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West Ham expert drops 'shameful' London Stadium verdict
The London Stadium’s atmosphere is “not there” and opposition teams “just aren’t scared” of West Ham at home.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, former Hammers and Celtic striker Frank McAvennie slammed the home ground for having too many neutrals to generate an intimidating setting for visitors.
The Irons moved into the London Stadium ahead of the 2016/17 season and left their former ground Upton Park after a 112-year residency.
Many Hammers fans were frustrated to leave the historic ground, but with a significantly increased capacity and improved infrastructure, their new ground ranks seventh in the Premier League for matchday income averaging £1.23million per game in 2022.
McAvennie is eager to see a return of the old atmosphere to make the stadium a “fortress”.
“The stadium is good, but there’s a lot of neutrals there,” he told Football Insider.
“There’s a lot of, I suppose, customers. They’re not fans, so that’s why you’ve got to generate your own atmosphere.
“There’s a lot of people who might come over from America or wherever. How they get tickets for the game, I don’t know, there must be a section.
“I think it’s for proper fans. [Opposition] players used to hate playing at Upton Park.
“The London Stadium, people don’t fear it because it’s so open. I would love to see the London Stadium turned into a football stadium like Tottenham’s or Arsenal’s to get the atmosphere that’s not there.
“There’s sometimes an atmosphere but the fans are so far apart that teams just aren’t scared.
“It’s a shame because your home games should be a fortress.”
In other news, West Ham expert rages at Moyes latest – ‘for David to say that, it must be dire”.