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WHUDeano
9:41 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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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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one iron
9:42 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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First match vs domzale the clubshop took 169k,
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RichyP
9:53 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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I love a decent burger and don't mind paying a couple of quid extra for one, but for me that's not the point, i do miss getting a dirty double cheese burger outside from a van outside the ground. I miss the greasy taste and the smell of the onions, this maybe mis placed nostslgia and i know we're only 2 games in, but i'm hoping the old burger vans figure out where they can pitch up. Obviously they're banned from the olympic park, but maybe along the high street or along carpenters road.
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Harry Hill
10:00 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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Good article I thought. Hammered home to me that he was right we didn't do fuck all to stop the move just rolled over and let them rip the heart out.
Do you think a vote of season tickets holders/members would of vetoed a move? Who knows we never had a voice.
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Private Dancer
10:07 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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''it hasn't been a working mans sport for years''
So tell me, if it's no longer a working mans sport who are these hundreds of thousand people that are filling football grounds up and down the country every week? Are they all Horrah Henry's?
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Sir Alf
10:22 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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Country, culture, demographics of the UK have not been working class since 1970s before Thatcher when we began the journey from industrial age to information age and from manufacturing / industry to services.
Football supporters working class identification was from their parents and grandparents and largely nostalgia. We all got sucked into consumerism from the 1980s and are now at its mercy. Consumer goods are the new "opium of the masses"
*** Turns on plasma TV with iPhone ***
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w4hammer
10:34 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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says a bloke writing for the morning star, circulation about 23....! Talk about a different era...
Dont get me wrong, there's alot about the current game and our move that many of us dont agree with however the move away from a "what shall we do today , stay in the bookies or pop down the ground " to choice between paying the mortgage and attending a game or two started with the taylor report and got supersized with the success of the premier league.
I dont understand with the increases in attendance, TV money and all the add-ons why every club keeps reaching into the pockets of us, however there's many ways to do football on the cheap- i was sat in an excellent seat last week- £400 odd for 18 games ? £22 is unbelievable value. Do you need the gujons and popcorn? no
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holyhandgrenade
10:37 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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East Ham Bull 7:03 Sat Aug 13
Well said.
The whole article stank of Morning Star pre-conceptions and nostagia for salmonella.
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Harry Hill
10:39 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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w4hammer. Valid points. I think the pros and cons could go on for years. In many ways the move similar to that of the brexit arguments.
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Harry Hill
10:41 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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Shame Farage weren't a hammer
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Irish Hammer
10:43 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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But don't the working class all strive and bust their balls all their lives to get out of the working class and have a better more fulfilling life
Why can't a football club do it as well ?
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Lily Hammer
10:44 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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Up until last year, I always summarised the changes by saying that in the 80s, when I first started going to matches, a low paid working class teenager had to spend an hour's wages to get in behind the goal......at that sort of price any working class dad can easily reach into his pocket and tell his son to go and watch the Hammers, maybe even take a mate, without emptying the pocket.
The last few years, it costs the low paid working class lad a whole day's wages to get a cheap ticket. 8 times as expensive as 30 odd years ago, but the wages haven't gone up anywhere near as much in the same time period.
Whatever the rip off prices of certain food outlets at the new gaff, the cheap tickets are now more affordable than they've been for ages. The big question is whether the club keep the prices thus for the forseeable, or whether they doo indeed hike the prices up after a handfull of seasons.
We'll have to wait and see of course.
So yeah, there are some fancy prices of food, but it's all swings and roundabouts compared to £99 season tickets for the kids.
When I get the chance to go, I'll be coming from the Bow side more often than not, which is a bit more down to earth. Plenty of nice grubby streets for the old burger vans to line the route to the QE park.
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Queens Fish Bar
10:58 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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What defines working class? This all seems to be about money.
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Coffee
11:04 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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one iron 9:42 Sat Aug 13
Three adult shirts and a pair of kids' shirts?
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Mike Oxsaw
11:06 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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There's "change for the better", and "change for change's sake".
My head tells me the West Ham board went more for the former, my heart feels there is a fair size part of the latter - just to "keep up with the Joneses".
The trouble is, "The Joneses" are the same people who we are in competition with, who we all want the club to batter & better, but we can't do that with "old money" ways.
I don't hear people moaning too much about their shiny new mobile phone - in fact most are now enslaved by it - so they're not averse to change.
If something morphs into what you no longer like, why, like a religious fanatic, keep doing it?
If you hanker for decrepit stadia and dubiously sourced food, find a club that still offers that level of service and follow them - the only person holding a gun to your head and forcing you to say "Why the fuck should i? It's MY fucking club!" is YOU.
But beware if you do that - you'll just end up finding that you want that club to win (more) games, too, and to do that they'll have to upgrade in all areas to be able to do so. Quite possibly in your lifetime, your support and the associated financial contribution that brings will enable them to do so and they will start to outgrow their surroundings. They may move to a shiny new stadium a few miles from where it was when YOU first started following them and, to maintain your pride, dignity and ego, YOU will have to go through the whole thing again.
Some changes are gradual - barely noticeable (see building a new stand at an existing football ground). Some are necessary "step-changes".
The move is one such "step change". Market forces will dictate whether or not enough food sells at the prices quoted in the article for the sellers to find it worthwhile to continue their working class businesses or go back on the rock'n'roll, but those same market forces are not strong enough to part you with your cash at those prices, are they? Someone else, yeah, sure. Clearly not "real supporters".
It's the FANS that make the atmosphere in any ground, therefore it's up to the FANS to adapt to and adopt their new ground and make it "home". Clearly the"fans" at Ashburton Grove don't really care for a noisy atmosphere, so that's what they deliver.
If enough feel they need to stand then more needs to be done to get the regulations changed. The club have effectively said "If you protest by staying away we don't give a fuck because there are 10 people ready and waiting to take your place (so we still rake in a wad, whatever)".
I've got no real independent proof of the clubs claim, but I want MY club to be the best supported club in the world (probably to vindicate my choice in the first place), so my arguing the point would be tantamount to a masochistic act.
That argument will only really hold during the "honeymoon period". Personally I believe that any "stay away" protest should be in the media (social & mass) for the first two years, at least. Associate all and any sponsors with an organisation that delivers what IT wants, not what it's customers actually want.
If money truly talks, get the most money you can to use your words in a language your intended audience understands.
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Your mum
11:18 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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So I'm not working class because I'd rather not eat a £1.50 lips and arseholes burger? Load of shit.
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Hasans Fish Bar RIP
11:26 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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If he's going to quote today's prices at the OS, then he should have quoted recent prices at UP. Can't remember the last time I got a burger for £1.50.
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Bungo
11:27 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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I prefer the hooves and eyebrows version myself.
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BERNABEU JIM
11:38 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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The fact is that the term Working Class Club went years ago . I for one loved Upton Park and was gutted to leave . But really lets moved on and I don't think we will ever recreate what we had ,but I am sure we will create something different .
As far as the comment 'fans didn't fight hard enough against the move ' is just Rubbish no one fought at all because even the fans who did not want change knew it was the right thing to do. There were no protests no banners .
Get over it and get behind the team ........
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,
11:51 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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The writer is lamenting change.
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greenie1
11:54 Sat Aug 13
Re: West Ham are no longer a club for the working class
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Top flight football left the working class behind years ago.
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