When David Cameron did something that no genuine football fan would ever do – forget the name of his club – one couldn’t help but think there was more to it than just “brain fade.”
It is surely no coincidence that he named the club where Karren Brady, a Tory peer and incessant pro-Conservative election tweeter, is a vice-chairman. Lo and behold, Brady was the mastermind behind another letter of small business people nailing their colours to the Conservative mast in the Daily Telegraph.
What a successful election for Brady, the champion of not just politically-biased business people but the common football fan. Last week, in a wonderfully philanthropic gesture, Brady announced that when West Ham move to the Olympic Stadium, the cheapest adult season ticket will be £289 – a reduction of £331 from current prices.
Why? Because that’s when the new £5bn-plus TV deal kicks in, and because they want to send out a message: we care about our fans and want others to do the same.
But season ticket prices for next year, the last at the Boleyn, have gone up (I just bought mine for £885; the cheapest is £665). Because what Brady fails to admit is that she and the other bosses don’t really care about philanthropy or compassion towards their fellow West Ham fans.
The fact is, as has been pointed out, is that Brady is a businessperson out for profit. The cut in season-ticket prices (however long it may last) is only in place because Brady, Gold and Sullivan managed to cut the mother of all deals when they got the Olympic Stadium for £15m, and will pay just £2.5m per year in rent over the next 99 years.
West Ham are lowering their prices not out of sympathy for the fans but because Brady and co have a comfortable profit pile. Because if those in charge at West Ham really cared about the fans, the club’s history and the community, then the stadium they leave behind, would left for those “hard-working families” – that phrase so often touted by the Conservatives – to reap the rewards from. Yet, Brady – despite arguing she cares about the West Ham area and that the country recovers from the recession – has not helped the borough of Newham.
If she has made season tickets affordable by cutting a deal with Boris Johnson, she has not made the neighbourhood affordable for struggling families. For Gold, Sullivan and Brady sold off Upton Park to Galliard Homes, a local developer. At the time of the deal, Brady wrote, “We know they are committed to working closely with the local community and Newham Council on proposals to transform the site into a residential and retail village, which will benefit the local community and east London’s regional economy.”
However, of the 838 homes to be built on West Ham’s former ground, only six per cent of them will be affordable. Newham needs social housing more than most: due to government’s housing benefit cap, the council has been trying to find homes for families way outside of the capital in the past few years so that people can get cheaper rents. Some have been sent 160 miles away from east London.
Brady wants to ensure her beloved government lasts another term. What has its input into Newham been? 4,994 children live in temporary accommodation in the borough, an increase of 42 per cent in the last two years, according to figures from Labour MP Dame Tessa Jowell and released from the Department for Communities and Local Government.
How unfortunate that Brady decided to sell Upton Park to a developer that won’t help to house nearly 5,000 homeless children, while lovingly embracing a stadium built through tax-payer money, which she shamelessly uses to enhance her own status.
I can’t help but think of my grandmother, a life-long Hammers fan, born and raised off the Barking Road, who bought her house thanks to win on the Premium Bonds. She dealt with a lot of change in her life-time, not just within her family but in the area around her. To see the club she loved – the club she made me love – owned by Tory pawns eager for profits and pats on the back, with no thought for those in the local community nor for those ditched by the Conservative party, it would have made her ashamed to have worn the claret and blue.
That’s West Ham claret and blue, by the way.
NOTE FROM IAIN: I don’t normally publish political articles on here, and I disagree with virtually every word of this, but I also believe in free speech.
UPDATEFROM IAIN 12/5/15: I’ve now posted a full response to this in a separate post HERE, but I reprint the text below…
As I said in the footnote to Bobby Shovels’ piece entitled ‘It’s all about the profit’ I disagreed with virtually every word in it so I think it’s only right I offer some balance and clarification on a few arguments he made in the piece. I felt it was unfair in places and based more about a person’s political allegiances than what they have done for West Ham United, which should be the most important thing for any of us.
To take his first point about the ticket prices in the Olympic Stadium, my question would be ‘Well what would you want the Board to do?’ As Karren Brady pointed out in her press interviews at the time, the Club could have used the opportunity of moving into a fantastic new Stadium to freeze or even raise Season Ticket prices. But they didn’t. They stayed true to their word and brought prices down for every Season Ticket band available.
Yes, prices have gone up by 5% for the last season at the Boleyn (after a price freeze the year before) but when you consider that every band will come down by at least 7% and in some cases up to 25%, every current Season Ticket holder will be better off. Not to mention that every Under-16 will now cost only £99 for a whole season.
With the bigger capacity and new bands at the top and bottom, fans now have a greater choice and the new £289 ticket will open the door to thousands of fans that were previously unable to attend our matches. What’s bad about that?
I find it hard to understand the negative reaction from some to what, in my eyes, should have been viewed as a hugely positive announcement from the club. If they had frozen or put the prices up they would have been criticised and yet when they drop them there are still complaints. It seems they couldn’t win whatever they did.
So then on to main crux of the piece – the sale of the Boleyn site to developers Galliard and whether that offers a good deal for the local community as well as West Ham United. I have it on good authority that the club could have made more money by selling the ground to a supermarket or a retailer but went with Galliard as they were a local developer and because of the pledges they made to protect West Ham’s legacy on the site.
Galliard have stayed true to their word in that regard with the memorial garden, sculptures of former players and buildings named after West Ham legends. But where there still seems to be some debate now is around their plans for the site and whether it truly serves the needs for social housing in the borough of Newham.
I should clarify here at the very top that Karren Brady and the West Ham Board sold the site as just that – a site for development. And, as such, they have no input or say over how the ground is developed.
Having purchased the site, Galliard then submitted an application for planning and there was a strong reaction, including this from the Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales. He said:
“This initial offer from Galliard Homes is insulting and totally unacceptable. Their plans lack any substantial affordable housing offer making this development financially out of reach to many of our residents. The developers need to drastically rethink this ridiculous offer and ensure it offers a good mixture of tenures including social, affordable and intermediate rents.”
But what Bobby Shovels’ piece failed to mention is that Karren also came out publicly in the Evening Standard [link here ] at the same time to urge both sides to work together to resolve the issue to the benefit of the local community.
‘Today Ms Brady said Newham council and Galliard should work together to meet the “community’s housing needs”. ‘She added: “We have always been clear we want to see our move to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park regenerate not one but two areas of east London. Our plans for our new home will ensure we fulfil our end of the promise by bringing jobs, business and people to Stratford. We chose to sell to Galliard Group because of their pledge to work with the local community and fans to honour the memory of West Ham United’s time in Upton Park, and their plans have proved that they will do so. I would now encourage them to work closely with Newham council to develop a plan that also serves the local community’s housing needs as well.”’
So Karren could not have made her feelings any clearer on the matter and I understand she continues to lobby on behalf of the local community behind the scenes so she obviously is concerned about the future of the Upton Park area. Remember she also personally sought to overhaul and improve the club’s community work and as a result they have made a significant difference in helping some of the most socially deprived people in our Borough.
What I think we’re really seeing here is a standard public negotiation between the developer and Newham Council, with both sides starting at opposite ends. I’m sure Galliard’s plans will change to include more social housing and Newham will then respond accordingly.
So while I know the Board are not perfect – show me a Board that is – we must remember where we have come from with them at the Club. David Sullivan and David Gold have personally invested tens of millions of pounds of their own money to help keep us afloat and competitive and it will be a long time before either of them might see any profit on that investment.
I think sometimes it’s easy to forget what you’ve got. A quick look at the likes of QPR and Newcastle should be warning enough.