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West Ham brace for nostalgic Upton Park farewell

By on May 9, 2016

The Olympic Stadium is but a short, twenty minute walk from Upton Park.  And yet, as you exit the main gate of West Ham United’s stadium through the two large turrets and turn right on to Green Street, London E1, quite suddenly, the Olympic Stadium feels a world away.

On Wednesday night, thousands of loyal Hammers fans will exit the stadium and make their habitual post-match journey home for the last time.  There will be an intense mixture of emotions on display in West Ham’s final match at Boleyn Ground, ubiquitously refereed to as Upton Park, before they move into the daunting Olympic Stadium next season.

The move is a big step forward for the London club and is accompanied by a rebranded logo, removing the Upton Park turrets for a more minimalistic look.  Something feels missing in the new logo, though, a storied sense of tradition that they leave behind at Upton Park, their ground of 112 years.

Upton Park is a place of its time, a hostile, fiery home; as Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata put it, a ground that “breathes English football.”

But that time will pass when West Ham meet United on Wednesday.  Slaven Bilic’s men have their sights firmly on what is set to be a raucous midweek fixture, with the opportunity to cling onto their hopes of Champions League football and seal their highest ever Premier League finish, fifth, and second best ever finish in the entire history of the club.

The move to the Olympic Stadium heralds a promising new era for the London club, which will see an increase in season ticket holders to over 50,000, nearly double than the entire capacity of Upton Park.

Yet leaving behind the electric atmosphere of Upton Park, something they will never be able to recover, will evoke feelings of nostalgia for everybody around the club.  The supporters will have one final opportunity to put on a grand show on Wednesday and, on the pitch, the players will be hoping to better the 4-1 defeat to Swansea they suffered at the weekend.

The Hammers fans will take it upon themselves to instill a fiery atmosphere at the cavernous Olympic Stadium from day one, something that has been all too elusive in corporate, modern stadia, but Slaven Bilic is skeptical.

“You need to have a hostile atmosphere, be intimidating for away teams. Forget about it – no chance,” said Bilic, per the BBC.

“When you played Arsenal at Highbury, it wasn’t dangerous but you felt it,” he added.

“Then we played against them at the Emirates and we enjoyed it; the players were taking selfies.

“The Upton Park stadium was a first home. No matter where you move after that – if you move to a fancy apartment, a big house or to a mansion – your favorite one is always the first.

“You are losing something because it is impossible to make the Olympic Stadium a fortress.”

At first, the loss of Upton Park will, by nature, be unbalancing, but all in due time will the future take hold.

Said club captain Mark Noble: “Every other weekend it’s going to be strange to get in my car in the morning and drive to a game, and not down a street I know so well.”

Next season will bridge the awkward gap between the two stadiums for West Ham, but the future is bright.

“How big could this club be?” said Noble.  “I don’t think there is a ceiling.”

And on Wednesday, West Ham will try to raise the roof of Upton Park ahead of their big move, one last time.

Photo credit: By Oxyman (Own work) CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.