Anyone doubting that West Ham fans are truly special needs to read this. Much has been written in recent weeks concerning Karren Brady’s comments about the London Stadium, fans being resistant to change and varied opinions about the move from Upton Park, the match day experience, concessions – you name it, everyone has had their say.
Even Brentford supporters weighed in with their own rebuke, having been called out by Hammers fans for not standing up: The reply received to Associate Editor Sean Whetstone’s article yesterday denigrated London Stadium as ‘that soulless ground’. In the middle of all of this came a report today from those nice people at insideworldfootball.com detailing Premier League ‘actual’ attendances in February 2025. And the results are remarkable.
Compare this: exhibit ‘A’: Manchester City, Premier League champions for the last gazillion years, have found their attendances falling as their success dwindles. Currently sitting 17 points away from Liverpool in fourth place, City fans have shown how fickle they are as their “attendances have frankly fallen off a cliff this season”.
Exhibit ‘B’: West Ham United, sitting down in the Premier League’s sixteenth place, perilously close to the drop zone, with awful results, injury crises, an unpopular manager dismissed last month – well, “West Ham United again led the way in the Premier League attendance table, recording a season-high 99.94% capacity at the London Stadium.”
So despite everything thrown at the supporters, all the waffle about the match day experience, Hammers fans are buying tickets and selling out their unloved stadium in spite of the experience, in spite of the team performance, in spite of the weather, the shambolic footballing fayre served up in the first half of the season, the want-away players, the train strikes, the cost of living crisis – in spite of everything. And that, my friends, makes me proud.
