Monday, February 20

London Stadium stewarding progress

With a lull in games it might be a good time to reflect that there have been some improvements at the London Stadium. Allowing flags bigger than 2 x 2 metres has given the upper tiers more of a Cup Final look and makes the game appear more of an occasion. 

Things aren't perfect, but the recent meeting of Karren Brady and the new Supporters Advisory Board seems to have yielded some positive results. The club has agreed to invite all ex-Boleyn Ground stewards to work at the London Stadium, deploy the same stewards in the same areas each game and to use ex-Boleyn Ground stewards in sensitive areas where "empathy with supporters is key". Although all this emphasis on empathy does have me imagining Mariella Frostrup counselling us about our sex lives at half-time… 

The newer stewards will also be briefed in the culture and history of the club so they don't confuse us with Coldplay fans. Karren Brady has received a lot of flak, sometimes rather bizarrely for not being a West Ham fan and also for being a woman and a Conservative. She's never claimed to be a football fan and if we were taken over by Abu Dhabi we wouldn't have a fan in charge of finance either. But she does know about unhappy consumers being bad for business and appears willing to listen to some of our concerns from this season so that's progress. It would have made sense to employ all the old Boleyn Ground stewards from the start, but at least it seems that mistake is being rectified.

4 comments:

Jackhammer said...

the Flags will help with atmosphere definitely, although hanging them upside down should be against Stadium rules! ie in your pic! definitely more empathy required except the standing issue is the elephant in the room, and sadly, occasionally we do have a few thugs coming who pretend to be fans who do need firm ( non- empathetic ) handling out of the stadium.

Pete May said...

At least one progress with people who prefer to sit being moved to other areas - though he club messed up by not transferring he Bobby Moore Stand en masse to one end of the new ground. Stewarding will be fully tested against Chelsea again and hep brier between fans is more secure this time

Pete May said...

PS i think the flag upside down at the Palace game pictured was a dig at Payet as it said :"Just don't think you understand"

Jackhammer said...

thanks for the context Pete I couldn't think why someone would haul a big flag like that to the ground and hang it upside down.