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Lily Hammer
3:05 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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Well done for at least making an effort, Chester. I will join up if it's only three beans.
I will however express my doubts about how "more bubbles machines" can make it to any kind of priority list.
At the end of the day, if it is an orgainsiation of West Ham fans that is independant of the club, but has the ear of the owners, it has to be better than nothing, especially for me living abroad.
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ChesterRd
2:56 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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Pervy, I understand what you are saying and it is something we are aware of.
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BRANDED
2:51 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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People are complaining at £3?
Fucking hell. We're fucking doomed.
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ChesterRd
2:51 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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North Bank, sorry it is not another talking shop and you are being unfair.
WHUISA aliong with other clubs ISA and the FSF have just successfully stopped the Christmas Eve fixtures. WHUISA were at the meeting that was attended by Scudamore.
WHUISA was onto the club straight away when they tried to change the club cash last season. Terms and conditions had been sneaked in half way through the season meaning many people would have lost their money. The club backed down and extended to cut off to use club cash til the end of this season
WHUISA made representations to the club about fans paying money for Champions Place stones over a year ago and not getting anything. The club had taken down the relevant web pages on the official site and were not replying to fans. Our email to the club resulted in the Champions Place web pages going back up with an update that the promise of stones being laid in October which they have been as I understand it.
These are all results, there have been others. Please re read what I posted about why WHUISA is not the SAB and why the club can't block us engaging with football governance.
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Terrywait
2:43 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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ChesterRd 2:39 Mon Oct 23
Just interested really, appreciate the answers
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Northern Sold
2:42 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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This article Chester??
West Ham United fans still don’t feel at home in ‘soulless’ London Stadium
Alyson Rudd discovers broken promises and not enough bubbles at former Olympic venue
On the very same day that a West Ham United supporters’ match-day hub opened at the London Stadium, the 70-year-old supporters’ club back at the old Boleyn Ground was forced to close.
It is tempting to see some deep significance in the events a few weeks ago, to suppose that fans have moved on both literally and metaphorically and are getting to grips with life in their new home. Nothing could be further from the truth. The London Stadium is not yet home, the fans bemoan its lack of community spirit and believe the match-day experience is far removed from what was promised.
West Ham have gone for the cheap option, in classic Del Boy fashion, but the people who are millionaires are the board and players.
This evening marks the first home game for the club since the victory over Swansea City last month, a game in which neither the players nor the fans bothered to make an effort until the last ten minutes. As apathy mingled with jeers it seemed as if the whole concept of home advantage had evaporated.
The original supporters’ club building is something of a cause célèbre and a crowdfunding initiative has been launched to renovate it so that it can meet the health and safety requirements that were breached and led to its closure. “We’ve lost enough as it is with leaving the Boleyn, we don’t want to lose any more,” Paul Christmas, chairman of the West Ham United Independent Supporters’ Association (WHUISA), explains.
This does not represent a refusal to accept the death of Upton Park. Christmas says that the ideal outcome would be for there to be two supporters’ clubs, the original one, formed in 1947, and a new one at the London Stadium. “The fans have had so much change they are looking for some of the old experiences they had at Upton Park to help cushion the blow,” he says.
The contrast between the match-day routine for games at the Boleyn and games at the new ground could not be more stark and is at the heart of why there is often little in the way of a decent atmosphere inside the stadium. “We are tenants in a semi-converted athletics stadium while our London rivals have or will have state-of-the-art, purpose-built football stadiums,” Christmas says.
“West Ham have gone for the cheap option, in classic Del Boy fashion, but the people who are millionaires are the board and players. The fans are trying to make it our home but it’s not easy.”
It hurts that Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea are developing stadiums at their original grounds. “We are going to a stadium but it could be anyone’s,” Kim Perryman, a season ticket-holder says. “Spurs at Wembley has fan parks sorted and branded it well and they are only there for a season, while we are at the London Stadium for the next 98 years.”
The grumbles start early on match day. The Westfield shopping centre does not welcome fans and the walks from the various stations are long and boring. “We have moved from the centre of an urban community to a vast expanse of a park with little infrastructure,” Christmas says. “With there being so many stakeholders it takes time for any meaningful change to come about, if at all. The fans have to focus on what West Ham can actually do. In reality, that is little.”
Perryman accepts that the club have made some welcome changes after the mistakes of the first season. Stewards are friendlier, fans have been able to sit with their mates and the club ditched its policy of putting tourists behind the goal which made robust singing impossible. Karren Brady, the vice-chairman, meets regularly with bloggers to get their feedback and the club have introduced 40 match-day supporter liaison officers who listen to gripes.
Perryman, a WHUISA committee member, likes her seat and her view but had to pay £300 more for it than she did at Upton Park. “It does feel temporary and, inside, looks temporary,” she says. “There is disillusionment over what we were promised. Retractable seating was promised across the track and that never happened. We know we’re only tenants and no more important than a rock concert.
“There has to be far more engagement. There is a feeling that, as long as we pay our money, they don’t care.”
Christmas believes the promise that the club would shift to the next level in performance has been broken. “The fans have kept their side of the bargain as they have sold out 52,000 season tickets,” he says. “A team that is successful and entertains, we will respond to that. The board pledged we would go to the next level. That would help to melt away a few of the issues.
“The pledge of a solution to the distance of seats to pitch failed when the proposed company went bust so we have scaffolding for the lower tier. Fans were very close at Upton Park, now few are within ten yards of the pitch — the vast majority are 20 to 90 yards away.”
For the match-day vibe of old to be replicated, the restructuring of the Olympic Park has to be finished and that could take 20 years which, as Perryman says, “is a long time to wait”.
In the meantime, the WHUISA wants better lighting and sign posting, improved access for disabled fans, more team information on the big screens, a few more bubble machines, cheaper food and beer, scarf and badge sellers and market stalls. “We’re trying to keep the spit and sawdust element,” Christmas says. “We had a vibrant atmosphere pre-match at Upton Park. We’ve got none of that now, it’s very soulless.”
Good read apart for the MORE bubble machines !!
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cup of tea
2:41 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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Total waste of time
The end
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ChesterRd
2:39 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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Terrywait, I am not the treasurer so please feel free to address your question through the WHUISA website.
I've personally spent over £50 of my own money on trains attending committee meetings and countless hours of my time. We are all volunteers.
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Pervy McBeer
2:37 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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So you'll have a bunch of members who have paid 3 quid and then a load that haven't because they joined after you had raised enough money to get started. Not exactly fair. Rather than have 5,000 on 3 quid and 5,000 on zero, why not lower the original subscription and hope that it attracts more people?
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franksfat&slow&wank
2:37 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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you're wasting your time
these cunts in charge don't give a fuck
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North Bank
2:35 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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Chester it's just another talking shop whose direction have already been replicated by the Club toady's SAB, looking at their aims it's tough to know what they actually hope to achieve
What we need is someone to challenge the Board, this site has always been a dissenting voice and irritant to the Club, which is why they blacklisted us when our name was put forward to be on the SAB. We were also dismissed by that utter cunt Iain Dale and his boyfriend Sean Whetstone who advised against us
What we need is a more radical movement but there seems no will for that, we couldn't even mobilise against moving to the OS, other than a few whinging on here
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ChesterRd
2:31 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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Hence my post on here trying to raise its profile.
We are in the process of getting the website revamped and getting leaflets etc Which costs money hence the need to subs at the moment.
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Terrywait
2:26 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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ChesterRd 2:25 Mon Oct 23
Out of interest what costs do you have that warrant that kind of money? (genuine question)
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ChesterRd
2:25 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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No, we don't want £60,000 of fans money, the aim is to scrap the membership fee and run on donations but we need some money initially to get up and running properly, I've personally spend over £50 to attend meetings, we are all volunteers.
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,
2:24 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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Perhaps it's a case of the existence of the association being not widely known then.
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ChesterRd
2:22 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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The main reason is that other clubs ISA's have been going for much longer, West Ham are one of the last to have one. I think only Stoke in the PL don't have one. It is fair to say that West Ham's version of what engagement with the fans should be is at odds with how other clubs operate.
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Terrywait
2:20 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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20,000 members at £3 a pop = £60,000
Not surprised you want people to join.....
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ChesterRd
2:18 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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I'll add that there are some decent people at the club who we have worked with successfully resolving issues that have been brought to WHUISA attention so it is not a moaning shop at the club. We keep our coms with the club constructive and professional
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,
2:17 Mon Oct 23
Re: West Ham Independent Supporters Association / WHUISA
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Have you thought about why there are so few members in comparison with the other clubs you mentioned. Are WHU supporters significantly different to others in their attitudes and views for example?
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