West Ham take on Brentford in the Premier League on Monday night and 62,500 fans will once again converge on the London Stadium.
It has taken a few years but West Ham fans have finally started to establish their matchday routines in Stratford.
For many the London Stadium will never truly be West Ham’s home.
But the fact remains that it is – and is set to be for the next 91 years at least.
There are Hammers fans who have come to terms with the fact the former Olympic Stadium is now home, though.
West Ham fans have settled into new matchday routines
Despite misgivings over certain elements of the stadium itself, there is no escaping the fact there is more going on and more to do in the surrounding area than at the club’s beloved Upton Park.
But one popular watering hole that was being frequented by thousands is now laying empty right next to the ground.
And a CEO has explained why the hugely popular giant West Ham fan bar near the London Stadium closed suddenly earlier this season.
The wonderfully-designed Haugen restaurant and bar was a bustling meeting point for many Hammers supporters on matchdays.
Why Haugen near London Stadium closed suddenly
But now it lays empty after closing its doors suddenly. Many West Ham fans have been puzzled by the sudden closure. Especially as logic suggested it should be a potential gold mine on matchdays.
The building is owned by D&D London.
To understand why Haugen – which looks like a Scandinavian work of art – closed suddenly and what the future might hold for the site, Hammers News has reached out to D&D London’s comms team.
In the meantime we have come across an interview D&D London’s David Loewi did with Restaurant Online.
In it Loewi explains that Haugen was simply a casualty of Covid. And that despite the spike in revenue on West Ham and London Stadium event days, D&D couldn’t make it pay.
Loewi says Haugen site was one of the D&D London sites which was not performing in line with the rest of the business, which is set to turn over £144m.
‘A casualty of Covid’
And he states it was hit hard by the aftereffects of the pandemic and the surge in working from home.
“The board was in full agreement about which sites were working and which ones weren’t,” he told Restaurant Online.
“There are lots of headwinds at the moment. My view was that if a restaurant was borderline, it was better to focus on the restaurants that are making money and make them even better…
“The world has changed. Both those deals (Haugen and Klosterhaus) were made before Covid. If you stand on Haugen’s rooftop and look into the surrounding office blocks they are all empty.
“The social market is still there, but that is not enough for Haugen to succeed. It is too big a restaurant.”
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