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It didn't take long, did it, for the smelly stuff to hit the fan over season tickets as the panto season comes early to downtown Stratford.

Now I have tried to put together something sensible over the introduction of digital seasons tickets for some while. Sadly the sand keeps shifting beneath our feet and it's best normally to say nothing until the dust has settled and we all know what we are shouting about.




But this is West Ham United, this is the club that can make a cock-up out of anything given time, a falling wind and a communications department that is clearly taking lessons from Boris Johnson’s shambolic Downing Street press office.

Maybe West Ham’s administration should go into isolation for a few days to get their act together and their stories in line?

Go on, I bet you have tried ringing the London Stadium hotline seeking advice over whether we will have the old-fashioned, plastic season tickets or this new fangled digital stuff that pings onto your phone. Yes, I saw everybody flinch there!

Myself, I have rung a couple of times. I was told the powers that be had not made their minds up, then I was told it was all down to the government and their Covid policy (now that bit can’t be true because we all know that the government don’t have a policy, or it is changed on a daily or hourly basis)

Then on another Hugh-ly respected site there was one poor contributor who was told tickets couldn’t be sent in the post now because of "contamination". So - and I know I am being intentionally thick here - how come we are all getting mail through the post, contaminated or otherwise?

And now today (Monday) there is a complicated set of details being leaked out via Hammers United, who with WHUISA have been on the case for a while. And those instructions say that if you don’t have a smart phone/printer, you should go to the ticket office and they will print off a ticket (contaminated?) for you there.

Stop me if you are getting lost; I will be asking questions, eventually. I am fixed in my mind with a vision of thousands of fans at the ticket office trying to get into the ground. Exactly what time are you expected to get there, will it involve an overnight stop at a handily placed Holiday Inn?

Now during the summer I have tried to keep up, honest. But in the past few days I have been stunned by the amount of our fans who do not realise the club are about to introduce digital season tickets.

Frankly I felt we had got past that bit. West Ham and their authoritarian ticketing department have been sorting this for a while. And I am told by someone who may know that it is really nothing to do with Covid but all to do with stopping fans passing their tickets to friends and family.

The club were on this issue all last season, checking and trying to catch people. Way back when we left Upton Park they were intent on trying to 'streamline' - that means making more money if you are unsure - the ticketing system. They tried to kill off the away ticket priority points system and that was abandoned after a near mutiny from fans. So you had been warned.

Covid, I sense, is being used as a convenient smokescreen. Now I have nothing in theory against digital ticketing. It is the way of the world, the hardware is there and the entertainment industry has been using it for a while. It is the future.




I can recall getting Stone Roses tickets in Manchester that way a few years back. Sorry, I mentioned that in the hope that a 70-something could look cool. Ok, Ok, calm down at the back, all that giggling!

Now seriously. Whenever I have needed to talk to the ticket office I have found the kids on the phones helpful, efficient and trying their best. But you do hear their boss, Nicola Keye, can be a bit hard-nosed, so to speak. 'Tough cookie' is a better description.

But you can’t expect anything else from a FoK... friend of Karen, that is. Amazing what tittle tattle you can pick up when you start asking around, isn’t it?

So suddenly we have got to a point when more than a few fans have got the hump with the club over all this. There are fans who have watch all this unfold with great trepidation. Others who genuinely didn’t know what was afoot, I mean there has been a lot on peoples’ minds these past months.

And there are those who are outraged by the late timing and the rigid approach. Basically we will have a system where tickets will be emailed to fans. They will either use their smart phones to gain access or print off the details at home.

Yes, you can see the flaw there. A quarter of the population do not have smart phones and you would feel that if they couldn’t afford such things, they probably won’t have printers either. The options from the club are that fans should go to their post office or library to use their printing facilities.

Seriously, post offices and libraries are in short supply see days. And are fans going to have to do that for every match - or will the club send out one online ticket to be printed and laminated? Who knows? But the amount of annoying, fucking around is just laughable.

Yet nobody is laughing. But maybe this is the time for West Ham to show their softer, loving side ( I know, I know). This transformation is going on from Aberdeen to Brighton, it’s something the government want so they know who is in the stadium and in any given seat.

But it could be more user friendly, surely? Liverpool and Manchester United are already operating a plastic season ticket for fans who do not have the technology needed. Both clubs are issuing a one-off season ticket to let fans have the old style tickets.

And Manchester United have gone one further. Their head of ticketing, Sam Kelleher, has said: “All our tickets will be digital, and we anticipate it will be a league-wide requirement in the future.”

But Manchester United, and I believe Liverpool, have made a remarkable change. They have incorporated in their new terms and conditions for tickets a proviso that fans can pass tickets on the family and friends.




That, to my mind, is pragmatic, it shows two of the world's biggest clubs are taking on board the long held culture of football.

Yes, I know, tickets are not legally allowed to be passed around but it has been the culture of football since I was a boy to do just that. Hand on heart, who hasn’t had a ticket passed to them by a family friend or mate? Who do you know has a season ticket with a pal to share because of the hefty price these days.

There are groups of lads who look after mates who may be unemployed or struggling for money. They’ll pass on a ticket not being used. No money changes hands, but the culture of football supporters have their own rules.

But West Ham have been trying to stop all this, to get tickets sent back to the club by fans not using them so they can be resold. Yes, against the rules. But if Man Utd and Liverpool can find a solution, so can West Ham.

And maybe this is the time for West Ham to soften their approach. To show a more conciliatory side.

Over the past year or so, with the Trojan help of the Football Supporters Association, West Ham have come in from the dark side, at one stage the only Premier League club who did not liase and work with an independent supporters association.

That they have embraced such a option has surprised many, knowing how controlling and indifferent to fans’ views the club has been. But at long last West Ham now has an Independent Supporters Association and WHUISA are even considering becoming a Trust to further cement the lines of communication.

This seems to be the time for clubs and fans to come closer. In the aftermath of the European Super League debacle, football has woken up to the power of the fans, supporters have been acknowledged, there is a fans led, government backed, review in place.

Fans have organised foodbanks across the country, there is a genuine feel good factor and the FSA can take some pride in what is happening.

So in line with this new era of cooperation, maybe West Ham could bend over backwards to look after the less fortunate of their fans, fans who have family traditions going back generations?

Maybe this is the time to make this transition into a digital age as easy and user friendly as possible. It is not a good look to make life tough for the elderly who struggle with these things. For the less fortunate amongst us, the disabled, those who struggle with change.

This is not the time for dismissive arrogance towards fans who have no problems with change. West Ham need to get this right.

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