Gale fears for Olympic Stadium atmosphere

  • by Staff Writer
  • Friday, 5th February 2016

Tony Gale admits that he'll be 'absolutely gutted' when West Ham leave the Boleyn Ground at the end of the season.

The former defender, 56, told the KUMB Podcast that whilst he understands the club's reasons for leaving Upton Park, he is concerned that the Olympic Stadium will not be able to produce the same kind of atmosphere for which the Boleyn Ground has become renowned over the years.

"We'll have a nice bar, we'll have a nice lounge and we'll be able to get there easily on the train and bus," he told Podcast presenters Chris Scull and Bianca Westwood. "We'll be able to go through Westfield and do a bit of shopping. Everything's going to be nice and it's all going to be right.

"But we've seen what's happened with Arsenal at the Emirates. They've got more people in there, but it's dead. You have people coming from all over Europe for the novelty value.

"Everything's going to be nicer and more luxurious, but when I was brought up going to football wasn't about having a three-course meal.

"We'd walk down the embankment to Chelsea, we'd stop in a few pubs, I'd have to sit outside and wait for my Dad and we'd go and watch the football. Maybe we'd have a beefburger and then come home.

"Yes it's progress and there's a lot of money to be earned which goes back into the club by buying better players and things like that, but without a shadow of a doubt we are going to miss being at Upton Park.

"For the first year it'll be lovely - and then I think we'll all miss Upton Park. We'll miss having to cram our way out of the tube station and all that stuff! As ex-players we all meet up in the lounge at West Ham, are we all going to be in different places at the Olympic Stadium? I don't know."



Gale appeared on this week's KUMB Podcast. Pic: KUMB Archives.


Gale - who was a member of the 'Boys of '86' squad who finished third in the old First Division, West Ham's best-ever top flight season - also believes that the club will find it difficult to replicate the special atmosphere that night games at the Boleyn bring.

"Those game under the lights are the ones I'll miss," he said. "It was a much better atmosphere as under the lights, we were a force.

"I wasn't at the Manchester City game but I could feel the atmosphere - and then also on the radio in the car on the way home. Are we going to get that at the Olympic Stadium?"

* To listen to the full, exclusive 77-minute interview with Tony Gale - or any other espisode of the KUMB Podcast - visit the Podcast home page.

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