West Ham United moved from Upton Park to the London Stadium back in 2016.
The move to the London Stadium was supposed to usher in a new era of success for West Ham.
The Hammers owners made promises of a bright future where we would be competing consistently for major trophies.
That obviously hasn’t worked out has it. Were we miss-sold a dream? Massively so in my eyes.
However, things can improve. West Ham can gain full control of the London Stadium, just like Manchester City did with the Etihad years ago.
Hopefully that happens somewhere down the line.
The truth of the matter is that changes need to be made urgently.
The longer David Sullivan allows this to drag on, the harder it will be for him to turn around.
West Ham’s soulless London Stadium destroyed
The atmosphere during the Hammers’ 1-0 defeat to Brentford on Saturday summed up the London Stadium in a nutshell.
Many fans left the ground on the 80 minute mark – incredible really when you think we were just a goal down with 15 minutes still to play.
And now Athletic journalist Tim Spiers has hammered home just how bad things have become inside the 62,500 seater stadium.
Spiers’ description of the London Stadium should send shockwaves around the club:
“It’s been said many times before, but this is and always will be a soul-destroying place to watch football. A vacuous corporate bowl plonked in a concrete desert, with no sense of community or belonging.“
“The space between the stands and the pitch is big enough to park a plane in, noise from any pockets of singing supporters evaporates and some people genuinely eat popcorn.“
“No wonder the atmosphere is awful. It’s not the fault of the fans, who turn up in huge numbers, that they have been given a stadium more suited for a baseball franchise and a team more suited to the Championship.“
I have to say, that’s a fantastic explanation of how bad things have got.
And if the board have genuine ambition to take the club forward, they need to look at ways of improving our home ground immediately.
Five ways West Ham can improve the London Stadium
The stadium isn’t designed specifically for football, but there are ways the club could make it better.
The fans have proven that it is possible to generate a decent atmosphere during games against Sevilla in 2022, Liverpool in 2021 and Tottenham in 2017 for example.
However, we can all do so much better.
Firstly, the addition of designated safe standing and singing sections would be an instant win.
Then, the club could introduce regular use of Tifos for home games, much like they do out in Germany.
Thirdly, the club need to find a way of closing the gap between seats and the pitch as much as possible, even if it’s just a yard or two!
Next up is the need to address the wasted areas of space at either end of the ground, or as I call them the ‘anti atmosphere’ zones!
There must be a way for West Ham to improve the London Stadium, but as we all know, that won’t be able to happen until we own the arena.
So the most important change the Hammers owners could make is to purchase our Stratford ‘home’ outright from E20 Stadium LLP.
Until that happens, there won’t be any drastic changes.
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