‘We are West Ham PLC’s skint, purple army’

When the home side emerge from the tunnel wearing purple, Everton and attending fans may need to double-check they’re in the right place when they visit Upton Park on Tuesday night. Yes, West Ham United will be wearing purple at home.

The news was delivered to the fans via an online message which claims the Hammers will be wearing it for the entire FA Cup campaign. This is quickly followed by a desperate link to ‘BUY YOUR THIRD KIT NOW’.

I wonder how many begrudging dads, who thought the reasonably priced tickets for the replay would be a cheap night for him and his son, will be trekking to the club shop after the final whistle.

Every Hammers fan has been crying out for a cup run to spice life up over the past few years. I still sit there and revel in the 2006 campaign from time-to-time - I’m not sure I’d be able to stomach looking back and watching the DVDs of us playing in this monstrosity.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Sam Allardyce rolled out in it himself before the match, looking like a washed up Barney the dinosaur, with a megaphone calling all fans to rush to the ‘megastore’ after the game to get their hands on the ‘limited edition kit’.

This news comes just after I received a swanky brochure about the Olympic Stadium. Needless to say it is plastered with the new badge, which looks like something the club nicked from a local secondary school’s graphic design class.

Fans have consistently been told that prices for the new stadium would be cheaper due to the extra capacity - that the move would result in football being given back to the community. Now the line is that ‘the Club can confirm they will be comparable with prices for the final season at the Boleyn Ground’.

Prices for the final season at the Boleyn are yet to be released but as the Right Honourable Baroness Brady CBE has already informed us that: ‘After last year's price freeze across the board, I am pleased we have been able to once again freeze prices for junior supporters’, it’s fair to say we can expect at least a 5% hike in prices for the other age categories.

Further taking advantage of loyal fans’ wishes to be at the final season at Upton Park, the club are asking season-ticket holders who want to renew to lay down a £75 deposit by April, which is certain to be tough for those who save up and pay for their ticket in the Summer, or for those who use the finance scheme.

A trip to the ‘Reservation Centre’ in Westfield, Stratford is also on the agenda for season-ticket holders who can thereby get a virtual view of their seat at the new stadium. It all sounds good except for the fact that, just before you leave, you will be asked to pay a non-refundable 25% of the season-ticket price. It all seems to be playing on fans’ fears that if they don’t cough up, they will lose their spot.

Featured in the new brochure was also a plug for the newly announced ‘Boleyn Bar’. Being named after the old ground and with a menu featuring the likes of pie and mash with liquor, it gives the illusion of a nostalgia-trip for long-time supporters. But you’ll have to lay out a £500 joining fee plus monthly payments of £140! And that excludes VAT! So much for the community.

To add insult to injury, the seats purchased in conjunction with the bar membership are either side of the tunnel. Have we not learned from the disastrous ‘Club Wembley’? The second-half will consistently begin half empty as those who can afford the bar, assumedly close relatives of Roy Keane’s infamous ‘prawn sandwich brigade’, make the most of their ‘free half-time drinks’ (yes, despite the enormous membership fee, the club are describing these drinks as ‘free’).

I’ve always been a fan of David Sullivan and David Gold, thinking they had the club and its fans at heart. I’d still like to believe that but events over the past few days looks like we are well and truly moving away from being a community football club and are becoming a corporate monster.

The players change, the stadium is changing, the badge is changing and now even the home colours are getting a makeover for games in what is the oldest association football competition in the world. Is nothing sacred? It is hard to cling on to what you are even supporting any more, apart from a mere name which will undoubtedly also be open to sponsorship soon.

The nightmare vision of West Ham United PLC, or some derivation of it, playing in a half-empty soulless bowl with a red and yellow kit (following a ‘McDonalds’ takeover) is really beginning to worry me. I’ve trusted Sullivan and Gold to oversee the greatest overhaul in the club’s history but it seems that, in light of recent days, they are losing sight of what makes West Ham special to so many people.

The owners know that West Ham’s claret and blue army (no, not purple) are fiercely loyal and look set to continue to buy into the club despite radical changes, but there is real danger of a total identity loss in the not too distant future.

And no Mr Sullivan, wedging a picture of Bobby Moore in every artist’s impression of the corporate future does not make it all OK.

Follow me on Twitter @RichMaher93

EXCLUSIVE: Interview with David Sullivan on University, East London and Olympic Stadium

David Sullivan is the proud owner of Premiership football club West Ham United, who will soon be moving into the 54,000 capacity Olympic Stadium. His journey to riches and controlling the club he supports has been somewhat unconventional - but it all began at Queen Mary.

Mr Sullivan made his millions in the adult industry and admits he was a little naive with regards to the stigma attached to his business. However, it is fair to say he has little regret considering the fact he became a millionaire just 3 years after graduation.

Sullivan insists “it was a very easy market as it hadn’t been exploited and the people in it were like old gangsters so if you had a bit of marketing skill and some brains you could slice right through it and make bundles of money”.

Undoubtedly, Sullivan is a very shrewd and intelligent man. He achieved 3 As at A Level before veering away from the likes of Oxford and Cambridge in the hope of a less ferocious three years at university.

He eventually decided to follow his brother to Queen Mary to study Economics. “Queen Mary was a really good college”, he said, “they call them all universities now to cheat the stats, but they’re really polytechnics called universities”.

The Hammers’ chairman certainly reflects back on his time with mixed emotions. Whilst he gets a warm feeling if he returns to the area, an issue which resulted in him narrowly missing out on being one of the only students in his subject to get a First still bothers him.

“Unfortunately we were taught the wrong maths syllabus and with 3 weeks to go our stupid, stupid young teacher said I’ve taught you the wrong stuff and I’ve now got to teach you 2 years in 3 weeks” he said. “I would have got a First had I been taught the right syllabus. I’m still bitter! Even 43 years later I’m sour about it”.

Whilst being happy he did the course, Mr Sullivan concedes that university probably wasn’t the best years of his life - and he’s certain that the six boys to one girl ratio in the economics department played a big part in that!

Sullivan had a fair amount of involvement with the Students’ Union during his time. “I was chairman of the economics society”, he said. “And I ran for President but they disbarred me because I was going to win! Because the Economics department was down the road then it was scary for them that someone from outside the main university could win”.

In terms of sport, Sullivan trained with the University of London boxers religiously during his second year, but he is more grateful for what he avoided rather than what he gained from the experience. “One night we were due to fight the British army who would’ve absolutely mutilated us”, he said, “it got called off for some emergency - I look back now and it was like a miracle! It would’ve been like slaughter!”.

Despite earning such a fortune so shortly after graduating, Sullivan does not underestimate the challenges faced by current students. He described the ‘work-for-free’ and internship culture as appalling and admitted it was far simpler for him to find employment in his time.

With so much money in the bank, Sullivan came to a point in his late-twenties when he questioned what to do with his life. After exploits in race horses and independent films (as well as an early attempt to get on the board at West Ham), Sullivan purchased Birmingham City FC with business partner David Gold.

“We bought Birmingham to have a hobby and a bit of fun”, he said, “that’s one thing money allows you to do. But the fans knew we wanted to be back in London and, despite being there for 17 years, they didn’t really respect the job we did until after we left”.

After finally taking over his beloved West Ham in 2010, again with David Gold and Karren Brady, Sullivan claims the West Ham fans have been far more appreciative of his efforts, especially the initiatives like ‘kid-for-a-quid’ and other attempts to “put a bit back into the community”.

A little unsatisfied, he hopes that even better times for West Ham are just around the corner, and is clearly itching to progress further. But he is very happy that he and David Gold have managed to secure the Olympic Stadium as the Hammers’ new home ground.

“I think it’ll be fantastic”, he said, “I think we’ll attract new supporters and the atmosphere will be terrific. The alternative is an empty stadium - that’s no legacy. We’ll have a vibrant stadium that’s used all the time and the surrounding area will get a huge boom on match-days. The legacy will be jobs, usage and the fact that every time people come they’ll think of the Olympics - mentally there will be a legacy”.

It has been reported that the extra capacity will allow West Ham to offer tickets at a very reasonable rate in comparison to the average fee for a Premier League football match.  Ticketing initiatives involving local schools and colleges are inevitable and Sullivan insists Queen Mary could be a part of that.

Surprisingly, with so many universities in London and Queen Mary just five stops away from Upton Park on the District Line, the student market hasn’t been particularly fruitful for West Ham. “We’ve tried cheap deals where students would have to produce an NUS card and we only sold a handful of tickets. I used to go when I was a student so I thought they would watch football - it’s a market we will continue to work on”.

Another market Sullivan is keen to penetrate is “English-Asians”. He explained that much of West Ham’s core support had now moved out further into Essex and that many areas of East London had become far more multicultural and “many of those living there don’t support football”.

“We are attracting small numbers”, he said, “we do have some Indian and Pakistani season ticket holders of all ages and a few corporate clients but we would love to become the club that English-Asians supports in London and that is probably our next big challenge”.

At the age of 64, Sullivan shows no sign of slowing down. His memories of Queen Mary are still incredibly detailed and vivid but his mind is certainly in the future as opposed to the past.

“They’ve never invited me back for an honorary doctorship or anything” he said, citing Karren Brady’s honorary doctorate with a little envy. Perhaps Queen Mary should be looking to to form a better relationship with this member of their alumni who is bringing accessible Premiership football even closer to their doorstep.

This article was written for QMessenger (http://www.qmessenger.co.uk/2013/10/515/), the student newspaper for Queen Mary , University of London