tnb
11:00 Tue Sep 20
Re: Bonzo has his say on the OS
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Fuck it, this is going to be a long one but no apologies.
Dicksie,
I can only speak for myself, but as I said it is a decent ground (NOT a football stadium, by definition, as it was built as an Athletics stadium - that's not a dig as plenty of other grounds have come from the same beginnings, in Munich and Rome and even Manchester, but it IS a fact) which could be a very decent one indeed once we settle in. For my part, I was very pleasantly surprised on my first visit and there are indeed advantages AS WELL AS disadvantages, both of which are inevitable in any comparison and do not need to be mutually exclusive. Some of those advantages you have already outlined, to which I would add ease of access in terms of getting into and out of the ground quickly and, albeit as you may see elsewhere I haven't braved Stratford station yet, in terms of transport. Hackney Wick works perfectly for me and is a damn sight quicker than the walk to/from East Ham or Plaistow by my reckoning, unless I've just got quicker at walking over the summer. I was also very pleased to hear that much of the feedback from the Domzale and Juve games actually more or less mirrored my own first impressions - the majority, then, seemed to agree that it was to a greater or lesser extent better than they'd expected.
Since then, however, things have soured - and that's not so much down to the stadium itself as the way things have been handled. And, yes, inevitably that gives grist to the mill of those who were always keen to find the negatives. But to suggest everyone who currently has concerns is a whinger who isn't prepared to give the move a chance is unfair. I'm probably still 50-50, but I have spoken to a lot of other supporters who, as I say, were initially positive but are now moving to focus on the problems - and there ARE problems - because of the general atmosphere around the club right now. Like me, I suspect a large number of those people wanted the move to work and most (I hope) still do. But you can't really blame them for the way things have deteriorated. It's not a conspiracy, but it's a big shame. If Brady wasn't behaving as she has, if the stewarding was better, etc, I guarantee you that people wouldn't be so bothered about the astroturf over the running track or the sails or whatever they're called covering the gaps, and they probably would be more interested in the decent beer and so on.
But this is not the fault of 'knicker wetting' (to use a WHO bingo phrase) fans. But it needs addressing and ASA fucking P because as you rightly suggest, we have an opportunity to make something good out of this move but the longer the current situation continues the harder that is going to be.
You suggest people are expecting too much. Well let me tell you some of the, rather basic I feel, things I expect - or in some cases rather what I don't expect.
1) I do not expect announcements of a 60k capacity as if it is a done deal, only to later discover that the relevant permissions were not yet in place. I especially do not expect the club to then go into 'deny and attack' mode and try to blame the PR cock up on the fans.
2) I do not expect to be misled (at best) about the issues behind point 1 as anyone with half a brain can tell you that the stadium does not know when the game has started or even when a football game is on as opposed to, for example, a Beyonce concert - and so how does one situation automatically become unsafe while another (ie standing up at half time) is fine? Standing may be inconsiderate in some areas, but it is patently not unsafe - and even the league's own regulations accept that. There is something else going on here, and we deserve to be told the truth - although, leading on from above, of course if it's all about standing then all the blame can be conveniently placed on the fans.
3) I do not expect misleading statements about a family area circa 2015 to become a 'family friendly stadium' a year or so later. And, to switch it around, if I were taking a small child over I would not expect to be sold a kid's ticket in an area where the club know they have also sold tickets to people from areas such as the Bobby Moore Lower at UP who have been promised 'comparable seats'. Both those things cannot be true. No one comes out of that situation happy.
4) I expect a basic level of stewarding competence. I also expect that a radio issue which was identified years ago to have been addressed because policing in a large football ground, whether mandatory or not, is a fucking common sense requirement. And no....those things are not necessarily in the club's control as tenants. But I WOULD expect the club to have done some due diligence on such things and demanded them before merrily signing off on the move and telling all and sundry that everything would be perfect. I certainly would expect a basic standard of segregation between home and away fans. Family friendly stadium? Imagine if that had happened if we got Millwall, or Cardiff or Leeds for example, in the next round of the cup.
5) I do not expect to see West Ham fans fighting in the stands over an artifically created divide between 'real' West Ham and others. I especially don't expect our CEO to sit in the stand looking over her realm with a big grin like the Queen of Sheba while it goes on, and then write a column for a newspaper accepting none of the blame for the poisonous mood that created it. I especially don't expect this to happen at 2-0 up when we have all been enjoying some wonderful attacking football - ok not wonderful defending - and to bring the atmosphere down to that of a funeral in an instant. Who knows whether that had any effect on the pitch, but the stats suggest it may well have as did my eyes on the day.
6) i expect the ticket office to be up and running properly from game one, to be honest. I woudl certainly expect it to be doing so by games three, four, five etc. I still don't know if I'm supposed to have a paper ticket or not for tomorrow or whether it is loaded onto my season ticket, and from the responses from the staff on the phone I am not going to know until I turn up, as was the case against Juve when two of us with season tickets next to each other were separately sent paper tickets with the names of two different stands on them. Teething problems? Maybe. But see points 1 to 5 above for why I and others may not have much patience left.
7) I do not expect fans of other clubs to be sitting in home seats. I don't care if Brady wants 'neutral' fans, anyone who knows anything about football doesn't and never will.
8) I do not expect to be humiliated by Watford - Watford! - fans who must have been laughing their heads off at the fact they were allowed Again, why is it safe for them to do so and not us? I felt exactly how they must have felt at the Emirates a couple of seasons ago when the Arsenal fans next to us sat in silence all game and we came away thinking we'd taken over their turf, to use a cringey analogy. I never, ever, thought that the owners of my club would be actively trying to encourage us to be on the other side of that. Why is it one rule for the people who pay their wages all year and another for those who turn up for about 2 hours once a season?
Is all that too much to ask? I don't think so. And yes a lot of that refers to the standing issue, but there's a reason it has become such an issue and it could have all been so much better dealt with. I am still unconvinced that there isn't an underlying agenda here and that while the board were initially happy to promise old school fans the earth, and make a big fuss about 'Farewell Boleyn', they are now looking to phase those fans out in the pursuit of a new clientele. And there's another point - all those videos of the crowd at the Man Utd game that they were happy to promote like crazy, if the board were so terrified of the safety issues around standing why were they promoting such inherently dangerous behaviour?Again, maybe I and others are being paranoid. But the environment that creates that potential paranoia has come from somewhere.
None of this is down to the stadium, per se, in terms of bricks and mortar etc. But it is having a masive effect on the way people are viewing the place. To pretend otherwise is head in the sand stuff and actually gets people further away from what, presumably, you want which is everyone saying "wow what a great ground". SURELY you must see that?
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