Knees Up Mother Brown? West Ham United v Juventus 7 August 2016 Betway Cup

Today was the opening game of the London Stadium, the new home of West Ham United. Hang on a minute you say, what about the blog post you made for the game at the London Stadium 4 days ago ? Yes, I did watch West Ham at the London Stadium  4 days ago, but this game with Juventus was arranged as the big pre-season friendly to open the new ground before the draw was made for the Europa Cup.

I had a chance today to reflect a little bit more on West Ham and their move to the new stadium and what it means for football in general. I went to this game once again courtesy of my friends Tony & Lisa. As I have said before they both have mobility issues and were gracious enough to let me have one of their carer tickets for today's game.

The London Stadium is on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and is designed to be accessed by public transport with most people going via Stratford Station. From there it is about a mile walk to the ground. There are only 229 parking spaces at the ground for 60,000 people. There is no public transport from the station to the ground. The only option realistically is to walk from the station to the ground. 

West Ham have realised this is a problem and have arranged shuttle buses from the station to the ground and back. A fleet of busses operated by the most friendly staff you will come across take you to outside the clubshop and cafe. From there, there are 2 lifts to take you up to the main concourse level of the ground.

Stewards dealing with the queues for the club shop etc are all alert to the needs of people with mobility problems and barriers were moved etc to let us through. At each block of turnstiles, there were separate entrances for us rather than the turnstiles. A lot of thought had gone into this. 

Once inside the ground, we had the only problem to resolve. The tickets provided for Tony & Lisa and their carers were not accessible to them. This is a mistake and I am sure will be recognised. After speaking to a couple of stewards we were moved into wheelchair accessible view seats at the opposite end of the ground to last Thursday's view. These seats are in the area that will be used for visiting fans. The view from the seats like on last Thursday was excellent. The seats are situated at the rear of the lower tier, but are high enough up that if people stand in the lower tier they do not affect the view.

One thing that puzzles me slightly is that immediately outside this part of the ground is the clubshop and ticket office. This seems a strange place to put visiting fans, especially for big games where there is a risk of trouble. It will make it harder to keep fans seperated outside the ground. Is this naive, lacking forethought or is it foreward looking? I will revert to this topic later in this blog post.

Once in our seats, we had the chance to watch the pre match entertainment, a brass band, lots of teenage girls performing some sort of synchronised routine that seemed to consist of them bent over for ages. Not quite sure what it was. Then lots of fireworks. The teams came out and lined up for the British National Anthem, but not the Italian one. Not sure why only one anthem was played.

The game started with Juventus going 2 nil up before Andy Carrol pulled one back for West Ham. Half time and West Ham were still 1-2 down. They got back on level terms in the second half when that Geordie, Andy Carrol scored again.

All square and neither side doing more than going through the motions. It was a typical pre season game with odd flashes of brilliance amongst the routine play. Eventually, late on Juventus scored a third and won the game 3-2. Strangely not many people stayed to watch the presentation of the trophy.

There was a small contingent of Juventus supporters in the ground. When I say small, I mean small. See those standing up in the photograph below

Leaving the ground we were taken by the shuttle bus back to Stratford station and avoided the queues outside the station. 

So, after 2 visits to the new ground what are my observations:

• West Ham seem only to have one song - if its not bubbles, there is no singing ( well until Payet came on at the end.)
• The facilities for those less mobile are the best I have come across, with the possible exception of Wembley. The wheelchair accessible view seats give a fantastic view. There are lifts where needed and the surface in the ground and outside is flat, even and smooth.
• The stewards are doing a great job. The supervisors in particular dealt with all problems with a smile, despite the fact they were probably feeling sick of complaints.
• The make up of the crowd was interesting. I saw several muslim women there . There were also quite a few mothers there with children without a male partner there. This to me was a very interesting development. It shows that West Ham as a club has a reach out into the community far beyond the traditional football market. 
• Linked to the above, the atmosphere at the 2 games was very different to a visit to Upton Park. It was far less intimidating and far more relaxed than Upton Park (or many other grounds). The converse side of that is that the London Stadium is less likely to as intimidating a place for visiting teams to play at. That may affect results on the pitch.
• Watching football at the London Stadium is relaxing and very enjoyable, certainly from the wheelchair accessible seats. I could easily be persuaded to go again (hint hint Tony and Lisa if you are reading this).
• One oddity is seeing seating beneath or behind the football seating. This is seating for the athletics. It is not something you see at many grounds.

All in all , I have enjoyed my visits to the London Stadium and see it as part of the future of football. The days of the 1980s when the ICF were the most famous thing about West Ham and football hooliganism was the norm are in the past apart from the young wanabees who wouldn't know what real football violence was. I was chatting last weekend whilst taking part in the UK Police Unity Tour cycling event, with a police officer who is a former Football Intelligence Officer, and still polices football. He was of the view, as I was that with all the cameras and police intelligence that anyone taking part in organised violence at football these days is asking for arrest. The intelligence and CCTV evidence available to police means that its a mugs game these day to get involved. What happened in the 1980s is history and will never be repeated.