Board/Fan Relationship

SuzanneClaret

Do you think the owners of Citeh were fans before they bought the club?

IronHerb

Probably not Suze but then they didn't claim that they were.

Macca85

Fair point.
They saw the possible future potential of the OS
The thing that disappoints me is there a some things that for not huge money they could possibly do to make things a little better to appease some fans.
Maybe look to increase the rent to pay for the naming rights ourselves.
Re name the other two stands at the OS after west ham legends
Re name Rush Green after a west ham legend

Just little touches i feel will go a long way

imo

deehammer

West Ham offered to help secure a sponsor but were told no by the stadium owners!

OldCastleSwift

On the subject of the stadium, Slav has been quoted as saying the LS "isn't a football stadium". Unfortunately the link isn't working properly so I can't put it up.

I wonder if the players feel the same way ;hmm Players on the books will say they like it, no doubt, but I'd be interested to know the thoughts of the likes of Sakho and Fonte on the subject.

Macca85

Dee
Maybe instead of offering to help we should offer some money and name it ourselves

Macca85

Old castle

It’s not a football stadium anyone who’s been will tell you the same hand on there heart

ianbishoplegend

Other teams don’t seem to have much of a problem with the stadium or pitch.

billybondsbeard

ianbishoplegend said:

Other teams don’t seem to have much of a problem with the stadium or pitch.

Why should they - they are playing away. There is much more bound up in playing well at home.

Poshhammer

grey_til_I_dye said:

He denies that he invested in his boyhood club because he also saw the prospect of a lucrative move to the Olympic stadium. "I swear to you that it wasn't until we got into the club that we realised the potential," he says.

Gold and Sullivan spoke about the potential move to the Olympic stadium in their press conference on the day they bought the club. So how could they have found out the potential after they bought the club?

Macca85

They are funny our owners lol

Cuz1

Economical with there version of events I’d say

MunichHammer

billybondsbeard said:

ianbishoplegend said:

Other teams don’t seem to have much of a problem with the stadium or pitch.

Why should they - they are playing away. There is much more bound up in playing well at home.

We have lost 2 of our last ten home games this season, one of them to Liverpool. This cakendar year we have taken 8 points out of a possible 12. And that is despite an injury crisis.
I think we are getting there. Upton Park was usually no real benefit to us as far as I can remember.

OldCastleSwift

But it isn't solely about our performances in the respective stadiums.

It's also (and arguably more importantly) about the experience for the fans.

And, for me at least, Upton Park and the Green Street walk were a thousand times better than the Stratford experience.

Yeoldhammer

Poshhammer

Absolutely brilliant. And it's all true ;cool

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

MunichHammer said:

I think we are getting there. Upton Park was usually no real benefit to us as far as I can remember.

I have to ask, how many times did you go to UP? Perhaps you only saw drab affairs, poor results or lack of atmosphere?

over 30 years I’m eternally grateful to of spent many many happy times in that stadium, our home and on plenty of occassion it was a 12th man, especially on some of those famous night games.

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

I think the point Munich is making is that our home form this year is probably pretty close to how it was for almost every PL season we had at Upton Park.

In my lifetime it has never, even been a fortress. Yes, it would come alive in big games, especially at night, and it would be a special place to be.

But I went to over 150 games at Upton Park myself, and for every tremendous performance there were two average and one terrible. I’ve seen sour atmospheres and sat in silent crowds and watched us be humiliated at home by Wolves or Bolton or thrashed by big teams.

The bigger issue is one of sentiment rather than form now, IMO, as at the LS I think we are muddling along like we were in any other PL season at UP. We’ve had some big performances and big atmospheres in the new stadium already.

IMO it will take 10 years before it feels like home, for a lot of the kinks to be worked out and memories built. I’ve just accepted that. I don’t think it’s the end of the world, really.

Hamstew

The Boleyn was so much more than the results, league position and quality of our football team. And it was ours.

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

Which is why I said the bigger issue is about sentiment rather than about form ;ok

Hamstew

Yes I know. Was more of a general comment regarding Munich's post

MunichHammer

Cherrs Jorderz, that was pretty much what I meant. I have only been to UP a few times due to my not living in the UK and I rely a lot on commentary. From what I heard the crowd was able to get behind the team and play the 12th man but more often than not over the past 25-30 years it didn't. Anything before that I could't say.

It's a mixture of things, all of which would probably be accepted by itself but a new stadium takes time to feel like home. Only once have I seen a new stadium be accepted right away and becoming a place where results come even in the first season. But that was an ice hockey stadium that fits 2500 or so, so not comparable.

If the results were there, I doubt people would give the stadium such grief. True, opposition fans seem to mention it kn every opposition view on kumb but then again they often are on the losing side and will use any stick to belittle us.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Okay Munich thanks for the reply, for your information the crowd did play a part in the last 25-30 years and on occassion the atmosphere was fantastic, but again as someone who went to a few of those that is still just my opinion.

And yes in my life time it has been a fortress on occassion.

I accept the LS was never going to do it overnight but whatever happens, I will never forget or dismiss the times had in the Boleyn a truly iconic English football ground

;ok

MunichHammer

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard said:

but whatever happens, I will never forget or dismiss the times had in the Boleyn a truly iconic English football ground

;ok

That was never my intention. It just seems to me that comparisons of the two stadia are often like comparing heaven to hell.

billybondsbeard

The most pertinent comparisom of the two stadia is the one of ownership IMO

Fortuneseeker

You just need to listen to the visiting players who have played there to know how important Upton Park was to us due to the atmosphere generated.

MrsGrey

I can think of many visiting players who have gleefully noted how easy it was to get the home crowd on the players' backs.

grey_til_I_dye

Seems to me that, a bit like our reputation for producing home-grown players, the 'fortress Upton Park' became more myth than fact over the last decade or more.

Like any ground, when the home fans were rocking, the opposition would have found it a bit harder, but equally, they knew that getting an early goal could turn the crowd in a heartbeat.

I'd say it is up to the fans who go to the LS to decide how much atmosphere they are interested in creating.

Clearly, there have already been some games there which have seen the place rocking, so it's not like there is something inherent in the stadium that prevents an atmosphere from being generated.

SuzanneClaret

The thing is, atmosphere is created by the fans.

The LS can and has ‘rocked’ when the fans have wanted. You can’t blame the ground for a poor atmosphere, that’s on us.

Hamstew

That is correct but there are a lot of tourists and vocal fans scattered around. If you know what I mean. That will improve over time hopefully