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arsegrapes 5:44 Sat Aug 13
West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

C&P Morning Star
West Ham Are No Longer A Club For The Working Class

After decades watching the club at the Boleyn, JOHN DANIELS opens up about his experience of being a fan at their first London Stadium match
My daily journey to work takes me through the Olympic Park. I have watched the stadium slowly develop into West Ham’s new home.
As late as the day before the first match was due to take place, the lettering of the club’s name had yet to be lifted into place.
On the morning of the match, I noticed the early set-up of a burger van.
As I walked past I stopped to take a photo of the extortionate price-list. On noticing this, the owner came across to see me.
I wished him luck selling to football fans at those prices. He regaled me with a tale of how he once had a sausage roll and a coffee for £7 in Nottingham.
He was angry until he tasted it and the organic pastry melted into his mouth.
For him it was worth every penny. It seemed to be totally lost on him that most football fans want a few pints and a £1.50 burger before a match.
Personally, by the time I get to the van, I couldn’t care less whether my burger was made of 90 per cent testicle, which is probably just as well.
As I explained to him, we’re not dining out. We’ve come to watch a football match.
But football is about an experience, not just a shiny new ground. With no pubs or proper reasonably priced food outlets nearby, it poses a problem.
At the Boleyn you could order a pint at 20 to three and still get to your seat for “Bubbles.”
You had the choice of a number of pre-match venues. If you wanted a few pints you could meet at the Central, Boleyn or the East Ham Working Men’s Club by the stadium.
The closest pub to the new ground is the hipster hangout that is Crate, with no spirits, overpriced craft ale and unisex toilets.
The queuing at Nathan’s, a long-established family-run shop where pie, mash and liquor cost £4 has been replaced with pie, mash and parsley sauce or gravy for £14.
The burger vans that lined Green Street were not serving haute-cuisine but they had decent hotdogs and burgers that sold for as little as 50p after the match.
The nutritional value was low but preferable to the £7.50 chicken goujons being sold by the stadium.
Likewise, my favourite of Saveloy and Chips cost just over £2 at Erkan’s which was right next to the entrance of the Bobby Moore lower.
Ken’s Cafe was an institution on Green Street, frequented by many players over the years from Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst to Frank Lampard Senior.
Fans had a great relationship with Carol behind the counter who had fantastic tales to tell of her experiences over the years.
These relationships are going to be very difficult to rebuild and the vans and food outlets outside the stadium seem impersonal and not geared up for ordinary football supporters.
Their prices are high and the portion sizes small.
There is no doubting that it’s an impressive stadium. Is it built for football?
That I am not sure of. Granted, it is difficult to gauge this early on and in a match with few, if any away fans, as was the case when they welcomed NK Domzale.
West Ham will have to work hard to recreate the atmosphere at Upton Park.
It was often an initimidating place for teams to play and the atmosphere created could swing games West Ham’s way.
The close proximity to the pitch meant that players could hear everything, good or bad.
The stewards had a difficult job on the night. We were in the Bobby Moore lower, which was where we were in the old ground. This was an area where everybody stood.
When supporters did the same in the ground, they were met with requests to sit down. You could tell when this happened in other parts of the stadium as the chant of “Stand Up if You Love West Ham” would spread as everyone rose to their feet.
Everyone behind us was standing and nobody complained.
It does again raise the question of “safe-standing” and this is something that needs serious consideration.
On arrival into the stadium we made our way to our seats. We were met with a stand selling Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and popcorn.
More appropriate for the cinema and hopefully not reflective of a desire to create a sanitised atmosphere.
The match itself was fine. An easy 3-0 win. Job done and to the next round of the Europa League. But for me it lacked something.
I can’t quite put my finger on it but Bubbles didn’t quite generate the levels of excitement and anticipation that it should have.
The real test will be when Premier League clubs play at the stadium, bringing vocal support and decent opposition.
It had the feeling of an away game. But hopefully in time that will develop.
David Gold was pictured celebrating the opening match. I have no doubts about his credentials as a supporter.
However, he remains first and foremost a businessman and the cynic in me can’t help but think that his celebrations are more to do with the money that will undoubtedly flow into the club following the move.
Karren Brady has proved a more controversial figure among West Ham fans.
Gold was quick to squash her initial enthusiasm for the club to be renamed West Ham Olympic soon after her arrival.
However, the fact she suggested it underlines how her business mind operates and indicates how she views the club. As a commodity.
Brady also witnessed a backlash after she joined Andrew Lloyd-Webber and others in voting for cuts to tax-credits.
People were angry not only given her millionaire status and place in the House of Lords but also that the Olympic Stadium move had been funded in large part by the taxpayer.
It feels different in many ways from other ground moves. Arsenal at least remains within a community and has the pubs, shops and other facilities around Holloway Road.
This feels like the club has been taken out of the community and artificially dumped near a shopping complex.
It is reflective of a consumer-based capitalist society. It felt like the middle classes have stolen football and recreated it in their own image.
Who will benefit from the move? There may be investment in the club and the possibility of Champions League football in a few years time. But at what cost?
Around Hackney Wick and Stratford, luxury developments are springing up and gated communities already exist.
The Westfield Centre will also receive a boost in trade with thousands of people arriving at the ground on matchdays, many bringing their families along for the experience.
It all seems very distant from the club that started life as Thames Ironworks and its working-class origins.
The final game at the Boleyn had everything. An emotionally charged farewell to the stadium after 112 years saw a classic match under the floodlights with a pulsating 3-2 win against Manchester United.
Grown men were crying and crowds stayed long after the final whistle and the entertainment had finished.
More was lost that day than a stadium. The heart has been ripped out of a football club and its community.
The only regret is that fans didn’t fight hard enough against the move to the Olympic Stadium.

Bungo 5:54 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Morning Star?

That'll be a well balanced article then.

arsegrapes 6:22 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Bungo, I went to the match he is talking about and I can't argue with a thing he says. Some will like our shiny new bowl and some won't. It is not difficult to envisage whats left of our working class fan base dwindling over the coming years. You notice he bemoans the price of things and that is why many will be priced out. I paid £8 for a burger in the ground, £7 for a hot dog and a coke.

We are on a honeymoon period as advance cheapish tickets have been sold for the first two years at the OS. After that prices will start to increase to pay for the £50m-£100m players to chase the holy grail that is the top four and Champions League football, which is the only way to guarantee to fill the stadium. I give it 5 years maximum before the Daves realise they have taken it as far as they can and can't compete with the big boys, cash in and sell for a Billion + to the Arabs or Chinese who will gentrify the club further as a brand.

Coffee 6:56 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

I'm probably one of the few who just read through that whole pile of horse shit. The fellow's just angry at the price of hot dogs and suffering from premature nostalgia. Nothing to do with working class.

Bungo 7:01 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Coffee 6:56 Sat Aug 13

East Ham Bull 7:03 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Er - you don't have to spend club prices on food etc. Stratford Market has shed loads of Kens Cafe type places or cheap curries.

side effect 7:35 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Who will benefit from the move.

25,000 people who otherwise couldn't watch West Ham in the ground they should sell to Southend to replace their crooked house.

Dicko75 7:43 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Ironic to see those whining about the move are probably the same morons who've moaned in the past about yo-yo relegation and a continuous stream of average players. The move was a 100% no brainer.

Bring your own f***ing food!

cholo 7:59 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Football isn't so much a working class game is it. As for the price of hotdogs, don't buy hotdogs.

LeroysBoots 8:19 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Although I don't agree with a lot of what he says I do understand the sentiment

I went in to the club shop on Sunday and was shocked at the prices of the shirts I was going to buy for my sons.

I resisted the urge and walked out without spending a penny

Since when did shirts jump from 40 to 55 pounds ?

AKA ERNIE 8:21 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Pie and mash in the builders £5 then 10 min walk to the ground closer than I used to walk from from the stanley

Huffers 8:39 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

If ever there was a stadium with food at standard prices in the surrounding area, ours is just that. Not that I eat them, but not seen many burgers on vans at 1.50 that I can recall!

mashed in maryland 8:49 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Skipped everything past Morning Star.

franksfat&slow&wank 8:56 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Who gives a shitabout the price of food ffs there's plenty of cheaper options in westfield

Private Dancer 9:04 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Coffee - Exactly. Btw, you read everything, so don't beat yourself up about it. I read the first para then stopped, and who the fuck is John Daniels, anyway?

This 'working class' debate is very tedious..football is still working class and most likely always will be, in fact there seems to be even more Dad's taking their kids to games now, including daughters, so it's probbaly more working class than it's ever been right now.

Headtheball 9:04 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

I understand his sentiment but it's almost a Luddite view of no change when that is impossible. The major thing that struck me at the Juventus game was the amount of times I had to check my knees!
The numbers of kids and young teenagers at the game was incredible. I thought straight away there is the next generation of supporters to fill the new stadium. Like many of us, once you go a couple of times you are hooked. I joked to friends and work colleagues they are in for a lifetime of ups and downs but maybe this time with the London Stadium they might not be.

I must say that this aspect of allowing young kids to see West Ham at an affordable price is pissing off other clubs supporters in Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd etc enormously. It's struck a chord.

SecondOpinion 9:12 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

I was once working class (and ashamed of it as I had expected higher levels, but my dad was a postman and my mum was a cleaner, so tough shit on me)

Anyway......because we were poor, and lived in Plumstead, I used to get the bus to the Woolwich Ferry, then the 101 to Barking Road. I paid the 1 shilling to get in the ground and then after the game walked back to the Woolwich Ferry and then onwards to home.
Sometimes I had the luxury of geeting the bus to the ground and back to the ferry, but only then because I could NEVER EVER could afford a burger, coke or any other snack. I once bought a bag of peanuts and when I told my mum this, she went mental at the sheer waste and luxury.
Sometimes, because we were so poor, I walked to and from the ground and waited until half time to get in free.
I did this for my love of West Ham, to see players like Hurst, Moore and Peters.

Beer? Food? On a match day? Do me a favour.

PS. I've done well in life and no longer consider myself working class.

one iron 9:23 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Good article mate. i think we all have to make our minds up do we go or do we stop. i cant stop first went when i was five now 62,love westham and will try and warm to the new ground and new ways.New gold and sullivan would rip the arse out of it, and still think the cheap football will only last two seasons. then we will be sold.

Sven Roeder 9:37 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

I think working class people are smart enough to find the food and drink options that suit them around about the stadium on a match day.

On The Ball 9:41 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

The atmosphere lacked something?

He clearly can't remember the Europa games from last year where the atmosphere was just a constant murmur of people chatting about their holidays.

It reminds me of those "articles" slamming the Olympics in 2012 after someone spotted an empty seat on day one and scweamed that the whole thing was a disaster.

WHUDeano 9:41 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class

Don't suppose there were too many working class fans who could afford £95 for a ticket against Spurs last season either...it hasn't been a working mans sport for years.

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