West Ham reaping the rewards of Stratford move

  • by Staff Writer
  • Wednesday, 17th January 2018

West Ham United made plenty of noise about bringing affordable football to the masses when moving from Upton Park to Stratford in 2016.

However a new benchmarking survey assessing the average yield per match-going supporter suggests that on average, Hammers fans are contributing considerably more to their club than their closest rivals since moving across the Borough of Newham.

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According to the new report, which was commissioned by UEFA for the ninth year running in order to show how effective FFP has been, West Ham earn on average £35.30 for each fan passing through the turnstiles at the Olympic Stadium.

And that's a figure beaten by only nine clubs across the entire continent, all of whom play regular Champions League or European football.

"The average yield provides a benchmark for the price of attending football matches," say UEFA. "It reflects all types of gate receipts including season tickets, match day tickets, membership fees (where tickets are part of that membership), premium ticketing and hospitality.

"The average yield underlines the positive impact stadium development can have on increasing the revenues of a club and on diversifying their revenues."

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Which the results are goods news for those who stand to benefit financially from the additional income generated since moving to Stratford, West Ham's long-suffering supporters may view the results somewhat differently.

With the club very much in the midst of a relegation battle and yet to spend a single penny in the current transfer window - despite manager David Moyes having indicated on several occasions that he has an unbalanced squad - fans could be forgiven for asking why the results on the pitch have been far less successful than those off it.


UEFA's 'average yield per supporter per match' table

1. Arsenal: £74.09
2. Chelsea: £68.71
3. Real Madrid: £55.91
4. Liverpool: £55.68
5. Bayern Munich: £54.92
6. Man Utd: £53.41
7. Barcelona: £51.59
8. Galatasaray: £48.64
9. Man City: £40.83
10. West Ham Utd: £35.30


Additionally, attendances in Europe were down by an average of 1 per cent compared to the previous year's report although 11 clubs welcomed more than one million spectators to their home matches - including West Ham United, for the first time ever.


The one million club

1. Barcelona: 1.48m
2. Man Utd: 1.43m
3. Borussia Dortmund: 1.35m
4. Real Madrid: 1.32m
5. Bayern Munich: 1.28m
6. Arsenal: 1.14m
7. West Ham Utd: 1.08m
8. Celtic: 1.04m
9. Schalke: 1.03m
10. Liverpool: 1.01m


Finally, West Ham enjoyed the greatest rise in average attendance across the whole of Europe last season as a result of the move to Stratford, increasing the weekly gate considerably in comparison to any other European club.


Biggest attendance increases

1. West Ham Utd: +22,062
2. Celtic: +9,876
3. Liverpool: +9,106
4. Spartak Moscow: +7,581
5. Kradnodar: +6,422

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