Take a walk around a council estate - though best don't do it late at night! Look at the lack of pride in the neighbourhood, at the sense of deprivation, at the sense of hopelessness. Then visit a road of owner occupiers. Feel the change, the sense of mini castles, of pride of owning a home, the sense of self respect.
I have heard a lot of twaddle about how a move to the Olympic Stadium is necessary for us to move "to the next level", as if moving to a 60,000 stadium is a passport to success, a guarantee of Champions League football. Look at Arsenal! Look at Man Utd! Look at...
Well if a 60,000 stadium is necessary and will take us to the new level, can anybody explain why the Kids for a Quid scheme was necessary to fill Upton Park for the first home game of the season against Bolton and why there were still 2000 empty seats? Can anybody explain why only 20,000 showed up for the Oxford game when a dad and son could get in for just £15? Can anybody explain why one game in, Goldfinger and Scullimanga were offering 5% discounts on season tickets? Can anybody explain why the mini season ticket offer was available for the last 6 games of last season, at heavily discounted prices? Can anybody explain why there is not a waiting list for season tickets and why there are not dozens of filthy rich touts working Green Street on match days? Our business savvy owners want to double the ground capacity and yet there is only excess demand for tickets for about 25% of our home games. That doesn't make great business sense to me.
Of course Basher and Goldie Horn say they want to reduce prices, to make the game accessible to kids and the poor. It's a lovely idea but I don't buy it personally. Why spend £100million (the Davids' estimate, not mine) if your revenue is not going to increase because ticket prices are reduced to fill the stadium? What sort of business model is that?
The brutal truth is that we are not a big club and moving to a big stadium won't transform us into one. Newcastle have a lovely stadium. That didn't stop them being relegated two seasons ago did it, and when did they last win a trophy? Tottenham's average home gate is only a few thousand more than ours and White Shite Lane fully deserves that nickname, yet they are in the Champions League regardless and are a much wealthier club than we have ever been and are ever likely to be. Yes they want to move to a new stadium but, as much as this may rankle, they have a much bigger fan base and they will fill it without discount schemes and without reducing prices. Moving to a new stadium MAY take Tottenham to the next level but that doesn't mean it will do the same for us. Would a transfer to the Olympic Stadium turn Orient into a big club? Of course not. Matches would simply be played in the footballing equivalent of a ghost town. And no, I am not comparing us to Orient, I am simply using an extreme example to highlight the flawed logic.
And here is another awkward question: do we really want to move to the next level? Do we support West Ham because we want to support a team that wins things, like the plastic fans of Chelsea and the Londoners who support Manchester United, or do we support West Ham because of the heritage and traditions of the club and because of the geographical location? I support West Ham because I was born in East Ham. My father supported West Ham for the same reason. My son supports West Ham because his Dad was born in East Ham and because he would have been put in a children's home if he had supported any other club!
Before the last game of last season, I took my son to Gaitskell House in Katherine Road, where my grandparents used to live, and we "walked the walk" that I used to walk with my father on match days when I was an excited kid going to Upton Park. My father has been dead for more than 20 years, but during that walk he was alive, walking at my shoulder, moaning about Clyde Best in exactly the same way that fans on the way to the Man City game that day were moaning about Carlton Cole. I could hear him, see him, feel the pride in having a Dad who supported West Ham, the club of Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and Bobby Moore. The houses were the same, the blocks of flats were the same, the railway bridge was the same. We even stood and waited for a train to go underneath so I could remember the excitement I used to feel as a kid when that happened.
Green Street has changed - but not much. The shops have changed and the market has a roof and the Asian community has swelled over the decades since my early journeys to the ground but Green Street is still Green Street - not a stupid film but our home, the home of West Ham United, the home of a footballing community, of a footballing ethos, the cradle of England's World Cup winning team. Green Street is our family home, it is what makes West Ham West Ham, just like our Claret and Blue shirts. Green Street is where we live, where the family has always lived, Green Street is our castle, our family home, the connection with our history, the home of Hurst, Peters, Moore, Greenwood, Lyall, Brooking, Devonshire, Cottee et all. The stadium has changed, almost out of all recognition, but the location hasn't. It is where we belong. We are West Ham because our ground is in Green Street. Move us and we cease to be West Ham, we lose our heritage, we lose our sense of gravity, we actually become the pikeys that Tottenham fans label us, travellers without a home of our own.
Dismiss this as romanticised nonsense if you will but it is far more than that. If we leave the Boleyn, we surrender our soul and like Faustus, we make a pact with the devil that we will live to regret. Without a stadium of it's own, a club has no substance, no roots, it becomes a forlorn council tenant. A move to the Olympic Stadium may not be a stepping stone to the promised land, but towards annihilation, towards name change to West Ham Olympic, then Olympic FC. This site will campaign against the move from this point forward.
"...this site will campaign..." etc and so on. Oh please, just who on earth do you think you are?! This is just the sentimental ramblings of a conservative fool that fears change. You consistently demonstrate that you have no idea about football and no idea about business. Unfortunately, for the likes of you, the two are now intrinsically linked and those that don't embrace that properly and conscientiously go to the wall.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your campaign, on your 'site', will make the world sit up and listen to you oh wise one.
But remember: those that are able to get on in the real world do. Those that can't, teach.
I voted redeveloping the East Stand and Upton Park tube station. Would maybe cost the same as moving into the Olympic stadium but we are still home and the atmosphere would improve immensely with 42.000 supporters!! Although I don't agree with your area around the stadium assessment. Fact is you cant dress up a turd and it's the people that destroy the neighbourhood, if you don't have respect for your surroundings they any amount of work to the area will /would be futile.
ReplyDeleteSame goes for here in Amsterdam, they are redeveloping a run down area and have done a great job but only a few weeks ago I witnessed someone pull up next to a bin wind their window down and drop a blag back full of rubbish in the street next to the bin and drive off.
Nuff said.....
Interesting reply Steven. So please explain why we need a 60,000 stadium when we cannot fill a stadium only just over half that size? That does not make good business sense for the club. What may make good business sense for Gold and Sullivan is to redevelop Upton Park and make a packet personally. The Olympic Stadium is not in West Ham. If we move there, we becaome another MK Dons.
ReplyDeleteYou sound like you have already sold your soul. You also sound like you have swallowed Gold and Sullivan's bull without giving it any proper thought. As I say, the size of a stadium does not guarantee the success of a club. Look at Sheffield Wednesday, Newcastle and Queens Park!
Please, stop creating straw man arguments for your own egotistical benefit.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you answer something. How do you propose the circa £100m debt is paid off before it's all called in?
I'm not defending the area TBI and do not propose investing in it. The property market will see to that - gentrification will come in time, just as it has to Wapping and the Isle of Dogs.
ReplyDeleteWhere has that come from? The £100million debt hasn't been called in has it? And Sullivan and Gold claim the transfer would cost another £100million anyway. If that is true, how would the move help? Answer the big question, what is the point of moving to a bigger ground when we can't fill the current ground for the first home game of the season - even with Kids for a Quid? If we can't seel all the season tickets now, why will demand double after moving to the Olympic Stadium?
ReplyDeletego outside and get some air hammersfan. just think what you could have achieved in the 2 hours it took you to spew up that rubbish. you're just an attention seeking annoyance. good day.
ReplyDeleteTook 20 minutes actually. Can't get out, can't bloody walk! Injured last night playing footy.
ReplyDeleteHammers, who said that the debt had been called in? Just another straw man argument of yours, you t**t.
ReplyDeleteTell me, what are the current running costs for the club in it's current form, in it's current stadium? What is the asset value of the stadium?
yeah, course you were hammers. that would take at least 9 other people to be willing to spend time with you. we all know that aint ever gonna happen.
ReplyDeleteSteven, it would help your argument if you could avoid the childish insults. I quote you, "How do you propose the circa £100m debt is paid off before it's all called in?"
ReplyDeleteI don't know the asset value of the ground. that depends on the planning consent. I would hazard a guess at £60milllion but I might be way off. It's worth a lot more than a tenancy agreement though!
But you keep bringing it back to money. You sound like a Plastic. Are you from West Ham? How long have you been a fan? Have you no sense of the heritage of the club, no sense of tradition? As I say, West Ham is West Ham because of Green Street. Move away from the area and the name suddenly means nothing, as MK Dons prove.
Hockley Hammer
ReplyDeleteWell written Hammers fan,
The only people that are going to benefit from a move to the Olympic stadium are Gold and Sullivan.
I think the Olympics will help redevelop the area anyway. I also think that cars will be banned from Green Street soon and it will become like East Ham High Street North. This may give us a bit more space to expand Upton Park. That extra space in front of the stadium which is used for parking can be utilised. Parking can then be moved to priory park jut behind the stadium.
ReplyDeleteSurely we must be able to get a 40-50,000 seater stadium in that space in this day and age? We could then use the Olympic stadium as a temporary home whilst our new ground is being built.
So Steven, instead of childish insults, how about answering the questions I have asked. And no, I will not post comments which are simply foul mouthed insults. I am happy to post any contributions you make which address issues but, if ALL you want to do is chuck pathetic personal insults, then I suggest you find some short trousers and a playground. Other people are becoming increasingly bored by your juvenile behaviour and that of your little gang. I'm not going to ban you or block views I don't agree with - I'll leave that sort of behaviour to other sites - but the constant, pathetic insults will no longer be carried. So, address the argument or don't bother to post a comment.
ReplyDeleteI reiterate Steven, I will no longer post your childish insults. Your gang crossed the line on the Charity thread. If you guys are so revolting that you will use that forum to conduct your personal war, then you really are unworthy of a voice. There is scraping the bottom of the barrel and scraping the bottom of the barrel! Why make that follow comment when I have said it would be deleted if you do not address the issue? That does seem to be pointless!
ReplyDeleteAll good points but there is a counter argument.
ReplyDeleteThe move will take 2 or 3 years to achieve.
We are currently in a recession and maybe numbers are down as a number of supporters can't afford to watch west ham at Upton Park and maybe there has been no effective campaign to increase attendance.
If the recession ended and if support increased, and maybe increased again with increased success on the pitch and Sullivan & Golds measures to increase attendence. Then we hit our limit, then its 2/3 years to increase capacity.
So I can see why they might want to do it.
I suspect the real reason is to realise the asset that is Upton Park and turn that into a cost (renting the Olympic Statdium) which propably helps cash flow and reduces debt leading to more money for players/lining the chairmans pocket.
if you work it out hammersfan tottenham do not have a bigger fan base then west ham. tottenham are competing with arsenal in north london and with all the glory hunters about. everyone virtually supports arsenal. west ham however have all of the east end to themselves with no disrespect to orient and dagenham of course. so if we moved to a big new stadium and the revenue helped to make us get better players for which obviously will make us a better team then obviously loads more fans will want to come. ps you say we cant fill a 35 thousand stadium for which is a load of rubbish. west ham have virtually always sold their stadium out since it become a 35 thousand stadium. but like me. and like loads of other west ham fans we just aint gonna pay a lot of money to watch crap week in week out. also for a club who finnish 4th from bottom last season and serving up the crap west ham have other the last few years. i think the crowds west ham are getting at the moment are fantastic. i bet you tottenham would not get over 30 thousand if they were like us at the moment.
ReplyDeleteUKIT, your last four words nail it I fear!
ReplyDeleteYou are talking about a potential fan base 1337, I am talking about the actual fan base. Tottenham have awaiting list for season tickets, we don't.
ReplyDelete11 home games played last season where full capacity was not achieved, counting the home cup games against Millwall and Arsenal. That does not scream out a need to move elsewhere!
ReplyDeletebut isn't that why gold and sullivan want to move us to a big stadium HF because they know the potential at west ham is massive. probably the biggest in london.
ReplyDeletehammersfan how many teams in the premier league would get the crowds west ham get if they were like us at the moment. not many i bet.
ReplyDeleteHF if west ham were playing the way tottenham are at the moment and finnishd in the top 4 then we would have a waiting list trust me. also west ham did have a waiting list when curbushley was here in his first full season because i remember asking the ticket office at that time when we sold all of our season tickets. and we wasn't actually great then was we. so could you imagine wot west ham crowds would be if we had a good side.
ReplyDeleteBut is it massive? Where were the fans for the Oxford game? Why couldn't we fill the stadium for more than 50% of the home games last season? Why wasn't there a full house for the Bolton game?
ReplyDeleteHow important is gate revenue anyway? Surely the bulk of the money comes from TV? I remember some people predicting free entry to grounds just to create an atmosphere for TV. Let's predict an extra 20,000 per home game - a generous prediction - with 30% under 16. Let's pitch ticket prices at £50 for an adult and £25 for an under 16. I make tha an extra £850,000 per home game. Let's add on an additional £10 per person spent in the ground (again generous!). That takes us to an additional revenue of just over £1million per game. Play 21 home games (that's 2 home Cup games with 50,000 attending and) and we have an additional revenue of £21million, or HALF the parachute payment for going down! That means it would take 5 years before we saw any return on the original investment anyway - and I would be amazed if we got 50,000 for games against the likes of Bolton, Stoke, Blackpool, Blackburn etcetera, although we may get 60,000 for games against Man Utd, Spurs etcetera.
Remember, however, that we would have to pay to rent the Olympic Stadium. How much would that cost per year? I don't know but it would certainly eat in to the original revenue and we would lose the asset value of our stadium and the income generated from its use for other sporting or entertainment events.
It makes much more sense to expand capacity of the Boleyn to circa 40000 to me, and there is scope to do that at a much lower cost.
Picture the nightmare scenario of relegation leading to 25,000 gates in a 60,000 capacity stadium and a further £100million in debts because of the transfer. That could kill the club!
HF would tottenham have a waiting list if they were crap like us. i very much doubt it. its easy filling your stadium when your playing good football and becoming successful. thats why we need to move so we can buy better quality players then make our team better then play good football then maybe win some trophys and then our crowds will get bigger and bigger. if we stay at upton park we cant get any bigger or better. but if we move then we can. sad but true.
ReplyDeleteHF west ham were getting 34 thousand crowds against rotherham and crewe in the championship 5 years ago. and thats in the championship. im sure west ham could get 60 thousand in the premier league if we had a descent side.
ReplyDeleteTottenham had full houses two seasons ago and spent half the season in the bottom 3. Yes they would still have a waiting list. If our fans don't go because we are crap (which makes us plastic fans by the way!), why do they turn up to watch us play Man Utd and Chelsea, but don't roll up to watch us play Oxford? I want to see West Ham win, not get hammered! It has always struck me as odd that fans flood to games we will probably lose and stay away from games we will probably win. We didn't sell out the relegation decider against Wigan last season but did sell out the dead rubber against Man City. That is perverse! Do our fans really go to watch the opposition?
ReplyDeleteSadly, we may have a descent side, descending all the way to the Sparky Wife Thumping Championship.
ReplyDeleteI would assume that a lot of the potential value of moving to the Olympic stadium lies in having other events arranged at the ground, such as concerts, international games, and of course the sale of the Boleyn.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, general ticket sales should be expected to rise to a point where filling the stadium isn't unrealistic. As most of the club's fans are struggling with the high ticket prices, and if a move to the Olympic stadium should allow for significant price cuts, then filling the seats wouldn't be an issue.
Overall, I agree than the move would present a large spike in revenue without significantly hiking the daily running costs, and would definitely help the club get rid of some of the massive debt it has.
And really, there wouldn't be much risk involved. So in a financial aspect, it's really a no-brainer.
But this is a football club. And as a fan I'm really dreading this move. The pitch will be tarnished most of the season from the extended use; the viewing lengths will be quite extreme, good seats will become bad, and bad seats will...well, bring your binoculars; and finally, the atmosphere will probably take a hard hit too.
What should the club do? I don't know. I can understand why they want to move. The club is standing on the edge of a cliff right now and really has to deliver some strong yearly profits to please the banks. Is that really possible with the current state of the club? I'm not sure sure.
But don't be fooled, this isn't a question of progression - it's a question of survival.
2004-05, the highest home gate was 33,723 for the home play off semi final against Ipswich. We only broke through 30,000 six times that season. Leicester City had a gate of 30,000 plus for their home game against ourselves, as did Ipswich and Leeds. Our lowest home gate that season was 22,031 for the home game against Leicester. We finished 6th, Leicester 15th and yet they got the higher gate for the fixtures between the two clubs. Our average home gate that season was circa 26,000!
ReplyDeleteThat's the truth of the matter. We have a hard core fan base, who turn up rain and shine, of about 25,000. Then there's the 10,000 every now and thens. We struggle to sell 20,000 season tickets. We don't need a 60,000 stadium if you look at the facts!
HF what you have to understand is a lot of west ham fans dont live near the stadium. so just because the oxford game was cheap a lot of fans still at to get their and back for which meant a lot of people were not gonna get back ontil the early hours of the morning for which they had work the next day.
ReplyDeleteActually HF if the club was to move to Stratford it would be nearer our ancestral home. Before Upton Park, West Ham played at the Memorial Ground, adjacent to West Ham tube station. However, your logic is sound -at the present time a move to Stratford would appear only to benefit our new owners, who both see the ground sale as the guarantee of their investment.
ReplyDeleteAs someone said in an earlier post nothing will happen for a few years - time enough for our beloved team to be relegated and returned a la Newcastle.
I have said before that Tottenham are not our rivals, they are a sleeping, ney dormant,giant whose fan base far exceeds our own. But thet are fickle lot as their present gates show.
Not so long, I was a WHU member and had to pre-order my tickets well in advance as each home game was sold out. Now, be it recession or apathy we don't sell out our home games.
I too, happen to feel that Upton Park is our home but there seems little room to redevelop.
Bill, as tenants, would we benefit from non football use of the stadium? Surely the owners would keep that wouldn't they? That's why the Olympic committee want to retain the running track. They are not going to be hosting Athletics Grand Prix events to benefit West Ham's finances are they? When Arsenal played their Champions League games at Wembley, the didn't keep the stadium revenue from other events did they?
ReplyDelete1438, the Oxford fans filled the Trevor Brooking lower! They had a journey home and work the next day! It took me and my son 90 minutes each way to get to the game but we were there. Your point is valid but it shows that hopes of filling a 60,000 stadium regularly are very optimistic. Our fan base has dispersed and more travel in from Essex than live within 3 miles of the ground I suspect. People talk about the East End catchment area but how many of the residents of the area actually go to football games?
ReplyDeleteHF i was not talking about the second season in the championship when we went up. im talking about our first season in the championship when our average crowd was about 34 thousand. also in our second home game of the season we got a bigger crowd at home to bradford on the tuesday night then wot chelsea got at home on the same night in the champions league. yes the attendance did drop in the second season i would admit but still very impressive.
ReplyDeleteI'm not denying that we have a good fan base. But we think we are bigger than we actually are. I'll check the stats for the previous season mate. If they are as good as you suggest, that is hugely impressive. Do you think we would get 30,000 plus next season if we went down? I don't. And remember, ticket prices were cheaper.
ReplyDeletebut to be honest HF its different when you go to away games because you book days off work. i used to myself but i wasn't gonna book a day of work to watch west ham play oxford in the league cup. and im sure its the same for a lot of west ham fans. im from southend by the way so it was impossible for me to go considering i dont finnish work ontil 6
ReplyDelete16 games saw us break through 30,000 that season, including the home play off semi final. Counting cup games and the play off game, we played a total of 26 home games that season. Our lowest home gate in the league was just over 24,000 against Stoke. We only had two gates of over 34,000 I'm afraid. You are remembering the HIGHEST gate, NOT the average gate!
ReplyDeleteBut if there is this massive latent support in the area - as G&S claim - why didn't 30,000 locals think, "Game for £10? I'll give that a go! Make a change from Eastenders!"
ReplyDeletewest hams highest gate in our first season in the championship was over 35 thousand against ipswich on boxing day if i remember. but i swear our average crowd was around 33 34 thousand im sure it was. but i know it was over 30 thousand easily for which is still fantastic considering we only got in the play offs. a lot of teams in the prem would not get them salt of crowds in the championship.
ReplyDeleteGood memory - 35,021 for that Boxing Day fixture. Yes the gateds were impressive but there was spare capacity at almost every home game that season. We certainly would not have filled a 60,000 stadium!
ReplyDeleteMoving to the Olympic Stadium will be the downfall of the club.
ReplyDeleteLook at Juventus finally building a new stadium with NO running track.
Gold and Sullivan are in it for themselves the prestige and glory and then the selling of the club.
While us fans and generations for years to come will suffer.
I find it strange where all these pro-Olympic Stadium fans come from, I dare say many don't have Season Tickes
to be honest HF a lot of west ham fans cant be bothered to go to upton park to watch a load of crap. im the same i went to the bolton match only because my mate got me a free ticket otherwise i would not have gone. the atmosphere is crap. you see people arguing with each other because their pd off with the team playing crap. the tickets are to dear. and you dont get your moneys worth because were normally 2 or 3 down with half hour to go and end up walking out to go down the pub. and basically its just boring over their. the truth is i prefer to go down the pub with me mates and watch west ham play on the big screen on them dodge channels they have. much more fun and im sure a lot of west ham fans fill the same to be honest.
ReplyDeleteim sorry HF but your article is complete rubbish. i grew up living in castle street for which is no longer their as the bobby moore stand now stands in it place. but how can you say upton park has hardly changed its a dump now. i left upton park in 73 and now live in cornwall but when i lived their upton park was a lovely place. i went back to upton park for the first time since i left 2 years ago to watch west ham play and i couldn't believe what i saw. i thought i was in a different country and needed me passport. the sooner west ham leave that place the better in my opinion.
ReplyDelete1651, my family left in the sixties but I was a regular visitor to meet the relatives. The area was MUCH worse in the 80s than now in my opinion. Your comment, as written, does sound a tad racist. So what that there is now an ethnic mix in Newham? I feel very comfortable and safe in the area, and that certainly was not always the case! The quality of the housing stock has improved too. That's why S&G want to redevelop the ground!
ReplyDeletei dont think that bloke from cornwall is being racist. i can see where his coming from. he lived in upton park ontil 73 when there was all white people living their and his only been back once which was two years ago since he left. so thats 35 years. and yes a lot has changed since then. with a lot of mixed race people living their and not many white people their anymore. i just think its a bit of a culture shock for some people if im honest. especially if you lived their back in the day and have only just returned.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I qualified with "as written sounds a tad racist".
ReplyDeleteThe Asian community should be embraced by the club and fans. It's one sure way of getting new fans. Our whole family are loyal West Ham fans and our next generation, my niece and nephews, will be brought up as such (or I'll kill 'em :)). They know the colours, they know the badge and the names. They are already showered with Hammers gifts and I'm certain if I have anything to do with it, one of my nephews will definitely play for us....fulfil his uncle's dream :)
ReplyDeleteSo if it's us you're running away from 16:51, sorry, we're here to stay.
im a west ham fan but i live near charlton football club. my mate who is a big charlton fan went to exeter today and his just been on the phone to me and his doing his nut. charlton lost 1-0 hahaha. i now know what i sound like now every time west ham play on a saturday. at least we didn't loose today.
ReplyDeleteDepending on what kind of deal is struck, I'm pretty sure that we'd be able to arrange non-sporting events just which we'd profit from.
ReplyDeleteAs I see it, the deal will be structured so that it would work as if we were leasing the stadium. We'd take over the day to day running costs of the stadium, but also be given free reign to use the ground as we see fit, as long as it doesn't obstruct the required athletics events (this is something that was promised to the athletics community so they can have their "athletics legacy" or something in that vain).
If that isn't the case, then the £100million definitely wouldn't be coming from us, and the owners would be in charge of daily maintenance.
How exactly the deal is structured, I don't know. But if we aren't to be given free reign over the stadium, then a lot of things just don't add up - mostly the restructuring costs.
HF you have to put into account that most teams that turn up at upton park only bring a handful of supporters. teams like bolton wigan blackburn. so west ham cant always reach capacity can they. not when the away end has about 2000 empty seats. west ham had over 32500 for the bolton game and bolton brought about 500 so if bolton would have sold all their tickets then it would virtually have been a sell out.
ReplyDeleteWhat I want to know is who have they left the club to? Gold is 73 and Sullivan is 61 and has had a quadruple heart bypass. Without sounding harsh, one of these two at least will not get to see us in the Olympic stadium if we move.
ReplyDeleteNothing on the England game HF?
The key word is "virtually" 1800. We still didn't sell out, with a capacity of 35,000, never mind with 60,000 seats available.
ReplyDeleteI was playing football myself Stani. Bloody playing an England game on a Friday night! Cap it all, I've done the other achilles. Same thing, pain up through the heel. Can't walk today and wife is so furious she won't tell me where she's hidden the crutches!
ReplyDeletelost the will to live about a third of the way down so I'll just add :-
ReplyDeleteWest Ham = Boleyn ground =Green st
that's called heritage As a foreign fan that is West Ham so hopefully before the Davids sell our soul and reap their rewards I hope my lack of will to live extends to reality cos that's what it is all about We West Ham fans have nothing to show for our loyal support unlike the Cearns, T Brown and soon Gollivan loyal chairmen? Greedy pocket lining bastards the lot of them
but HF west ham are in a right old state at the moment. where about 90 million in debt. the football over at upton park is crap. the team is badly struggling and are bottom of the league. and we just about avoided relegation last season. and yet we still nearly sell out a 35000 stadium against a so called small premiership team like bolton who brought 500 fans. maybe in 3 or 4 years time when we move to this new stadium. we will have a lot less debt. the team will have better players. the team will be playing much better football. and we could be challenging for europe. and then a lot more people would want to go. including myself.
ReplyDeletewest ham fans i know leaving upton park would be a wrench. but football is all about winning. so if leaving upton park means winning more games. then we have to go.
ReplyDeleteYeh, strange to have a qualifier on Friday. Good game though. This is what NO LAMPARD does to the team. Gerrard and Rooney, the two best players, are able to dictate. Capello needs to be strong enough to bench Lampard.
ReplyDeleteAre you serious about the achilles? You must have gone to the hospital then?
You need to start warming up properly mate and no, that don't mean a pint and a fag before the game. You aint no spring chicken any more.
Was gonna ask you to organise a 5-a side GGC game HF. It would be nice. I'd be up for it! Show you some Stani talent :)
No, limped to bar to see end of game and have that pint, then down to town for a curry, then on hands and knees upstairs to bedroom. Can't bloody walk today. Don't smoke!
ReplyDeleteAlternatively 1839, we could be playing in the Sparky Championship.
i dont know why people moan about this site. i think its quite entertaining and you can have some good conversations on here about the team all us hammers fans love. i must admit that i dont agree with everything you say HF but if everyone was the same then the world would be a very boring place. keep up the good work HF ps maybe you would like to come to the pub one day HF before a west ham game for a couple and a chinwag. you seem like a decent guy. oh my name is wayne by the way. all the best mate.
ReplyDeleteWhich pub do you drink in Wayne?
ReplyDeletewherever really HF the barking dog or the hammers or denmark arms or duke of edinburgh anywhere really around the ground mate. as long as its friendly with no trouble.
ReplyDeletei normally go with one of me mates and my little nephew. we start off at the barking dog and then make our way to the ground after a couple in their. because we come from the robin hood mate.
ReplyDeleteanyway HF if you do ever fancy a drink one day before the west ham game let us know on here mate and we can try and salt something out. ps i know you dont know me mate but im a proper west ham fan. i dont come out looking for trouble. lifes to short for that mate. its all about having a laugh down the pub and enjoying the west ham game and hopefully a west ham win. and then down the local curry house and then match of the day lol
ReplyDeleteWill do, thanks for the offer. Not at the Chelsea game but maybe before Tottenham match?
ReplyDeleteo.k cheers HF take care mate.
ReplyDeleteTottenham have a waiting list of 30000 for season tickets and have The most fans in London from LONDONERS,AS for west ham having a bigger fan base ( because we have east London) spurs have fans all over London not just north,tottenham is in north east London so do you have all of the east as some have said,that's why you spammers know so many yids.every London club has strongholds so get over yourselfs.If you build it they won't come :-) kev
ReplyDeleteevery london club has fans all over london you div. i live near watford and i know obviously watford fans west ham fans tottenham fans arsenal fans palace fans charlton fans and even a orient fan. so that means fcuk all. and as for tottenham having a 30 thousand waiting list on season tickets. i would very much doubt that considering arsenal dominate virtually all of north london because they are a much bigger and better club then tottenham fans could ever dream of.
ReplyDeletekev i work in north london and i speak to loads of west ham fans who live their. so your point is?
ReplyDeleteSpuds haven't even got any fans in north london. arsenal have nicked them all. ha ha ha ha ha.
ReplyDeletestand up if you hate tottenham stand up if you hate tottenham stand up if you hate tottenham stand up if you hate tottenham
ReplyDeletewots 3 foot long and keeps a cock warm. (answer) a tottenham scarf.
ReplyDeleteThe reason West Ham are unable to sell out a home match against Bolton is..... well a home match against BOLTON!
ReplyDeleteMore so, there is a reccession on, whilst the 'official' numbers might not tell it, more people are pulling in spending and football across the country is suffering.
Moving to The Olympic Stadium is the only logical choice, take West Ham from East Ham to Stratford, Green Street is a hole and UP station is a joke.
Actually the Spurs waiting list is closer to 15000 than 30000 but still well over 10000. Hence why we want a new stadium (either where WHL is now or the olympic). I would prefer to stay at WHL as its where we belong just like you guys want to (well some of you) stay at upton park.
ReplyDelete