hole” is correct, and sadly I have to join in the chant at times, aiming it at the board who broke their promises when it was being done. I’m glad we left Upton Park (as much as I miss it’s atmosphere) because there was no way to increase the capacity, I wouldn’t have my season ticket if we were there now. But until we either buy London Stadium outright or get permission to move the seats nearer the pitch, fully over the track and closing the gaps (which we were promised) the sound will always be flat, and that shouldn’t be the case in any stadium with our capacity, running track or not.
Err wrong there was planning permission to knock down the east stand and plans to prove it but Gold and Sullivan let that Lapse and it would of increased the capacity to 40,000+….no tourists just real fans .
https://www.claretandhugh.info/east-stand-could-have-been-redeveloped/
The Spurs stadium is impressive. A great compromise between a large bowl capacity stadium and an old-school tight-to-the-pitch ground. If I could have that in Stratford, I would in a heartbeat and I think Arsenal fans would have it instead of the Emirates too.
The London Stadium is fine. European nights showed it can be a cauldron but otherwise it struggles to hold a chant because of the distance between the fans on other sides of the ground.
One solution could be to employ crowd chant starters who get the crowd going in a coordinated way. Turkish clubs do it exceptionally well and their fans sing for 90mins non-stop
I think we have to accept we are signed up to the stadium and just have to make the most of it.
We can make a atmosphere there as proved on the European ties.
Us as fans just have to get past the fact we don’t like the stadium, which is massive and we can change the atmosphere with effort
It is the team we need to put all our efforts behind
Agree, cracking ground. Shame about the fans who fill it.
The LS could be converted it has all the potential, few German clubs have converted theirs.
That to one side when team are playing well and they give the fans something to cheers the LS atmosphere is incredible. Transport links are better and getting away from the likes of the Emirates and WHL is a nightmare.
Would’ve taken 42k capacity at UP with the converted East Stand over another 20k tourists at LS tbh but need to move on as that’s done.
You would think a team would be proud to play in the nations Olympic Stadium – you don’t hear Roma and Lazio fans moaning, and in Rome they are all a lot further away from the pitch, no attempt has been made to move a lot of the fans closer as at London Stadium. As I saw someone else comment – since when did a stadium make a noise? I was also at those European nights, the place was bouncing, win a few games and there will be no lack of atmosphere.
I saw Roma v Monza at Stadio Olimpico .. Full running track .. The atmosphere was Unbelieveable .. Two key differences – 1. All on one tier .. 2. The roof goes straight across, trapping the atmosphere in, whereas our roof is built up to accommodate those lights from the Olympics, which helps the atmosphere escape ..