Boxing Day sales force West Ham to hit the road
West Ham United requested that the Premier League give them an away fixture on Boxing Day because Stratford station could not cope with the combined effect of fans attending a game at the former Olympic Stadium and crowds for the post-christmas sales at Westfield shopping centre.
It is the latest disadvantage associated with West Ham’s move from Upton Park to the London Stadium last year and it is a problem that is likely to continue with Dec 26 a key trading day for Westfield Stratford.
This year, the struggling club have been given an away fixture at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium. When they asked for the same provision last season, their first in the former Olympic Stadium, West Ham supporters were given a trip to Swansea City’s Liberty Stadium, 230 miles away.
The club have said that there will be Boxing Day home games at the London Stadium in the future.
In a statement yesterday, a spokesman for West Ham said there was “categorically no agreement in place that means West Ham United have to play Boxing Day fixtures away from home”. In the past, the Westfield Stratford mall has opened at 8am on the Boxing Day bank holiday and although football fans arriving at the Stratford station are filtered around the shopping centre and across the bridge to the stadium, it is not feasible to accommodate sale shoppers and fans.
The Premier League confirmed to The Daily Telegraph that West Ham requested special dispensation to play away on Boxing Day.
A West Ham spokesman said: “it is not uncommon for emergency services or other stakeholders to make requests to the Premier League to avoid certain fixture dates. However, these requests will not always be granted by the Premier League and we fully expect to play at London Stadium on Boxing Day in future seasons.”
Those requests are factored into the Premier League fixture generator software, which usually relates to planned shutdowns of transport networks or competing major events that would make a home fixture difficult.
There are also separate agreements with different police forces including one that dictates the two Manchester clubs do not play at home on the same day.