Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

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ornchurch ammer
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by ornchurch ammer »

hammerman11 wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:08 pm
the bull is a good pub but no singing when I have been in there, is it me ?
No. Its an adults pub.
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DM
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by DM »

The match summariserfor BBC5 Live was complaining before kick off that because he was so far away from the pitch he was having difficulty making out the numbers on the West Brom players garish kit. Even the journo's hate the toilet bowl! Next ****ing level?
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HammerMan2004
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by HammerMan2004 »

DM wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 3:54 pm The match summariserfor BBC5 Live was complaining before kick off that because he was so far away from the pitch he was having difficulty making out the numbers on the West Brom players garish kit. Even the journo's hate the toilet bowl! Next ****ing level?
To be fair I’m watching on TV and I can’t tell the numbers. Red on yellow and green stripes is diabolical.
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by e17 »

“We’re just the biggest shop in Westfield”

a comment today from one of ours that has haunted me all afternoon.

We left at half time today. After just enduring 45 minutes, all of my lot in unison decided to just leave. Walked all the way around from our seats to the ass ache exit - when told by the officials “you won’t be able to come back in?”, almost felt my heart being ripped out as I replied, “mate I don’t know if I’m coming back at all”

I think I’m done with going. 34 years. First game in 1983. I don’t think there’s anything left - either in me or of my love for West Ham United.

It’s literally soul destroying. It actually hurts.

From the horrible journey to the horrible general cattle market experience (Stratford is appalling but even Hackney wick is ***** really. Don’t kid yerselves. I can’t anymore), I’ve had enough. The horrible football played by a team that doesn’t want to be here, managed by a bloke just desperate for any job, all stewarded by people I’d celebrate passing feels like it’s just the cherry on top to be honest.

We left at half time - and watched as the Stop/Go merchants got in place ready to deal with the cattle, the security at Westfield got prepared to close their doors & readied themselves to stop the asshole football supporters from getting home early, we watched the yellow visors put up their barricades on grey empty motorways with literally no indication there was even a football team playing 5 minutes away as it took us 25 minutes to navigate a 10 minute walk.

They’ve killed my club. I honestly don’t think I can do it anymore.
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by Croydon »

e17 wrote: Sun Jan 26, 2020 12:52 am “We’re just the biggest shop in Westfield”

a comment today from one of ours that has haunted me all afternoon.

We left at half time today. After just enduring 45 minutes, all of my lot in unison decided to just leave. Walked all the way around from our seats to the ass ache exit - when told by the officials “you won’t be able to come back in?”, almost felt my heart being ripped out as I replied, “mate I don’t know if I’m coming back at all”

I think I’m done with going. 34 years. First game in 1983. I don’t think there’s anything left - either in me or of my love for West Ham United.

It’s literally soul destroying. It actually hurts.

From the horrible journey to the horrible general cattle market experience (Stratford is appalling but even Hackney wick is ***** really. Don’t kid yerselves. I can’t anymore), I’ve had enough. The horrible football played by a team that doesn’t want to be here, managed by a bloke just desperate for any job, all stewarded by people I’d celebrate passing feels like it’s just the cherry on top to be honest.

We left at half time - and watched as the Stop/Go merchants got in place ready to deal with the cattle, the security at Westfield got prepared to close their doors & readied themselves to stop the asshole football supporters from getting home early, we watched the yellow visors put up their barricades on grey empty motorways with literally no indication there was even a football team playing 5 minutes away as it took us 25 minutes to navigate a 10 minute walk.

They’ve killed my club. I honestly don’t think I can do it anymore.
Damn, that post got me right in the feels . Should put it on the homepage.
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rciron
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by rciron »

e17 wrote: Sun Jan 26, 2020 12:52 am “We’re just the biggest shop in Westfield”

a comment today from one of ours that has haunted me all afternoon.

We left at half time today. After just enduring 45 minutes, all of my lot in unison decided to just leave. Walked all the way around from our seats to the ass ache exit - when told by the officials “you won’t be able to come back in?”, almost felt my heart being ripped out as I replied, “mate I don’t know if I’m coming back at all”

I think I’m done with going. 34 years. First game in 1983. I don’t think there’s anything left - either in me or of my love for West Ham United.

It’s literally soul destroying. It actually hurts.

From the horrible journey to the horrible general cattle market experience (Stratford is appalling but even Hackney wick is ***** really. Don’t kid yerselves. I can’t anymore), I’ve had enough. The horrible football played by a team that doesn’t want to be here, managed by a bloke just desperate for any job, all stewarded by people I’d celebrate passing feels like it’s just the cherry on top to be honest.

We left at half time - and watched as the Stop/Go merchants got in place ready to deal with the cattle, the security at Westfield got prepared to close their doors & readied themselves to stop the asshole football supporters from getting home early, we watched the yellow visors put up their barricades on grey empty motorways with literally no indication there was even a football team playing 5 minutes away as it took us 25 minutes to navigate a 10 minute walk.

They’ve killed my club. I honestly don’t think I can do it anymore.
This :thup:
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The Old Mile End
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by The Old Mile End »

The Next Level and the London Stadium Match Day Experience

So, you travel by train to the OS, or London Stadium, call it what you will, and you get out at Stratford or maybe one of the smaller stations nearby.

If Stratford, you go along with the masses and pass through a sanitised shopping centre that really doesn’t want you in there. You take the exit and go along the concrete concourse towards the big stadium you see ahead. It’s your stadium, it’s our stadium, but where’s the claret & blue?
The crowd around you gets bigger the nearer you get and there might be an occasional shout here and there “Come on You Irons”. There’s no stalls, no merchandise, no programme sellers, no fast food, nothing you normally get on the way from a station to a game on match days elsewhere. It’s a home game, but if feels like an away day, no matter how many times you have done it.

If you’ve come from a smaller station, Bromley-By-Bow maybe, you walk almost alone crossing main roads as you go. The crowd builds a little, but not much. You get within sight of the ground, you are less than five minutes away, but it’s like you’re intruding on someone else’s game. It’s almost as if you are sneaking in after the kick off – so bare are the streets as you pass Pudding Mill Lane. Up the back, across the Greenway, and finally you mix and mingle as you approach the club shop – the only place you see where they are selling something football related on the day.
In you go, up those concrete and steel steps, all nice and neat and grey and silver. There’s no West Ham, no claret & blue, nothing making you feel at home. After the scaffolding and tarpaulin covered gaps, you see “Welcome to the London Stadium” time and time again. Maybe a beer in the bar – a little better, a splash of colour here and there, and then into the great big soulless bowl we now pretend is home. Take your white plastic seat and think to yourself the view don’t seem too bad. It’s deceiving though. You can see what’s going on, you even try to compare it with where you were in the Boleyn Ground. Doesn’t seem too bad – but human memory is notoriously myopic. You seem to have forgotten the view experienced by those down the front is absolutely nothing like what it was. No one is near the pitch. The game is going on before you realise you can’t hear the thud of the leather or smell the freshly cut grass. You can’t hear the players anymore, the refs whistle is barely audible. Your eyes drift to the giant tv screens where you see replays of what’s going on. You sometimes find yourself watching the screen rather than the game.

You are so far from the singing, you can only recognise Bubbles. Any new ditty barely gets a whimper and cannot make the rounds because only a few are singing. The happy clap has taken over simply because it can be heard and is easier to join in. You listen to the away support “You sold your soul for this ****-hole”. You don’t disagree with this sentiment.

You watch a game you do not feel a part of. You know you can shout as much as you like and no one on that pitch will hear you. The players are pretty small on the far side, the manager looks pretty isolated out there. You soon realise the players are not really getting a lift from the crowd. You know you are owned by people who do not understand you, your club, or your heritage.

When it’s all over, you move away with the masses. If Stratford, they follow you onto each train. It’s jam packed rush hour all over again. If elsewhere, you have beaten the crowd and soon find yourself in isolation once more. You are as detached from the club as you are from the pitch.

They say no man is an island. West Ham United is that no man right now. And there is your match day experience. The longer you follow, the more you become a beggar on the street of forlorn hope.

Despite modern collective amnesia, you remember walking the streets of East Ham. You remember going to and fro amongst your own. You remember the buzz when your bus went over the iron bridge at Canning Town and you saw the flood lights appearing on the horizon – even better when lit up for night games. The buzz when your train arrived at Upton Park and you got off and saw the signs “Alight here for West Ham United Football Ground”. The buzz when you parked your car down the side streets of East Ham and found yourself amongst your own going towards the ground. The endless hot dog and burger vans, street cafes, pie ‘n mash, fish ‘n chips. The multitude of West Ham pubs to meet up with your mates. The programme sellers, the fanzine sellers hollering out their wares. The stalls selling all sorts of football coloured merchandise, scarves, rosettes, badges. You passed by houses that have stood and seen the match day masses coming and going for a hundred years. You were amongst your own. You were West Ham. You were claret and blue. It was all around you.

You made your way into your favourite, lucky turnstile. Everything was painted claret and blue. You took up your seat, claret and blue was everywhere you looked. There was no mistaking it – you were at Upton Park in the Boleyn Ground.

You know we didn’t win much. But that didn’t stop you going. You knew it was something deeper – much, much deeper. You knew in your heart it wasn’t about winning. At the end of the day, it was you, your family, your mates, your life, your story, the feeling of belonging -the simply being there.

For those of us that felt this, for those of us that were as one, you know deep down this is what it was all about. There is no other level. There never was. There would never be a level above the glorious sixties - the moments we discovered ourselves under those misty lights on winter nights. There would never be another level above the European nights of 1976. There would never be another level above the coming together at Villa Park in April 1991. There would never be another level above the Ipswich play-off night or the last game at the Boleyn in May 2016. It ended there.

The soul of West Ham United was destroyed in the dust of destruction at Upton Park. The con-men responsible for the destruction are still at the helm today, churning out the same old razzle-dazzle nonsense knowing full well there is a mug born every day.

And that is West Ham London under Sullivan, Gold and Brady. A trio that cares little about anything other than sucking the last quid from your pocket. They need to go, and one day they will. Fear not where we will be when that day comes - bring it on.

But it is not about them. It never was. Regardless of who pulled the strings, at the end of the day it was all about us. It was always us. We had something special, the players felt it, the club felt it. We had each other inside our old home. We were at one with the Boleyn. We can never be at one with the London Stadium. This is a tough call – but at the end of the day there is only one solution. Either the stadium goes, or we do.
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by Denbighammer »

The Old Mile End that is easily one of the best KUMB posts if all time. I wish it wasn't but you've summed it up perfectly.
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by Di Wolfio »

Brilliant post, thank you :crest:
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e17
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by e17 »

The Old Mile End - I think that’s the best, yet saddest post I have ever read on this site. :thup:

The part that really shook me yesterday, from doing a different route because the overground wasn’t working to Stratford, was we met up with some fellow STH who live Dalston way - they convinced me to join them for a few in Crate before the game, rather than the normal Old Black Bull or O’Neils. Both pubs I don’t really feel any affinity for to be honest, but are convenient from Walthamstow, and at least aren’t the carpenters...

I got there before anyone else and spent 10 minutes standing outside the gaffe having to convince myself it was the same place we’d agreed to meet - no one in C&B, couples who looked like they were having a quick drink before browsing second hand shops nearby, media types ordering pizzas...

Nothing wrong with any of that, and I was very early as is always the case, but for the 20 minutes I sat on my own by the canal with my £6 ale, I felt like a compete outsider.

I’m not a scarfer, I grew up literally 10 minutes down the road from this place, and I am a media type. I’m as at home chatting to chinless wonders in Walthamstow village as “the panda bowl” men down the market - But I honestly couldn’t believe a place so close to our ground had done so well to completely remove itself from a 60k stadium.

When it got busier and my mates turned up, they brimmed with pride at the place. “Isn’t it good in here?”, and I honestly didn’t know what to say - it was alright. An alright, trendy place to sit and have a pint, full of pleasant people, watching kids spray painting on the canals. “Sometimes we don’t bother with the game at all and just stay in here.”

I felt nothing.

Let me make something clear - I’m a born & bred Eastend boy whose family proudly still call North Woolwich and Romford home, but I live by the Thames at Chiswick - I get up on a weekday morning, and stroll up towards Hammersmith Bridge and feed the seagulls and it’s ****ing PARADISE. There isn’t dogshit everywhere, and the majority of residents towards our end are weirdly all working class people. So my detachment wasn't even born from a longing for pie & mash etc - North Woolwich has better pie & mash than Upton Park ever did, and I’m someone who likes the gastropub offerings...

But it was the eventual inevitable 2:45 walk to the ground that really shook me - I’ve done the walk from Hackney Wick about 5 times before and it’s previously always been better than Stratford for both crowd atmosphere and ease, and I know it was a cheap cup game with all that entails.

But the crowd was literally like a sea of people going to Westfield - no colours - no noise.

2:45, and I have never EVER seen a crowd like it for a sporting event. For about 20 years at the Boleyn I never missed a single cup game or pointless pre-season... and I ACHED for that crowd of lads from Milton Keynes, on their one trip up for the season with their club carrier bag, and big lads in their replica kits with their little uns on their shoulders going to their first ever pointless, but cheap and symbolic match.

Macclesfield, Shrewsbury - I’d done this same route for these same games rather than the usual Stratford trudge, and even for these cup games there was still enough semblance of support that it felt like we were breathing a bit.

****ing hell I’ve done this place for olympics events and even the sanitised ‘healthy’ support for Team GB had a crowd with a bit of patriotism and kin.

This was a West Ham United crowd going to a West Ham United game. Nothing. Masses of people trundling towards a stadium. Nothing else.

And I realised I’m now as much a part of that as anyone else. Wasting my weekend to visit an extension of Westfield that Westfield doesn’t want.

Honestly think yesterday was my last game this season, potentially until our owners have gone.
Last edited by e17 on Sun Jan 26, 2020 9:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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the pink palermo
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by the pink palermo »

The Old Mile End , absolutely superb post. :thup:
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by Ozza »

Very sad post mate, feel your pain.
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by MrHammer73 »

Superb post Old Mile End.

Needs media coverage to sum up what the three frauds have done taking us to the rented athletics stadium.
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by southendmadhammer »

Old Mile End - that sums up exactly how I feel.

As sad as it is true.
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by hammerman11 »

agree with it all.

we went out of the cup yesterday without any fight passion soul from the crowd.

I sat at the end of the match and thought GSB have destroyed the club for ever. we are broken.

doubt I will go again this season and it will probably be my last as I miss the Boleyn ground so much. every time I go to the bowl I find myself saying I hate this place as I walk paste the soul destroying wastelands of stratford.

MAY 2016 WHU RIP

time to hang up my scarf as I am done. 1977 -2020
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by Ozza »

Another loyal ST bites the dust, how many more will they destroy before they are done?
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by whizzer »

We moved from the Boleyn as a block of 23 from the upper East (all ages from 18 - 70), I had seat B23 with the away supporters down to the right looking across the 18 yard line at the North Bank end (I never called it anything else!) taking some of rows A, B, C & D, we all loved that place.
Every game the tradition was the same, meet in the supporters club at 12, card school, few beers and generally chew the football fat
Strangely enough when we secured our tickets for the bowl we were told it was impossible to put us all together (even though there were areas that would have accommodated that) so they put at least 2/3 rows between us, we believe this was sanitising the support. Slowly our numbers dwindled and now there is just 1 left. Between us we would have had hundreds of seasons of watching the Irons, the 70 year old going for most of his life and its gone, stolen, taken away from us and for what? I see no benefits for US, THE FANS, moving to that ****hole and it is devastating, GSB have stolen our team, our ground, our supporters club, our Saturdays, everything.
I stopped going before last season and will never return to that place in its current form, never buy any merchandise or give that club another penny.
As far as I'm concerned I couldn't give a toss if we found ourselves in the Vanarama league, in fact sometimes I hope we do, it would be payback to those shyster's and con men that stole our club and a big part of our lives

FYGSB RIP WHU
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Aztec Hammer
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by Aztec Hammer »

Old Mile End.

That post should be put on the main site.
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mickthekeeper
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by mickthekeeper »

Couple of great posts ToME and e17....

Got me thinking and your absolutely spot on.... i never realised it before, but completely relate to what your saying... it’s not home and never will be.

made me realise is that the only thing I like about the place is the 1:15 hour door to door journey home
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Re: Olympic Stadium Discussion and Questions

Post by wormley »

Old Mile End 👍

Post of the year. Nailed it.

Hammers Utd should have that up on their website.
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