West Ham United fans have voiced their outrage on social media over the eye-watering ticket prices for home league matches, at the London Stadium next season.
With the club release ticket information for their home fixture against champions Manchester City next month, fans have criticised that prices top-out at £120 for some seats – which applies to even Under 18s, OAPs, and those eligible for accessibility tickets.
The Hammers take on City at the 62,500-seater London Stadium on Saturday 31 August, for a 5:30pm BST kick-off, meaning it will be a live televised match, and this, fans insinuate, may be the only way they can watch the game.
Posting on X (formerly Twitter), one fan expressed their anger: ‘Driving families out of the game, absolutely absolutely disgusting from Brady and the club.’
A pricing table from the official site shows the cost of tickets in zone bandings one to six, as well as club class tickets, ‘1966’ and ‘1966 West’.
Fans will have to pay up to £120 to see West Ham play Manchester City at the London Stadium
Categories for adult, ‘O66’, ‘U21’, ‘U18’ and ‘Accessibility’ cost the same across all brackets, with the club are offering no concessions for any ticket type.
The data shows the lowest-priced ticket is in ‘Band 6’, and will set fans back £55 across all categories when on general sale. Excluding premium ‘1966’ and ‘1966 West’ tickets (which cost £120), the highest-priced ‘Band 1’ tickets cost £100 across the board.
Club execs have drawn most fan criticism, including the well-known vice chairman Karren Brady, and owner and chairman, David Sullivan.
West Ham fan-affiliated action group, Save Our Concessions, posted a screenshot of general admission pricing table with the caption: ‘No kids prices, no OAP prices, no shame from @WestHam @WestHamHelp @karren_brady’
Another fan pointed towards the previous West Ham execs’ previous pledge that their 2016 move to the London Stadium from their old home, the Boleyn Ground, would help keep football inclusive for fans, especially from the local area.
He posted: ‘Shameful from @West Ham… “Affordable Football” they said when we moved.
‘In the middle of a cost of living crisis and they decide these prices are affordable!! I’ll be surprised if we sell out many fixtures this season as a result with this pricing strategy’.
Last year, a report said the club were ‘open to turning their rental of the stadium into a permanent purchase.’
Fans on X express their disgust for ticket prices, saying the club has reneged on promises
Others point out the historic significance of ticket costs today, for local fans
One fan said ticket prices are ‘driving’ generations of families away from the game
The club’s vice chairman, Karren Brady (left), has been the focus of fans’ ire on social media
West Ham United chief exec, David Sullivan (centre), has drawn criticism for pricing previously
It laid out the original terms of the 99-year lease the club agreed to with London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) and Newham Council, in 2016.
It says the ‘Hammers paid £15million towards the overall conversion of the stadium into a dual-use arena, plus a basic rent of £2.5million per year.
‘The amount needed to convert the venue into a multi-purpose site would soar to £323million, which was largely covered by the taxpayer.
However, the report also points towards comments by Lyn Garner, LLDC’s chief executive, who ‘claimed in 2018 that West Ham’s rent “does not cover the cost” of staging matches at the venue and that “a lack of commercialisation” means the organisation faces “losses for the next 97 years”.
West Ham won the 2023 UEFA Europa Conference League, beating Fiorentina 1-2 in Prague
These claims will only fuel speculation as to why prices have been increasingly hiked over the years, regardless of standing in the league or participation in Europe.
The Hammers famously won the 2023 UEFA Europa Conference League, beating Fiorentina 1-2 on 7 June, 2023.
Fans have hoped European success would spark a new age of investment in the club, but consternation is growing that any cost will be passed off onto them.
Others simply can’t identify with the club’s current direction, with one fan on X simply putting it: ‘This is not the club I’ve supported all my life. Shame on you @WestHam’.
