The Guardian believes that West Ham aren’t out of the murky waters they had to swim through to secure residency in the Olympic Stadium.
The bottom line is that West Ham are being accused in some quarters of being recipients of excessive state benefits.
Which is quite ironic when you consider that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy occasionally entertains Benefit Sanctioner And Baby Eater At Large, Iain Duncan Smith at White Lane …for free.
What is more ironic, is that all the football fans now emerging from the woodwork claiming to be well versed in the complexities of state aid, because they were pretty silent when the Olympic Stadium’s bill blundered out of control for a what was a middle-class sports day that lasted a week.
All we heard at the time was a load of guff about ‘legacy’ and if we’re honest with ourselves, it was difficult to tell the difference between the genuine TV coverage and the BBC’s ‘2012’ comedy series.
After the Olympics were over, it was no shock to cynics like me when the broken promises began to appear.
Funding for numerous sports was sorely cut or removed altogether.
What was left was in part was a prefab stadium that had cost£619million. If you’re wondering where your tax goes, try turning your attentions from the measly few percent of so-called benefit scroungers that exist and start looking to see where the big numbers are seeping out to.
West Ham United Football Club have announced groundbreaking plans for ticketing, that must be be applauded.
WHUFC propose to retail a season ticket for the 2016/17 season at £289. I bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner last week that was dearer than that.
The cost for a season ticket for under 16’s is an inspirational £99.
This initiative by the bubble blowers, will see a 5% rise on existing season tickets prior to the move (which is entirely reasonable) and then the price drop will be implemented when they move. In a nutshell, when they have it to give, they will.
Watching West Ham suddenly becomes effortlessly affordable. Pro rata each Premier League home game will only cost you £15.20. The reasoning is brilliantly logical, if they can boost their attendances from 35,000 to 54,000, then they must build an audience in their new home.
The business models that work are those that genuinely deliver value. You want your newspaper read by as many people as possible? Give it away for free. The Evening Standard are now able to charge their advertisers more, because there circulation has dramatically increased. Whereas behind their paywalls, The Times and The Sun are left scratching for every penny they can lure in.
The announcement from West Ham was met pretty much universally by Tottenham fans with derision.
Let’s all laugh at West Ham having to give their seats away.
Ha ha flipping ha.
Except the joke’s on us.
We all complain about the price of tickets, and if you’re a Spurs or Everton fan, then currently you have the choice to either pay THFC face value which is over inflated given the dross that is mostly served up, or you get to pay what, 4 times face on StubHub?
I take the view that WHFC tickets will fly out and the stadium will be busy. The team will get well supported and if they get the luck they are trying to engineer, then they will do well.
If I was only paying £15 to watch Spurs waste yet another hour and a half of my life, I’d be less inclined to mail that full nappy I pop in the post every Monday morning addressed to Mr Levy.
Can you imagine the take up on ‘away’ allocations for a side playing within walking distance of Stratford tube? Man Utd fans will be queuing back up to Brick Lane!
West Ham have been mocked for selling seats on Groupon in the past. For advertising on talkSPORT. How any Spurs fan can look down their nose at this lot when we have a giant ditch next to our stadium after what, 8 years of fannying about is beyond me.
West Ham aren’t desperate, they’ve actually been quite astute. At present they sell out as frequently as we do, and it’s obvious they’ve taken steps to safeguard that being the case in their new home.
You wanted reduced tickets. you want be treated more like a fan and less like a Client Reference Number, yet when another club show you the future you wanted, the tribal tendancies kick in and the old hackles go up.
Hate West Ham, salute how their club is being run.
