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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.
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