Guest Post by Mark Stanley
Just thought I give you my impressions from visiting the the new stadium yesterday. I knew the Newham run was finishing in the stadium so I asked the wife if she fancied a bit of shopping at Westfield lol. I also made sure Frankie our 7yr old son had his new West Ham shirt on. After a bit of shopping I suggested a walk over the Stadium to have a look.
Walking towards it I couldn’t believe how big and impressive it is. There were some stewards standing by the turnstiles so I thought I’d ask if we could just have a quick look inside, unfortunately the first one said no. So we decided to walk around the outside. Not one to give up I asked another steward and she suggested I tried at block E which I did and a very nice steward opened the door and let us in. The ground level when you walk in brings you onto the concourse that runs between the two tiers. Walking through to the seats was just like walking into Wembley, it took my breath away. Again I don’t think I was prepared for the size.
I stood at the back of the lower tier at one of the ‘ends’ and could quite easily see the runners at the other end of the stadium and this was obviously in ‘Athletics Mode’ so the seats were not in there forward position. I personally would be happy to watch a match from there. None of the photos do it justice and I was surprised how close to the action you actually are. Looking at the photos I took afterwards it does look far away but that’s really not the case when you are in there.
The only negative is the black and white seats but I’m hopeful this will sorted before we move in. It will break my heart to leave Upton Park, when we leave I will have been going for there for 35 years but after yesterday I’m excited about us playing in such an amazing ground. Along with the transport links, Westfield and the Olympic Park I’m now sure moving to this stadium will take us on to another level. COYI P.S.