This season has been one with lots of turmoil and transition on and off the pitch but it seems to be going on the better path now. The manager has more of a relationship and identifies with the fans and our Academy better. The new head of recruitment also seems less limelight crazy and is friends with the manager so will not be trying to undermine him as well.
The terrible decision to stop concessions on tickets has been reversed and fan’s loyalty and the need to make access to games affordable for young fans has been recognised again. Before I begin, credit must be given to the hard work of Hammers United and Save Our Concessions. They campaigned tirelessly for the concessions to be reinstated with black balloon protests at every game as well as continuous lobbying outside the ground and on social media for it to happen.
The Campaign for Affordable Football
Dave and I at The West Ham Way were one of the first to get representatives to do a podcast with us and then we continued to support the campaign by talking about it on our shows and retweeting and posting whenever asked by the groups as it was something we felt so passionate about.
The concessions work at both ends of the age spectrum of our fanbase. With so much competition for clubs to support in London and with arguably three bigger clubs than us in close proximity, temptation for youngsters to support traditionally more successful teams whether that be in London or Manchester or Liverpool is an issue.
Protecting the Next Generation
If we make it expensive for these young fans to attend matches, some will go elsewhere and the continuous succession of fans needed to sustain attendance at a football club will be harmed. This is also a factor considering we are in a much greater capacity stadium now. This also works at the other end of the age spectrum where older fans who have retired have less money as a result and their loyalty of attending games for many years should also be rewarded.
It was a terrible PR move to consider getting rid of concessions and really bad for the relationship between the board and fans, a relationship which is already massively strained with fans feeling more like customers. It was the correct decision to get rid of the ban on concessions and I guess some credit should also be given to the board in making that decision.
Rectifying a Major Mistake
Whilst the decision shouldn’t have been made in the first place to get rid of them, at least the board did listen and reversed the decision. When you’ve made a mistake the best thing you can try and do is rectify it. Hopefully the board has learnt their lesson and won’t be making that mistake again.
The main selling point we were given to moving to the London Stadium was that it would be affordable football. We need to stick to this because let’s be honest, the standard of the stadium and the quality of football, for most of the seasons, hasn’t lived up to the hype that we were given.
Improving the Match Day Experience
The club have also been doing other work on how to improve the match day experience of fans and there are a number of groups you can join where you can voice your opinion. Our Patreon subscribers were recently asked to complete a number of polls for us, which, as a result, have been passed on to the club giving their opinions on how to improve.
I’m not sure all of the changes I would like to see can actually be implemented. Whether they will ever be able to change the experience enough to satisfy the majority of fans is debatable.
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