My own view regarding the new club crest – now confirmed to replace the current badge from the start of West Ham’s move to the Olympic stadium in two years time – is that I do not like it at all. Personally, I prefer the current design, and feel that the castle adds to the look of the crest very positively. Indeed, the removal of the castle is one of several things I object to in the new one.
I also do not accept the argument that the castle needs to be shelved because we are no longer going to be playing at the Boleyn ground. It is still an important symbol of the club’s history, and for that reason it could and should be retained. After all, West Ham are also no longer Thames Ironworks, yet we still rightly keep the crossed Hammers as it is a homage to our past.
That is of course, my own opinion, and I fully respect and accept that the majority of supporters voted in the first ‘you gov’ poll to remove the castle, and have the more simple design of the crossed Hammers of yesteryear.
More bizarrely, the majority of pollsters also agreed to ‘London’ being displayed on the badge, which again is something I wholeheartedly disagree with. West Ham are a London club of course, but then again so are many others. It is not something that is unique to us and should not be on the crest, as it is completely meaningless to West Ham United.
From a commercial point of view, in terms of global recognition of the club, it may well be a money spinner, but personally, I dislike my football team only doing things for blatantly financial gain. If finances kept on dictating these types of decisions then eventually we would cease to be the West Ham United that we all know and love, but rather a profit seeking organisation who bear no relation to the fundamentals of the club. Once again, however, I reluctantly accept that enough fans voted for this to happen.
As for the actual badge that will be on the clubs shirt for the start of the 2016/2017 campaign, I think a lot of fans would share my view that it looks pretty embarrassing to be perfectly honest. It looks like the equivalent to something a 10-year-old would come up with on word art for his school project, rather than a crest for a Premier League football team. Indeed I have seen many efforts by ordinary fans on social media that look much better than the simplistic, childish looking emblem we are now stuck with.
The most puzzling question for me is why we could not have had several options for the second poll to vote on, rather than this? Fair enough the previous supporters vote had whittled down the options to some extent, for example that the crossed Hammers were going to be more prevalent, and the word London featuring. Yet only one option could be created from that? Surely some variation with the words or the shape of the badge could be made, and allow supporters some proper choice?
Anyway rant over. We are now stuck with what we’ve got and have no choice but to accept it. But I would urge Hammers fans to be careful what they wish for if we are given some sort of say on any other similar issue in the future.
I agree wholeheartedly!
I too prefer the existing design and can see no reason to change. The inclusion of the word ‘London’ is nonsensical to me, I can think of at least ten other clubs in London with varying amounts of history.
Been messing about with our club badge, please see the link, your thoughts please!
http://www.imageupload.co.uk/images/2014/07/26/whutd.png
Sorry but it ‘s naff my son!
I think the new crest is as you rightly say like something a 10 year old would do in an art class & I think the poll stinks , I hadnt spoke or heard from anybody who liked it &hey presto the poll sorted out by the club agreed similarly to the poll for the OS In
person & on twitter everybody I
spoke with preferred to stay at
upton park but the poll said
otherwise you have said we
need to be careful but rightly or
wrongly I think what the club
wants the club gets.
Please please leave the badge the way it is!!
The current badge is west ham & will always be west ham in my eyes.
I think it makes perfect sense to change club badge to the new one. It is less complicated and easier to identify with from a commercial point of view. Moving to the new stadium is our chance to re brand west ham united and try to appeal to a global audience. I think having the word London on the badge is a great idea, again improving our appeal overseas.
My only concern is, as has happened in New Zealand, we get people’s attention and dont back up all the positivity with, after all, the most important thing, the football we play on the pitch. No matter how good the advertising is, its no good if the product isnt up to scratch. Lets hope we get that right. COYI.
West Ham for me was all abut the supporters.
The thing that made me support West Ham was the fans.
My mates are all Tottenham, Ars and Chelsea supporters, but the reason why I went to West Ham was because we supported our team like no other.
The saying of” the games under the lights” and away supporters dreaded coming to our ground made me feel warm when talking about West Ham, it made you proud to say you were a west ham fan and new what we stood for. The results were a bonus if we won.
Intro Brown then Gold and Sullivan and allardyce – Take away the proud traditions the ground, the badge and stand and pretend they love the club.
They aint fans, they are in this for the money, you know and I know they will sell up in 5 years and never be seen at the club again, lets not even start with Brady who is using our club for her own publicity.
Our Club went when they moved in, and its gone forever.
We are moving away from Upton Park so makes sense to remove the castle.The design is similar to the 1950s and 60s badge with the crossed hammers and looks good to me.We were quizzed on it and its a badge that most hammers fans i know are OK about it.Now the badge is sorted just need to change the manager now.
Personally i dont see the point in changing the badge – its evolved to its current branding and is recognisable to anyone who knows their football – as for these comments on Sam being offloaded, id say the headline to this piece is more apt for that – im no advocate for removing Sam just for the sake of what i believe is impatience amongst many regarding this clubs status – fact is he was brought in to bring us back from the championship where the ‘pretty’ football of Avram Grant took us, and cement in the PL, we are now in our third season back in the PL, i wouldnt say we were close to being cemented yet, and tbh Sam was one of only a few managers who could have coped with what we suffered with last season with a squad depleted by injuries and lack of depth – of course it got ugly, yet in our first season back we were good value for our 10th place finish – we played the same way, same style, fans were satisfied – so im a tad lost – i couldnt care less what playing the west ham way is, or what people think it is, ive supported this club for 50 years but times have changed, west ham as yet cant compete with the top 6-8 sides, we dont have the resourses, what i do know is we wont get the resourses if we go down again, and losing our key players in the process we will just keep on bouncing around year after year – is that the west ham way everyone keeps screaming about – if we want to grow we need stability, Sams style isnt pretty but it keeps us in the PL, thats the big picture, we need at least 2 seasons in the OS before we start tinkering with the future, build the resourses and adapt gradually to keep evolving – having said all that this media speculation speaks volumes about where S&G are at, they would be screaming in the media right now if the Sam rumours werent true, so keeping Sam on a leash is dangerous, my argument is they are taking a huge risk undermining the manager and unsettling the squad 3 weeks before the season starts, especially after improving the quality in the squad – if they are going to hold Sam to ransom over his style then they are wasting their time, if they are adamant he is going then they should do it NOW, not a third of the way into a season when things arent going as expected anyway, give the team a fighting chance for christ sake, and unless they have Moyes lined up as a replacement then they are kidding themselves, imo hes the only manager currently available out there who could take over and deliver a similar package with a bit more flair, anyone else and S&G are just making a very poor business decision based on an emotional reaction to the impatience of fans – im pretty sure the entertainment demands will be falling on deaf ears once relegated again, as west hams fortunes once again meet their usual standards – i know many wont agree with this comment but id rather see west ham in the PL for a long time to come, and eventually competing with top 6-8 teams, that to me would be entertainment, anything else would just the same old frustrating time associated with being a lifelong west ham fan. COYI
There was no need to change our badge/crest, lame excuses about having London on it! the poll consultation questions were loaded just to deliver what the owners wanted.