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West Ham United - so nearly us

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  • Talking of stewards, and without wanting come across as an anything-for-a-moan-it's-all-about-me type, it felt a bit unnecessary to be searched twice going into the game on Saturday. I always have my bag searched at the turnstile, and it's become a bit of an ongoing joke with the two regular stewards as it's always the same things in there - a flask and a couple of Mars Bars for the kids. But I was also stopped and searched going in the main gates this week. When I said I always got searched at the turnstile this steward said it was because he didn't recognise my face. Given I've barely missed a home game in nearly 40 years, I suggested that said more about him than me and he got a bit snotty.

    I'm all for security searches but at what point does a fat old dad accompanied by two young kids need searching twice just to go into a 4th Division football match? Usually the gate is manned by a friendly steward actively welcoming fans to the ground. Am I being an unreasonable old git?

  • Interesting article @StrongestTeam. Out of interest, what do we pay stewards and catering staff? I presume they're on zero-hours contracts - do they get the living wage or more? Or are many of them considered 'volunteers' and not paid a penny? I've always felt slightly uncomfortable about our boasts about having one of the lowest ticket prices. I'd gladly pay more than £13 a match to stand in the terrace if that meant a commensurate rise in the salaries of the non-playing, non-managerial staff who do so much to keep this football club operational.

  • I hadn't seen that Peter, thank you.

    They have had a couple of bad seasons. Is that really an excuse for such behaviour? Did they really expect to be champions league straight away every season?

  • It's been a while since dev turned up. Monday just got better

  • Isn't the issue that the West Ham stewards are supplied by a company outside the club.
    I daresay had we moved to Hayes Rugby Dome after being promised the earth and found the football club underfunded and playing in a three quarters empty morgue we would also feel somewhat aggrieved. Luckily that could never happen.

  • There are some still at our club, who used to grovel at the feet of Sharky, and endorsed his 'Rugby Stad'.
    For a man who often declared his love for WWFC, you dont see him at many/any games these days, let alone buying drinks for supporters on the coaches at away games.

  • Having said all that...I cannot see how they thought going onto the pitch was going to help their players win the game. Surely it's a case of stay up and then sack the board. Once you're in the Championship you can be down there a looooooooooong time.

  • Sorry and surprised to hear of your experience, @MindlessDrugHoover.

    I walk in with my 15 year old son onto the terraces every week and have never yet had a steward ask to look through my invariably heavily stuffed coat pockets. Would be very embarrassed if one did since they tend to be filled with old tickets and various other bits of rubbish that I'm too lazy to empty out when I get home. Maybe it's the fact of your bag, which would make sense but be somewhat inconsistent with sense since I could get a party bag of smoke grenades into the ground in my pockets if I wanted (I imagine). I've always put it down to the fact that I look old and respectable. Assuming you carry a similarly unthreatening appearance, I'm thinking it's the bag.

  • Sorry you were searched because the steward didn't recognise your face?

    DOFL

  • @peterparrotface said:
    Sorry you were searched because the steward didn't recognise your face?

    DOFL

    That's not what I was saying though is it? That was an aside that at the time I tried to make a joke of. My point was why do I suddenly need to be searched twice just to get into a football ground?

  • @MindlessDrugHoover Perhaps they've started linking Gasroom usernames via some sort of biometrics and you're a prime suspect for smuggling illicit substances into the ground?

  • If a flask full of gallows humour is now on the proscribed list, I'm off.

  • This is getting more interesting.

  • @MindlessDrugHoover said:
    That's not what I was saying though is it? That was an aside that at the time I tried to make a joke of. My point was why do I suddenly need to be searched twice just to get into a football ground?

    You said the steward said it? Was the steward joking then?

    You don't need to be searched at all.

  • Sorry @peterparrotface, maybe I misread your post (I'd only had one cup of tea, so brain not fully functioning). Be thankful you don't have to sit at the breakfast table with me.

  • I got into Adams Park in the mid nineties with a pair of garden shears.

  • @LX1 said:
    I got into Adams Park in the mid nineties with a pair of garden shears.

    I don't remember the grass ever being that long!

  • Seems they are not allowed to brand the stadium for the club in any way and their seats are about a mile away from the action (or something) because of the athletics track. I assume there are flats on the Boelyn by now.

  • @StrongestTeam but they ran out of sausages before 2pm...f@5king embarrassing

  • @Wendoverman said:
    Seems they are not allowed to brand the stadium for the club in any way and their seats are about a mile away from the action (or something) because of the athletics track. I assume there are flats on the Boelyn by now.

    Yes there are. I did a job on that site (please!) last November and noticed a memorial stone and possibly ashes there of a late Hammers supporter. What will happen to them, will they be moved to the London Stadium? Doubt it, poor blokes dying wish was to be there at every home game. Wonder if he is aware!

  • If he is still aware, he should sue the b*gger who shoved him in the urn......

    football clubs move grounds - it happens.

    While mr Strongest article makes some interesting points (in particular don't tell me how I feel), perhaps I am being thick but I cant quite get to the bottom of whether the gripe is whether the team isn't very good and they have made some bad player choices or the gripe is about the stadium per se. it seems to be a combination of both perhaps.

    I do wonder if part of the symptoms of general ennui in society and the desire for immediate gratification driven by the internet and the tendency for social media to drive black or white rather than nuanced opinions.

    For what is worth I would expect ten years from now West Ham to be an upper middle premier league team with some highs and lows along the way. Not every club can be a Chelsea or a Man City.

  • @DevC I am sure that there are some West Ham fans that believed that playing in a big stadium was a golden ticket to the Champions League. But they are in the minority for sure.
    The squad building and player recruitment is certainly a major gripe.
    But without doubt the biggest problem West Ham fans have is the appalling match day experience. From views to access the whole place is not fit for football. It’s an athletics stadium that has to remain that.
    The owners lied about the match day experience and seating prior to the move and then wonder why there are problems. Upton Park was a glorious place for football if you were a fan (maybe not a corporate) but The London Stadium is a vacuum of anything resembling a home for the football club.
    Spurs are currently showing West Ham what can be achieved and Chelsea will also have a football stadium that befits a top club in England. That just makes it worse.

  • I wouldn't bother trying to engage him on match day experience. Bit out of his area of expertise

  • The London Stadium is utterly dreadful. I got tickets to sit in with the Palace fans in the away end and even they couldn't drum up a modicum of atmosphere.

  • Oh the wit Eric.....

    I am not sure I have a huge amount of patience with supporters invading the pitch and terrifying kids to protest against a few bad player choices. I liked Bilic as an individual but seems he had lost the plot a bit by the end. Moyes was an odd appointment.

    Re the stadium , well I cant say I have been either as a football stadium or athletics but I do note that Tottenham proposed to knock it down and rebuild and I do remember from old Wembley that athletics stadia and football stadia don't fit that well together.

    on the other hand the increased receipts and very good deal they have got will go some way towards securing a long term premiership future for West Ham that they perhaps otherwise would have been less likely to secure. to be fair though, with TV revenues so dominant these days, perhaps less of a benefit than would be expected.

    I presume they are locked into a lease now, so suspect they are pretty much stuck with the stadium for foreseeable future. whether they improve the team depends as ever on recruiting the best players they can.

  • The West Ham fans I know were all crowing about getting such a good deal on the stadium, getting the taxpayer to subsidise its redevelopment so they they could concentrate all their Premier League riches on the playing staff. They were actively rejoicing in getting one over us all. Such hubris. Maybe if the club had been willing to enter into a proper partnership with Newham and invested its own riches in the stadium redevelopment they would have a better match day experience now. Personally, I hope they get relegated and stay down.

  • Would also like to see West Ham go down.
    Yes they have us some world cup winners, and that glorious crop of youngsters, like Cole, Ferdinand and Lampard, but they also have more than their fair share of utter goons in their support. Their owners are fairly loathsome characters too.

  • If it all goes tits up I'm sure Orient will let them groundshare Brisbane Road.

  • Do you really not get what is bothering long-term West Ham fans about the move from their beloved stadium @DevC ? Or are you just stirring. You would not want the Chairboys playing in a vast empty stadium branded for - let's say - a rugby club would you?

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