These are the agreed meeting minutes from the first Fan Advisory Board meeting held 11th September 2024 at the Club.
As it was the first meeting, the agenda covered important administrative topics to set the FAB up for success, alongside a focus on the club’s ticketing and concession policy.
The views of Abba Voyage concerning safety at the London Stadium are more important to Newham’s Safety Advisory Group than the views of West Ham supporters.
The London Borough of Newham is the local authority that issues the safety certificate for matches played at the London Stadium. They have decided that representatives from Abba Voyage and Sadlers Wells should be represented on the SAG for West Ham matches, but there's no room for a supporter representative.
Football ticket prices have caught the attention of Parliamentarians with Ian Lavery MP tabling an Early Day Motion (EDM) criticising clubs for exploiting supporter loyalty, increasing costs and attacking concessions.
Please write to your MP asking them to add their signature to the EDM.
The new Labour Government included it as part of their King's Speech for this Parliamentary year.
The new Bill is still in construction. Parliament returns again on 7th October. The Bill will be introduced before the Christmas Recess. There is debate continuing within government about whether, and if so how, to improve on the Conservative Bill.
WHUST, along with other ISC representatives recently met with club representatives at the London Stadium to discuss concessionary ticket pricing.
Read MoreWHUST sometimes seems quiet. We believe in trying to work behind the scenes. Sometimes we have some successes, often it’s not enough. This is to update you on the vast amount of work we have been doing on ticketing.
In April we sent the club a document called Ticketing 2024 Discussion Document. This dealt with a huge list of concerns – some the club had asked us to explain; some we felt the need to raise. There were also several questions, as we could not offer solutions without additional information.
Brady goes back on her promise of affordable family football. Writing in The Standard when season tickets first went on sale at the London Stadium:
For me, however, today’s most important announcement affects our young supporters.
We are committed to offering the next generation of West Ham the chance to come and watch their team and we want to make it easier for families that may currently be unable to watch football together regularly, to do so at the new Stadium.
WHUST and other fan groups on the Independent Supporters Committee (ISC) have been negotiating with the club on a new fan engagement body called the Fan Advisory Board (FAB).
West Ham has now published the details of its FAB. WHUST must now decide whether or not to apply for a seat on the FAB. We have asked our members to decide.
The Conservative government’s Football Governance Bill was ‘lost’ when the General Election was called. All three main political Parties subsequently included a commitment to legislate for independent regulation in their Manifesto’s. The pressing need for regulation is widely recognised and has strong support in Parliament across Party lines. Your Trust is confident we will see law to stop breakaway leagues, to make sure clubs have fit and proper owners and directors, to make it less likely that local communities and fans lose their football club altogether because of unsustainable decisions by temporary owners, and require and ensure that clubs do meaningfully engage with supporters across a range of issues, including, we hope, match-day ticket prices and kick-off times.
Read MoreWest Ham fans have started a petition to oppose Season Ticket price rises & changes To Concession Tickets.
New concessions are now restricted to bands 5 & 6. If you want to relocate your existing concession season ticket that is treated as a new ticket and you don’t get the concession.
These changes are forcing families, friends and groups of loyal West Ham fans who have sat together supporting our Club for decades to split up and some will probably never see West Ham play at home again.
Wolves consulted with its fans and has subsequently proposed to the Premier League that it scrap VAR next season. As we understand it, the vote is scheduled to take place amongst Premier League clubs on 6th June.
We would like your views on how we ask West Ham to vote at that PL meeting or what else we might suggest. There may be alternative options, such as reform of VAR. Please take a little time to answer as many of the questions as you can.
The West Ham United Supporters’ Trust (WHUST) has called on MPs scrutinising the Football Governance Bill to make sure the regulator’s powers cover ticket prices.
WHUST has demanded:
1. The proposed independent regulator for English football must have the power to intervene on ticket pricing
2. Proper fan consultation must include ticket pricing
3. There must be protection for concessionary ticket pricing
It is with much sadness that we annouce the passing away of the Chair of our Trust - Terry Reynolds.
Terry collapsed whilst representing the Trust at a Show Racism the Red Card event yesterday evening - a subject that he was very passionate about. He was taken to hospital where he passed away later.
We pass on our condolences to Terry's wife Anne and his familiy.
He was a great man doing important work and we will all miss him.
We held our usual pre European match briefing with Football Supporters Europe where we discussed arrangements for supporters travelling to Leverkusen.
Details about getting to the stadium, facilities and after the match.
The headline news is that West Ham is raising season ticket prices by between 6% and 14%, ignoring the rapidly falling rate of inflation (3.4%). This is worsening the cost-of-living crisis for Hammers fans.
The biggest rises hit the discounted two-year deals for band five and six tickets, with the two-year band five ticket rising by 14%. The cheapest annual season ticket is rising more than 11% (£35) to £345 and the kids’ season ticket by 10% (£10) to £109.
At the other end of the scale the top priced ticket (excluding Club London) is rising just over 6% (£100) to £1,720.
A new regulator is to be established by the UK government to oversee the elite men’s football game. A Football Governance Bill was tabled on Tuesday 19th March 2024 to establish a new Independent Football Regulator (IFR) as a new public body with operational independence and accountability.
Read MoreFootball Supporters Europe hosted a meeting to discuss arrangements for our forthcoming matches against Freiburg in the Europa League.
Helen Breit, a member of Supporters Crew Freiburg gave us some insight about visiting Freiburg.
We discussed where to eat and drink, getting to the stadium, at the match and after the match.
Independent Advisory Groups (IAGs) are set up to allow groups of people to act as that “critical friend” to the Police, in our case the Metropolitan Police. At IAG meetings questions are asked, police actions and initiatives explained/questioned and information shared.
The minutes of the last meeting held on 4th January 2024 are here:
The Annual General Meeting of the Trust took place on Wednesday 21st February 2024 and was held online via Zoom video-conferencing.
All resolutions were passed at the meeting including confirmation of members elected to the Board of Directors.
Full details of the AGM meting and process are on our website.
No Elizabeth Line or Greater Anglia trains from Shenfield to Liverpool Street and no Overground to Stratford via Hackney Wick.
For those proper Arsenal supporters that still live at their old manor - no DLR trains from Woolwich Arsenal to Canning Town.
