A great video and article on the BBC website got me really envious of Borussia Dortmund. Their pricing policy of £13 matchday tickets, and average season ticket holder paying £9 per game has resulted in this:
Average gate: 80,000 (highest in the world).
55,000 season ticket holders.
30,000 on the ST waiting list!
They even get 1,000 English going there every home game, 'cos it's cheaper to travel to Germany and watch the match than it is to attend their local Premier League club!.
More to the point it's created an amazing carnival atmosphere for all home games:
The Gelbe Wand/The Yellow Wall
Bayern Munich and Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger was recently asked whether he feared Dortmund's players or their manager, more. He responded by saying:
"It is the Yellow Wall that scares me the most."
The sudtribune, or south stand, has the capacity to assault the senses with its raw passion and noise. More than 25,000 people stand on the terrace during Bundesliga games. For European games, safe standing rails are replaced by seats.
A dream but if only West Ham could open up the ground to the full 80k instead of 54k, and employ a similar policy - and prices if not to match Dortmund's but at least get close - we could have the best atmosphere in England bar none.
Even the new OS East Stand is going to be a 'Yellow Wall' or 'Kop' style in design so now is the opportunity..
What going to the OS completely rules out is having rail seats (standing) as a EUFA cat 4 stadium. I believe 3 of the main criteria are having a big pitch, having a certain number of VIP seats and parking and no standing.
Not really when you are comparing a football stadium with an athletics stadium, the noise and atmosphere are normally generated from the cheaper seats behind the goals and corners where fans normally stand, I still think the seats behind the goals will be family seating one end and away support the other end, leaving the cheap seats in the upper tier corners and behind the goals for the fans that normally make a noise, good luck being heard up there, let lone trying to create an atmosphere, we could go continental and have the fan with the megaphone co-ordinating chants and songs.
e10hammer wrote:I still think the seats behind the goals will be family seating one end and away support the other end, leaving the cheap seats in the upper tier corners and behind the goals for the fans that normally make a noise, good luck being heard up there, let lone trying to create an atmosphere, we could go continental and have the fan with the megaphone co-ordinating chants and songs.
Wow that's one helluva alot of assumptions being made!! I prefer to see the reality before judging.
e10hammer wrote:good luck being heard up there, let lone trying to create an atmosphere
Ironically with the new roof acoustics it would probably be alot easier up there..
Doc H Ball wrote:
You mentioned the East Stand being our Yellow Wall.
What do you reckon a ticket will cost in there? My guess is a bullseye, what's yours?
I certainly don't think every single seat will be £50+!!! What is your basis for that?
I'm guessing it will be banded, just like the existing East & West Stands at The Boleyn. Band 1 will likely be £50+, but all of the others cheaper than that. I'd guess the Lowest Band to be less than half that of Band 1, tbh.
WestHamIFC wrote:
I certainly don't think every single seat will be £50+!!! What is your basis for that?
I'm guessing it will be banded, just like the existing East & West Stands at The Boleyn. Band 1 will likely be £50+, but all of the others cheaper than that. I'd guess the Lowest Band to be less than half that of Band 1, tbh.
I said an equivalent seat would cost about £50. Looking at the Westfalenstadion, the lower tier and middle of the East Side are comparable and I figure they'll be Bands 1 and 2 costing at least £1k a s/t.
Sure they'll be cheaper seats at the back, but I can't see the existing Band 4s rushing.
Anyway, the seats won't be £9-13 (unless you're one of Mayor Wales' deserving constituents), our Club won't even support the concept of safe standing and they haven't really been keen to encourage our away support. We're a million miles from Dortmund.
If I was more technically minded, I'd put up a picture of the Yellow Wall alongside a picture of behind the goal at the OS and we could all have a laugh.
Doc H Ball wrote:
If I was more technically minded, I'd put up a picture of the Yellow Wall alongside a picture of behind the goal at the OS and we could all have a laugh.
Being marketed as a stand comparable to those that currently view from the Chicken Run, Chav Corner and the BML east side.
In reality....will the price of tickets reflect that - I doubt it. Funny thing is, like I've said on another thread, my motivation for being a band 4 season ticket holder at the moment is not financial. I stand where I do because I like the view and the atmosphere. If it cost more in the BML than the West Upper I wouldn't go and sit in the West Upper.
Migration is looking like a complete mish mash and cluster f***.
I asked the question and got told in no uncertain terms that the seats there won't be at the cheaper end of the scale. What could be an ideal opportunity to get the place rocking will be lost as we put the cash before the atmosphere.
After a previous visit to the o.s reservations centre where i was unable to get much information i popped in again on friday, this time the fella was very helpful, he said that the east side would probably be band 1 and 2 prices, but the seats behind the goals in the upper tiers would compare with league 1 and 2 prices, he wasn't sure who the seats behind the goals lower tier would be available to.