Blind Hammer recalls some memories to support West Ham’s policy of attracting young supporters.
One of the criticisms following West Ham’s move into the London Stadium is their failure to fill every seat formally sold. A reason identified for this is the relatively high amount of cheap young supporter season tickets made available. West Ham offered £99 Season Tickets for children under 16 on entry into the new Stadium. This follows a tradition of cheap tickets for children. The ticket arrangements for the Shrewsbury game also offered the popular “kids for a quid” promotion. The problem is that this scheme is apparently one of the main reasons why not all season Tickets seats are filled routinely. This is especially the case for the ever increasing number of evening matches when it may be more difficult for children to attend. In practical terms a Child missing out on a game for which they have paid on average only £5 might not be considered financially too much of a problem for a family. They may be much more incentivised to fill a seat for which they have paid £50.
Despite this, probably unavoidable issue, I entirely support the club in this policy, even if it does mean that for some games seats are not always filled. The London Stadium is a venue which the young will have to inherit. Since the move into the Stadium West Ham have attracted 12,000 – 20,000 extra supporters a game compared to their tenure at Upton Park. In the longer term this is critical for the viability and health of the club. This is one of the real reasons why capacity is so important for our future.
We, as older supporters, can forget the life transforming aspects of attending even a single football match for a young supporter. 40 years ago I was a residential social worker at an Assessment unit in East London. This unit tried to rescue a future for difficult teenagers and plan for their future care. One story from that time illustrates the life transforming impact of Football. At this unit I had to look after a group of between 12-15 children and teenagers. It was probably the toughest and most difficult job of my life. Amongst this group were young 11 year old Adam, and his 12 year old brother Charlie (not real name). These brothers, despite their young age had instituted a crime wave of burglaries in their local housing estate. They were clearly beyond the control of their mother and were taken into care for assessment.
To be honest their difficult behaviour made my life hell as a young care worker. However one day the previously absent father turned up to see his sons. He had decided he now wanted to take on the care of 12 year old Charlie. The problem was that he decided he wanted nothing to do with 11 year old Adam. He blamed Adam for supposedly leading Charlie astray.
So, distressingly, it was decided that Charlie could
Be released to the care of his Father, but Adam had to remain behind in the unit. The results for Adam were an inevitably devastating traumatic experience. He not only had to cope with separation from his Mother, he had now lost the support of his Brother and was rejected by his Father.
The previously brash difficult 11 year old child was now a crying wreck, hiding in his bedroom, wrapping his head up in his window curtain so that I could not see his tear stained face. He would face a future in the short term of isolation insecurity and loneliness.
I had gone into his bedroom to try and console him but, of course, he would inconsolable. I tried to think what I could do to try and reduce the trauma. I went to the unit manager and said that I have noticed that there was a football game at Leyton orient that evening and I ask permission to distract Adam from his problems by taking him to the game. Receiving this permission I returned to see Adam and told him that he could go to the football. He was interested enough to stop crying and listen to my plan. I explain to Adam that although it would not cold at the moment it was going to be cold tonight so he needed to wrap up warm. Adam then reverted to his familiar difficult behaviour and refused point blank to entertain any thought of wearing anything warm. I was in a quandary. If I insisted on his wearing warm clothes it would have been a battle from which Adam which not have backed down, he would have missed the match, and he would have experienced even more disappointment on a day of disappointment.
In the end I decided to let him accompany me wearing only his shirt and thin jacket. Predictably by half time at Leyton orient I had a teeth chattering, shivering 11-year-old by my side, completely freezing cold. With a sigh I decided to take him to the Orient shop. There I bought him everything warm I could find. I bought him gloves, scarf, hat, and shirt. This improves matters so that he was not quite so cold for the second half.
Adam moved on to another children’s home but the moral of the story is that I discovered years later is that from this single visit I had created a passionate and lifelong Leyton Orient supporter.
I took other children from the Unit to see West Ham play in my own time, and this had a similar effect of creating affinity and support for the Hammers.
, however it is the memory of Adam and his visit to Leyton Orient that to this day remains most clearly with me.
The Jesuits said that “Give me the child of 7 and I will give you the man. We should support West Ham in their bid to invest in all our futures however this is not just for the benefit of West Ham.
Football with all its consequent emotion of support is I believe an important aspect of life in our society. It provides identity for us all. I am a West Ham supporter. Identity for a child who has been shorn of identity by separation is no small thing.
Thankfully only a minority of children will experience the trauma Adam had to endure but the emotional engagement of football is, I believe, valuable for all. Our lives are coloured by the motional triumph of victory but saddened by the disappointment of defeat. This is part of the inevitable rhythm of victory and loss for the vast majority of Football Supporters. It is a good lesson for life. Life will have lows as well as highs. The trick is to face the challenge of disappointment and move onto the hopeful joy of the next victory. Football is as good an emotional coping template as any.
COYI
David Griffith