Guest Post by SafeHands
I attended the SAB last Tuesday evening and wanted to report back what was discussed. I’ve broken this into two articles – this one asks you to do something (don’t be scared – it won’t hurt, promise) and the second will cover the question and answer session.
The new website
The number of visitors has increased four fold and the feedback has been very positive. However, the club are keen to hear your ideas as they want to push on as the social media world is a burgeoning market and they want to utilise as many aspects as they can to meet visitors’ needs. The SAB were particularly enthusiastic about behind the scenes coverage, eg the training ground challenges, Me & Him etc. So, what do you like about the site? What could be improved? What additional features do you think would be good? Are there any other features like Me & Him and Yes/No that they could do? What can’t it do that you’ve seen elsewhere?
Boleyn memories
The club are calling out for more people to tell them their stories about The Boleyn. For example, which was your favourite/most memorable match, what was your first game and why you kept coming back, funny stories from the terraces, how did you get involved, how long you’ve supported West Ham, games you saw, games you missed and why etc. It doesn’t have to be extraordinary, just your story. It can be text, photos or videos – you’re more than welcome to share the text here (which I’ll feed back to the club) and you can post photos/video onto the official site. To do that you need to be registered to My West Ham (which as you know is free) and when logged in, on the Home Page scroll down and click on West Ham Live
then on any of the Reply links – they’ve said it’ll be OK as, even if it’s a different topic, WHLive is centrally managed. If you’ve got a Twitter account remember to include @whufc_official and #farewellboleyn.
Game themes
I’ll list them all in the next article, but the WBA game on 29 November will be Cult Heroes. Who would you like to see there? Who is your cult hero and why? To feed back, you can do it here or via the West Ham Live link as described above.
Last game
At present, the last game at The Boleyn is going to be the competitive fixture against Swansea. There have been discussions about Mark Noble’s testimonial but nothing has been decided, so we have to take it that the Swansea game will be the last time we see our team run out onto The Boleyn pitch. We really need to make it one to remember and to do that, the club want to involve the whole crowd and to have things that invoke memories of our time there.
* What do you want to see at our last game (apart from a win of course):
* There was talk about previous players being there, but what else do you want to see, eg parade in Green Street, open-top bus for previous players, band etc.
* Are there any songs you want played that remind you of a particular game and/or time at the club?
* They talked about having a brass band and peanut sellers at the last game, who/what else cannot be missed? I did think of asking for a bar to be put in the North Bank but I thought against it as I’d want to adhere to accuracy and it’d have to be in the away supporters side of the stand.
* How can the crowd be involved? Someone mentioned mosaic cards we can all hold up to create pictures, much like the South Bank did for Bobby Moore – what else do you want to see the crowd do?
* Straight after the Swansea game, there will be a celebration, so what would you like to see?
* There was talk about a band but not sure who as yet and there’re discussions about the logistics, eg setting up a sound stage takes a long time, so how will it be done etc.
* Who/what would you like to see at our Farewell Party?
As I said above, either feedback here or via the links above. Our last day at The Boleyn is our chance to celebrate our time there so let’s make it one to remember.