Your Club Your Voice: HU look to the future

Hammers United is a West Ham United fans group dedicated to improving things for all West Ham Supporters young & old.

Charlton Athletic, Blackpool, Manchester United, Newcastle, Coventry City, West Ham United… the list goes on and on, the cycle goes round and round. Why do supporters at all manner of professional football clubs seem to ultimately, find themselves at odds with their owners? We have found ourselves in this position a number of times at West Ham over the years and supporters could be forgiven for asking; “why would it be any different under another set of new owners?”. Herein lies the challenge; not only to prospective owners of West Ham United but also to us, the supporters.

To take a pragmatic view, it would be fair to say that supporters and owners often don’t seem to understand each other. If understanding is lacking, the logical conclusion would be that the communication has not been clear enough. Hammers United must take the approach that we have a part to play here and that our communication, as well as that of the people we might hold responsible, could be improved.

The supporters, as the heart and soul of West Ham United, must be in a position to make very clear exactly what it is that we want. We must be able to dissect and define what makes us who we are, what we cannot possibly give up, what we hold dear and what we must fight to win back. We must be able to clearly communicate, to any prospective owners, what that something ‘very special’ is about football and about supporting West Ham United.

Football may well have been a victim of its own success. The popularity of the game itself has catapulted football into becoming the commercial enterprise it is today. Amidst that success, if we lose sight of why we love our game and our team, only a cold and shiny exterior will exist with no life blood pumping through its veins.

Football becomes a part of our lives at an early age and at that point the sheer simplicity of the game is what we come to love. There are few other sports which can capture the attention and imagination in the way that football does, without a dent being made on the scorecard. The rush of emotion when the ball hits the back of the net is a moment of such importance it is celebrated like in no other sport. This is the game. This is what is bought and sold. People will pay to get their fix.

People will pay and continue to pay, even when they know that their love for the game and the connection they feel to their club, is not being given what they see to be due consideration by those setting the prices.

At the point where our capitalist society is trading on the popularity of our game, those doing that trading must come to understand something more. We must help them come to understand something more. Whilst the game is what draws us in and the results are what we enjoy, there is so, so much more to it.

Once we connect to a club, the experience becomes as important, if not more important than the outcome of the 90 mins. We become part of a family and the most basic of human needs are met through the attachments we build. We enjoy routines, we socialise, we sing, we celebrate, we commiserate and all of this we share.

To take the view that a football fan is merely a customer shopping at the football business of their choice, led by market forces and looking for a winning team, is a one-dimensional approach.

Hammers United now embarks on the most challenging phase of its journey to date; quantifying the emotional connection that supporters hold with our club and transforming that into a vision which details what the role of those supporters should be in bringing that to fruition.

A club that truly values it supporters can build a bond stronger than that between any ‘normal’ business and customer. Far from being simply customers, fans of football clubs who feel valued and who exist as an integral part of the club itself transform into proactive members of a community, advocates and the very essence of a Football Club.

To date, the situation at West Ham United in recent years has made it relatively easy for Hammers United to be convinced we are representing the views of our members. When a club is in crisis, when dissatisfaction is rife and when a disconnect (such as is evident at West Ham) exists between supporters and club, people are united by the desire for change. Calling for a fresh start and casting a critical eye over the decisions made by those who we feel have failed us is, in comparison to building the change that is needed, a relatively ‘easy’ position to be in.

Since our incarnation, our members have made it clear that ‘improving things for all West Ham supporters’ means pushing for two changes in the short-term. Hammers United are honoured to represent so many fans who are behind those demands for change: both a change in ownership and a change in the structure that allows fans to be represented in discussions with that ownership.

Hammers United feel we are approaching a time when a truly independent supporters board, consisting of FSA affiliate members, will be finalised and the club will choose to engage with this model. We also hope we are approaching a time when there will be a change in the leadership that exists at the very top of our club. Whilst we must keep working to make these changes a reality, we must also prepare thoroughly for the next challenge that lies ahead.

Can the members of Hammers United and the wider fanbase construct a set of principles that truly embody the role and position of supporters at West Ham United? Can we move from being customers to once again being family? And, most importantly, can this set of principles outlast each new investor and each new generation that is welcomed into our family, to ensure the essence of our club is never again lost to those who might interpret the connection between supporter and team as opportunity for exploitation?

This is where it becomes challenging to represent our members, challenging to build on the unity that exists behind the demands for change and challenging to share clear messaging far and wide.

For this phase of our journey, Hammers United will need you; its members and the wider fanbase. We, as a committee, cannot design the detail of these principles. We cannot ratify these principles. We cannot quantify, from our viewpoint and our angle alone, what it should mean to be a supporter of West Ham United. That must be owned by every fan.

We ask any supporter of West Ham United, reading this article, to begin thinking about what it actually means to feel truly connected and valued by our club. A blank page, a clean slate, a fresh start; what should football and supporting West Ham United be about?

In the cold light of day, with the admission that we are dealing with a product, it is still the people that make this ‘product’ what is. Without their custom, every aspect of the game that allows it to enjoy the success it does would simply disappear. Therefore, putting those people at the centre of a club’s identity serves both sides equally. The fans who feel part of their football club will, indefinitely, stand with that club. They will give up their time and money to do whatever they can to help that club succeed. They will champion that club’s existence and the ‘product’ for sale simply goes from strength to strength.

Whilst those fans are happy to be a part of that product all they ask in return is to feel what they have always felt. The club who respects that desire and plans for that to happen, provides the feeling that those fans are desperate to experience.

So, the logical step to achieve a ‘product’ endorsed by its supporters, along with a well-considered experience delivered by a club for those supporters, is a simple agreement.

The content of that agreement is the hard part and this must be created by supporters. It must speak to the principles that they hold dear.

Hammers United believe we can prepare for that agreement, with your help, at West Ham.