“A world-class stadium for a world-class team.”
That was the pitch that Karren Brady made to West Ham fans to convince them to leave Upton Park.
Some remained adamant they didn’t want to leave the ground that had been home for more than a century, but those who could see the way the wind was blowing in modern football conceded that if the Hammers wanted a piece of the big time, they needed a ground to match.
They bid a tearful farewell to Upton Park, and headed to the Olympic Park where, they were promised, bigger and better things awaited them.
‘Generational objections’
“What followed was three or four years of looking over our shoulder,” says James Jones of The West Ham Way podcast.
“And when the team’s winning football matches, the atmosphere is, naturally, is a lot better.”
But as a rule, they’re not. West Ham have one win from four this season and are already being touted as relegation candidates.
This weekend, fans will hold a “sack the board” protest at the London Stadium. But the seeds of that resentment were sewn by that 2016 move three miles west.
“The fans generally point fingers at the stadium when the team’s playing badly,” Jones adds.
“I don’t particularly feel like that’s a fair and overall analysis and conclusion you can make, but in short, it has the potential to be a good stadium, right?”
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 22: A general view of fans inside the stadium during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Chelsea at London Stadium on August 22, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Fans complain they are too far from the pitch in what was built as an athletics stadium (Photo: Getty)
But these objections are deep rooted. Everyone is aware of them.
“I don’t know how long it’s gonna take. It’s almost generational,” says Bobby Zamora, who played 152 times for West Ham before they moved.
“Anyone that has seen or been to Upton Park, it’s gonna stay in their system, in their blood, until it’s the next generation that have never experienced it.
“I really feel that because that place was special and so many memories.”
‘It’s not a football stadium’
There are so many problems with the stadium, originally built for the 2012 Olympics, but few of them can be easily fixed.
“First and foremost, it’s a long walk from the station to the ground!” Jones says.
“You get out the station, it’s still probably 20 minutes until you get there.
“And it does feel a bit sterile sometimes in and around the stadium. You get in and it doesn’t feel like you’re there for a football match.
“I don’t think it really hits the spot in terms of what modern football fans look for in a matchday experience. First and foremost, I think it’s because everyone knows it’s a stadium that wasn’t built for football predominantly.”
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 22: General view inside the stadium prior to the Premier League match between West Ham United and Chelsea at London Stadium on August 22, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
The carpet and logos cannot change the dimensions and the seating arrangements (Photo: Getty)
Jermain Defoe, who played for the Hammers at Upton Park and against them at the London Stadium, agrees.
“It’s not a football stadium. Upton Park was close, the fans were close to the pitch. With the atmosphere, it was difficult for teams to come and play there. It’s just completely different [now].”
‘Knock it down and start again!’
The club have tried to compensate. They installed a claret-coloured carpet between the fans and the pitch, emblazoned with the club logo.
The stands at the end were squared off rather than curved further away from the pitch. But they are fighting an uphill battle.
“When you get to your seat, and it is just a huge bowl really,” Jones points out, a complaint echoed by almost every West Ham fan you meet.
“There’s not that intimacy that you would expect from a football ground, regardless of whether it’s an old football ground like Upton Park or a newer one.
“Even at Tottenham’s new ground, you still have that intimacy there, to an extent, even though it’s a vastly bigger stadium.”
Jones’s final verdict? “Knock it down and start again! If I’m going to be completely honest, I think that’s what it needs.
“But in the short to medium term, the club really needs to listen to the supporters.”
A singing section by any other name
There are other complaints about the numbers of tourists rather than die-hard West Ham fans, and the ease with which away fans seem to be able to purchase tickets in the home end.
But most people agree the real damage was done when season ticket holders who had sat, stood and sung together for decades were split up in the move from Upton Park. That knot is still being unpicked.
“The majority of our work has been around trying to get like-minded fans together,” says Sarthak Kumar, a board member for the West Ham United Supporters’ Trust.
Kumar has been working with another fan group, Ironworks Alliance, to get more fans keen to sing back sitting together in the Bobby Moore Stand.
Yesterday hurt, no doubt about it. But do we regret putting the effort in to lift the atmosphere? Not a chance. 145/146 concourse was bouncing. Countless fans could hear the noise as they approached the bridge, and the stands were rocking until their second went in. Win or lose,… pic.twitter.com/24kLE3XI1H
— Ironworks Alliance (@IWA1895) August 23, 2025
“One thing you would probably notice from this season compared to last season is a lot of more like-minded fans are sitting in section 145. So the Bobby Moore Lower Stand has many more people compared to before who are actually wanting to bring the noise.”
It is, to all intents and purposes, a singing section, although that name tends to ruffle the feathers of more traditional fans who see it as confected and artificial.
“We sometimes do get those comments, but the overwhelming majority is ‘Bloody hell, at least someone’s trying,’” Kumar adds.
“It’s a community of people who can come together and who can build not just a matchday atmosphere, but also a pre and post-match atmosphere.”
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They have had some help from the club itself, allowing them access to the stadium to set up tifos or flags, but those displays still have to be painstakingly crowdfunded each time.
“There’s a lot of work that we’ve had to do on our own,” Kumar says.
“There’s a few people who have given up so much of their time. This is almost a full-time job for them, and it’s a lot of work.
“The dream for us is can we have an atmosphere where, when people come to play West Ham, they should feel intimidated.
“Can we be that kind of team? We’re not going to win every week. I don’t expect us to win every week.
“But can we build that community and that atmosphere, so that when teams come, they feel it?”
At Upton Park, teams always did. And perhaps at the London Stadium they will again.