A year on from a peaceful mass demonstration against our current owners, that saw over 8,500 fans take to the Greenway before Southampton at home, and some things have changed: Our next mass demonstration remains on hold due to COVID-19 and West Ham sit fourth in the Premier League.
Some things, haven’t changed.
So why do the calls for new ownership still ring out loud and clear across large sections of the fanbase and what might we be able to learn when preparing to work alongside new owners?
As captured by our recent supporter survey, the sentiment felt at the club over different aspects of its running is polarised. West Ham fans are a reasonable bunch when it comes to expectations on the pitch. We are well aware that we have never finished higher than third in the top domestic league and that our last cup triumph was over 40 years ago. We thoroughly enjoy the good times, such as the outstanding form the team is producing right now, and we bemoan our lack of success in the bad times. Supporter sentiment over football related matters is overwhelmingly positive.
Herein lies the answer, at the most basic level, as to why the calls for new ownership continue. Sentiment around the running of all other aspects of the club is overwhelmingly negative. The calls for new ownership are not related to the form of our team or the signings of our manager. In short, fans want everything besides the football given an overhaul, with a fresh approach from a fresh set of custodians.
Undoubtedly, the botched stadium move has caused the most pain. And of course, we cannot go back. However, the situation remains that we are playing in a rented athletics stadium which does nothing to enhance any atmosphere created and we would ask new owners to give serious consideration to structural changes or even the prospect of a purpose-built ground.
Moving away from the construction of the stadium itself, the matchday experience has been sanitised to such a point that it is unrecognisable from the one we came to know and love in a previous era. In the absence of an immediate fix regarding the stadium, we would ask new owners to find a solution that makes it possible for local businesses, sellers and stewards employed by the club, to take the place of the company’s managing our experience at present.
Far from being a club with no culture, as we were once described, we have a rich culture just waiting to be embraced. A celebration of this culture at our home as well as an embodiment of this culture running through everything at the club would help fix some of what has gone wrong. New owners might want to start with a consultation over the much-maligned crest which sports the word ‘London’ and appears to stray from our history and traditions.
Besides some of the more obvious issues, such as the interest charged on loans, that supporters might have with our current owners, it would seem we are a point of no return due to the lack of trust that exists. Ultimately, supporters would want new owners who will work closely with fans groups and take their point of view into consideration, when making decisions that affect them. The catalogue of decisions that have led people to question the intentions of our current owners, such as the season ticket waiting list or the decisions made about the upkeep of the memorial gardens to name but two, cannot be added to.
As long as the call for new ownership remains, Hammers United will answer that call with organised, peaceful demonstrations away from the 90 mins of football where people have come to get behind their team.
Hammers United will also continue to carefully prepare a set of principles that will allow us to work with purpose alongside new owners from day one.
We look to seeing you all again at our next mass demonstration and, of course, at the football.
