Karren Brady has released a statement on the West Ham United website regarding the standing up at the London Stadium situation which has annoyed a lot of fans, including myself.
Vice-Chairman of West Ham, Karren Brady, released a statement on the West Ham website saying that “Persistent standing in seated areas whilst play is in progress is strictly forbidden, and may result in ejection from the ground.” Brady added to this saying “Therefore, those who stand persistently are at risk of having their Season Tickets permanently revoked. We are obviously reluctant to take any such action against loyal fans, and we hope that we will not be put in that position.”. Here are my views on the statement Brady has released.
Firstly, I really do not mind people sitting down at football matches as they may have a medical condition or a child to look after. When me, my Dad and my cousin bought our season tickets in August 2015, the salesmen and women had no idea whatsoever about where the people who want to sing and stand should go and where the families should go. Us three wanted seats in the atmospheric area just like where when we had seats at Upton Park as we sat in the East Stand, Upper Tier by the away fans so we wanted seats by the away fans (as we thought it would be the same sort of atmosphere as Upton Park).
We tried to get seats in block 114 or 113 as they were the closest to the away fans but we weren’t allowed to downgrade to Band 3 seats but we were only allowed to stay the same (Band 2) or upgrade to Band 1, purely because they wanted more money from us whilst not caring about our London Stadium experience. So we proceeded to get seats in block 112 as they are Band 2 seats, we asked for back row seats (so we can stand) but when our season tickets came through we’re in row 17 which is right in the middle of block 112 around many families, whom of which I do not mind going to West Ham games as every West Ham fans deserve a chance to go and watch their team.
The board are completely to blame for this situation because they hired salespeople who knew nothing about the club and its history nor how the London Stadium was going to be run. They are also to blame as they didn’t let fans downgrade their seats as they want as much money as possible and they do not care about the Boleyn Ground legacy or the famous Claret & Blue army atmosphere. The board should have made it clear to the salespeople and the fans where they want the atmospheric parts of the stadium to be and where they want the family parts of the stadium to be.
All that I am hopeful for is that this situation changes as soon as possible so every fan can enjoy watching West Ham at our brand new stadium.
