fbpx
Connect with us

English Premier League

Karren Brady talks London Stadium move, West Ham, managers, the football governance bill

Karren Brady talks the decision to move into the London Stadium, life at West Ham, hiring/sacking managers and the football governance bill.

Businesswoman, member of the House of Lords, The Apprentice star, West Ham’s Vice-Chair – Karren Brady talks to Jack Sullivan and Mark McAdam inside the boardroom at the London Stadium.

Baroness Brady opens up about life at the top of football. Hiring and firing managers, selling her husband to another team and the big decisions affecting the Premier League are all discussed, as Karren shares some of the secrets from thirty years running clubs.

On the decision to move West Ham into the London Stadium: “Well, I always make the the decisions I believe are right for the right reasons, and coming here was the right decision for the right reason. I knew there would always be an element of supporters that didn’t want to, and people don’t like change. I mean, it’s true. People most people want things to stay the same. But, actually, without change, you can’t evolve.

“And this stadium has given us a platform on which we’ve continued to grow the club. It’s led us to win a European trophy. It’s given the opportunity for 35,000 families to come in here every match day. We have the cheapest season tickets despite being in a new stadium in London in the Premier League. We have the cheapest adult season ticket at £345.

“All of those things are possible because we’re here. And all of the good work that we do in the community, the tens and tens of millions of pounds we invest locally is all because we are here. So I think you have to try and bring people on the journey with you. We tried really very hard. Lots of people are now used to the stadium.

“You get into new habits. You find new friends. You find new routes to getting here, new places to drink, and and everything is calm. And people, I think, are now beginning to realize that it’s not stadiums that create atmospheres, it supports us. And they’ve had some brilliant nights here, and long may it continue.”

Opening up on beating Spurs to the stadium, Brady said: ‘we won it a few times and then we didn’t win, it was a bit like getting jilted at the altar’.

“We sort of made it all the way to the front and then sort of stood up, but it’s at those times you have to show your real test of character because a lot of people would have given up,” Brady added.

“It was tough, but we battened down the hatches, we carried on with it. We knew it was important, we knew our bid was the best and it was always the best and there were five criteria that they marked it against and we won in all five criteria against all of the other clubs that wanted it and we delivered the legacy.

“The park wouldn’t be as vibrant… so it was a long process. It wasn’t an easy process I mean, Spurs came in I think on the second or third round and were quite quickly dismissed because they didn’t want to keep the legacy. They didn’t want athletics. They wanted to knock it down.

“But we knew that all of the things that had been promised that this stadium would deliver would only be delivered with us here. We knew that we could fill it, that we could generate the revenues it needed to survive, that it had a focus and all of those things we’ve delivered.”

Listen to the Spotify episode embedded in this article to listen to her interview in full.

Speaking on The Boardroom podcast, West Ham vice-chair Baroness Karren Brady warns that the pending football regulator could change the Premier League’s competitiveness and in turn impact the English football pyramid.

Karren Brady says English football is NOT broken and the government ‘could get us BANNED’

Fans reacted as Karren Brady talks the London Stadium move, West Ham, managers, the football governance bill and a lot more…

@whu_hearney: She’s so out of touch! @karren_brady fancy coming with me to the next game to see what my experience is like? You’d be so shocked and surprised. The club is dying a death by a thousand cuts, and you’re blind to it. As long as the ££££ keeps coming in though hey 😉

@The_BoleynBoys: Oh fuck off!

@Rich_Wenn: She’s actually delusional! The stadium set up is awful. Fans were lied to about distance to the pitch, control over what they could do at the stadium etc. Says cheapest season tickets but the view with those seats is awful. Been less than 10 games with a good atmosphere.

@JeffWoo81731770: The only feckers that dont like change is Karen and Dildo Dave

@jjames9230: Utter bollocks! Not one true West Ham fan enjoys that soulless bowl!

@The_BoleynBoys: Simple question @karren_brady do we have a world class team in a world class stadium?

@FPLFella: Forget the decision to move us to the London Stadium. It’s the decisions since that have been terrible @karren_brady. You know full well the strategy was to fill it with cheap ST holders and then start pushing the prices up to drive them away to replace them with tourists.

@RLawther94: Too busy talking – not enough action. Ownership is shocking – shouldn’t be spouting anything. Last two seasons have been a PR nightmare. We have been a disgrace

@brooksy2901: @karren_brady The fans weren’t asked. You just went ahead with it. You lied about everything in it. Moyes won us the trophy, not the stadium. Fans do make the atmosphere, but that stadium is so poorly done that it’s very difficult – sort it.

@Whu_Justin: exactly, london stadium is way better and bigger, problem is the que’s the walls, and no real section for the atmosphere, and most important the fans

@TheIanHalstead: The *right thing* for @karren_brady and her fellow directors who got a huge modern stadium for a peppercorn rent thanks to @BorisJohnson 🤑
Not for:
1) Taxpayers who lost many tens of millions.
2) Home (and away) fans who endure games in a soul-less bowl with a running track. 🥵

@kenwhu5: she is in La La land, never going to be down with the fans, so never to understand, hey ho

@The_Iron_Lion87: Commercially perhaps. But something got left behind for good at Upton Park. I’d rather be a championships side there and proper West Ham than fighting at the bottom half of the Premiership in a tourist attraction

@tomseynoneck: She a lying c*nt!!! Right decision to make the owners richer when they sell, stadium shit, getting to Stratford is horrendous, atmosphere is worst in league due to design, world class stadium World class team we was promised, we are 16th!! Leaches run us and are killing our club

@tonydnorris: Right reason to fill their pockets, we should never have moved from Upton Park, we could have easily redeveloped the Boleyn. Her and Sullivan are destroying the club.

@MrBradleyDoyle: Moving to an ATHLETICS stadium to play football where the fans are a mile away from the pitch is NEVER a good decision. Completely Takes away the culture and togetherness with the fans.

@HiraethPolitics: The stadium isn’t at its heart a football stadium. The fans are miles from the pitch. Ultimately it’s down to cold hard cash.

@GoffyUTT: I worry for West Ham fans having somebody so senior at the club so in denial about how horrific that stadium is to watch football in.

@adyady14: Right reason being property development at Upton Park.

@Leeethefirst: Yeah a ground where you’re half a mile from the touchline and need binoculars to see anything? Great idea… that stadium is utter wank probably worst in the prem

@JustPayTheMoney: I speak for all West Ham fans when I say thank you Karen Brady! You are doing an incredible job at our club and our stadium is fantastic, easily one of the best in the league ⚒️

@smith_arro42884: “People don’t like change”. No Mrs Brady people don’t like watching football matches in a botched up athletics stadium that is so blatantly unsuited to host football matches. You ask any football fan up and down they country, the LS is shocking, they can’t all be wrong

Related Topics
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

More in English Premier League