Home and AwayWest Ham set to cash in on ‘property deal of the century’ at London Stadium
After 115 years at Upton Park, the Hammers play Bournemouth in their first Premier League home match at their new ground
Expect the claret to flow, the bubbles to fizz and the spirits to shake and most definitely stir when West Ham United throw the mother of all house-warming parties on Sunday night (Hong Kong time).
The Hammers will play their first Premier League home match at their new ground, the London Stadium, aka the 2012 Olympic Stadium, a 60,000-capacity arena built on industrial wasteland, which four years ago to the month saw Team Great Britain triumph just as it does now in Rio.
Treble Olympic legacies all round, then. No lumbering white elephants or unstable turf here, no need to hide the expensive, unused and unwanted follies behind a forest of weeds, hoardings or lame theme parks. This is a hybrid stadium built for weekly sports use for years to come. Pledges and promises have been met.
Slaven Bilic’s side take on Bournemouth whose travelling fans from the miniature 11,000-capacity Dean Court will look on in envy, though the hoped-for landmark sell-out has been curtailed to 57,000 because of a health and safety wrangle over standing supporters.
Never mind. Little can spoil the crossing of this threshold. Fears that the Hammers would struggle to fill the place have been allayed as the first two – one a sell-out for the Europa League match against NK Domzale and the other against Juventus – demonstrated. Some 52,000 season tickets have been sold with more seats to come.