#323. Is it The End for West Ham? - Dodge Woodall

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0:39On this podcast I speak to proper characters of all lived eventful lives. Do us a favour and hit that follow button and be sure to check us out on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at Dodge Woodall, where we've now had over 100 million views. I watched this podcast last night with Bill Gardner who's been a West Ham legend for the last 67 years. I think he's been to probably over a thousand games. And when he spoke, it just made me think, like the state we're in as a football club right now, I just don't feel good what's happening right now. And I don't think anyone does. The club feels disjointed.

1:16There's a lot of anger between the fans. It's just a lot of people pissed off. It just feels like there's this massive toxic vibe at West Ham Football Club. You know, we've gone through so many different managers. I even saw Nuno on the side the other day and I wish him all the best, but he didn't look lost. He just looked at the players and the way we're playing is just like, what have I taken on here? And I could just see that in him. You know, you've got Jared Bowen up front working his plums off, trying to be, you know, everything that West Ham's about. He's a leader. He's, you know, he's West Ham and he just signed a seven-year deal.

1:50And he wants to be playing for England in the World Cup next year in 2026, but probably won't look like he'll get there because he's playing with a club at the moment who are 19th in the Premier League. And, you know, the protest that was spoken about the other day, it's the protest that made me speak up right now because I've seen different protests going on. But when Bill Gardner spoke on YouTube the other day, he was like, we have got to protest. We've got to sit in the ground after the Newcastle game. as a band of brothers, as West Ham loyal fans, we've got to sit there and let the owners know that we're not happy.

2:34And that really hit home with me when Bill spoke. It's massive on Sunday. Two o 'clock kick-off, Newcastle at home. It's massive. We've got to stick together. We really have. We've got to let Karen Brady and David Sullivan know that West Ham fans aren't happy. I really would hate the thought of being spanked 2-3-4-0 at half-time against Newcastle and people leaving. Don't leave. Do not leave the stadium. Stick by and everyone should be at the end together. Peaceful protest that they know that West Ham is not happy. And I've seen it deteriorate since we've moved to the London Stadium. You know, we've all got brilliant memories at Upton Park growing up as kids, going to the games, the vibe going down Green Street going to a bowling pub all the lovely things we all think about but we got this move that went to the London Stadium none of us wanted it apparently there was a pole anyway we've moved at 2016 to a new stadium I remember going there in the first match the first few matches it was toxic the stewards were from different clubs around the country West Ham fans were pissed off West Ham fans were aggy with each other there was away fans in the West Ham and it just felt so disjointed there was a lot of anger back then obviously we come through the years now when we got some European Cup and European away games for three years on the trot David Moyes I thought he did a fantastic job absolutely brilliant job I know people were wanting him out I thought he did a marvellous job he actually brought West Ham back together he knew what a proper football club and how a football club should be run from top to bottom obviously he was under pressure but he couldn't speak up too much because at the end of the day the owners are paying your salary.

4:18There's only so much you can say. I just wanted to go on the West Ham journey here. I actually wanted to break down 2016-2017 season. I want to look at this, and I want to look at it on the Sullivan's and Brady's point of view as business people that are football club owners. You know, you've got 2016-2017 season. There was a£43 million profit made. Phenomenal. You know, massive, massive numbers. The following year, 2017-2018 season, there was£9 million profit made. You know, this is on top, you've got to remember, of selling the club. Selling Upton Park got£40 million for that. Should have gone for a lot more, in my opinion.

5:03And in my opinion, we should have stayed there and built up the chicken run, built up the East Stand and made it a 45 ,000, 50 ,000 capacity stadium. But it's done and dusted now and it's heartbreaking, as we all know. 2018-2019 season, it was their first loss. £29 million loss. 2019-2020 season, a£65 million loss. The following year, 2020 and 2021 season, a£27 million loss. You know, going through COVID, that was tough for the club. You know, the revenue streams obviously all stopped. Well, a lot of them did anyway. Then the following year, they made a profit. £12 million profit in 2021-22 season.

5:4122 and 23 season A£17 million loss These are big numbers Whether you're making a profit Or a loss The 23-24 season This was massive for the club £57 million profit Because of the European run And because of the sale of Declan Rice If we hadn't have sold Declan for£100 million That season we would have made a loss of£40 million That's big, big money For a British owner When you look at the numbers of the money West Ham generated For example, this season, we're going to generate roughly£270 million. £270 million. We get given£170 million for broadcasting rights, so it can be shown all across the world.

6:27Match day, you're looking at roughly£2 million per home game for match day experience, whether it's tickets or hospitality. Sponsorship. Sponsorship and partnerships. You're looking at roughly£40 million a year. Merchandise,£16 million a year. These are big numbers we're playing around with. But it's okay where we sit right now. I don't want to say this because I'm a massive optimist and I still believe we can stay up if the fans all come together. And Nuno, we back Nuno. We've gone through Potter, we've gone through the other one, gone through a couple of others. We've got Nuno now. He's going to be there till the end of the season.

7:10We've got to stick by him and get behind him. I'm massively, massively a supporter of his. I've seen what he's done. It's a fair play to him. We've got to stick by him. We can't jump to another manager after another 10 games and expect that manager to do work magic when he's got a squad there that's not Premier League standard, in my opinion. I can't see any leaders, proper big leaders. Can't see anyone in defence smashing people to bits, It's midfield and up front and Pakitar and, you know, he's working his nuts off as well. And, you know, the number of players are working hard, which is lovely.

7:44But only nine games in right now. And it feels like, you know, a lot of us are talking about what could be the worst thing to happen to West Ham Football Club. You know, we're going into a January transfer window. What's that going to look like? You know, every club around the world are thinking, oh, happy days, lovely, jubbly. there's West Ham we've got to pay a load more money here because they want these players they've got to pay double bubble they've got to pay 50 % more than they normally would which is going to be tough for Sullivan how much they spend but they've got to spend well in January because if they don't we are in serious serious trouble I think we've got a lifeline in January I really hope Nuno pulls it out of the bag like he did at Wolves and brought in loads of players we didn't have a clue where we were all Portuguese players who were super talented who got Wolves up and then got them to 7th position you know I don't know what players would want to come to West Ham right now when we are in a relegation battle when we're 19th.

8:39I really hope we get a nice little run under our belt with a couple of wins, a draw, Nick 6.7 points, over four or five games, maybe 10 points. It'd be a lovely thought. You know, it's an optimistic thought. But when I watch the boys play, it must be a horrible feeling from going out into that stadium, 60 ,000, 62 ,000 people, which is the second highest in the Premier League attendance. 62 ,000 West Ham but God knows how many of them are tourists you know I'd love to see West Ham fans all the ones go in a whole section and go right if you're going to sing you're all in that section because pockets are here and there are singing and it just gets fizzled out the best song we got is when the lads come on the pitch you know when the tannoy goes on and they've got their music I'm Forever Playing Bubbles and the whole stadium roars and you think yeah lovely and then it just goes flat surely we can have someone who just presses that button 3, 4, 5 times during the game and just go boom, off you go again and get everyone singing again because when you have 60 ,000 people singing it's fantastic it's an absolutely brilliant feeling but when you're losing and people are leaving you know, 20, 30 minutes before the end of the game and there's just white seats being sat everywhere white seats just sitting empty soul destroying soul destroying for the fans, for the players everyone related to the club and what we need to find out is what is the solution?

10:04You know, is the solution, it doesn't seem the solution is that a major club like West Ham with a brilliant fan base, with real loyal fans, that Sullivan, as a British owner, is he the right person for our club? I don't think he is right now. He's a super wealthy man, but the disconnect between us lot, the fans and him, there's no communication. It's massively disjointed. You can't front a company and not speak to the people who are paying you to come and watch your entertainment. You've got to have a voice. You've got to come up and speak. You can't just be hiding behind the club badge. There's a part of me that feels like, if I was running that business, do you grab the business and go, okay, do we have a board of non-executive directors, of players who we all love and trust.

10:59You know, we all love Trevor Brookian. Do we have a board with a load of these old faces on the board? Not old, old ones, but we can get a few of them in there and a few people who love West Ham through and through and just bring that connection between the club, fans and the owners. Because at the moment, it's not looking nice. I really hope it's peaceful on Sunday against Newcastle. But I think the fans are just going to protest, just go, it's time for you guys to sell up. Me personally, when I see these other clubs around me, see Chelsea when Abramovich come on board in the early 2000s. Chelsea fans didn't care whether he was Russian, where he got his money from.

11:36I don't care if someone comes in, where they got their money from. I just want to see our club be successful. I want to know that we're secure in the Premier League. I want to know that we can have a nice little cup run. I want to know that we're pushing for Europe. I want to know that the academy's coming through when we're going, right, lads, there's 15 young players coming through the academy here. He's fantastic. He's brilliant. Get him on loan. Bring him back in and get that whole feeling again where an owner of a club isn't worried about losing 50 million quid a year. It's a bit of fun for them.

12:07You know, you look at the Saudi money or if you're owned by Qatari money, you're owned by the state. This is mega money. This is like a drop in the ocean. It's probably like 500 quid to us. Mucking around with a club. But that club is our club. That club is the club that we've all supported. my great-granddad, my granddad, my dad, me, my boy. But I want to make sure that the kids coming through are proud of West Ham. We can't let these kids go. We can't let the kids all of a sudden be swayed by Man City or Liverpool or somewhere in London. But we've got a stadium there which we don't own and we've got a great deal, don't get me wrong, and they cut a great deal in it.

12:47But what a shit stadium for football. Sorry to swear on here, but what a terrible shit. stadium. When you walk up to it, you're getting excited the first time you go. You go there, oh, look at that big stadium, Olympic stadium. This is going to be amazing. You go in there and you are miles away from the pitch. I went and saw a pal the other day. He was like three quarters the way up. I just run up the stairs just to see what it's like to be three quarters the way up. And then I run up to the top to see what it was like. There was someone there at the top watching live on his iPad and looking down at the game.

13:24you couldn't write it I said it he might as well stayed at home you know but he's a loyal fan he was there paid his money he wanted to be there he wanted to support his team but the stadium is not built for football it's built for athletics with a massive track around it in an ideal world we'd love that stadium to be knocked down but no one's going to come in and build a stadium like Tottenham's breaks my heart to say that but Tottenham Stadium is bloody fantastic from start to finish but they invested£1.2 billion on that stadium. That was done six, seven years ago. You know, the cost of that stadium now is bound to be roughly£2 billion to build that.

14:06No one in their right mind is going to come to West Ham and drop two bill and go, yeah, we're going to build a new stadium for you. Unless they are super, super wealthy, but maybe a Qatari or a Saudi is the right person to do that. I would love to see that. I don't care where you're from. I couldn't care less where you're from as long as you are in it for the long game and you want to protect West Ham Football Club like we all want to see. But I've got the fear, and the only reason I'm speaking up, I've got the fear if we ever get relegated from this league, what that means for West Ham Football Club.

14:39An Olympic stadium, that's not a football stadium, with 62 ,000 people there every home game. Brilliant. My gut feeling is if we ever got relegated, that would jump down to probably 40 ,000 West Ham fans. 40 ,000 rattling around in a 60 ,000 capacity stadium. It's not even tiered at the top. You know, I remember going to watch Paolo Di Canio in 2005 when he left West Ham, he went to Lazio. I remember saying to my missus, right, it was actually on Valentine's, right, we're going to Rome for Valentine's. And I didn't let her know we're going to watch England versus Italy versus England on Saturday the rugby and on Sunday I took us from Valentine's Day to watch Lazio play but again my point there is you are in an Olympic stadium in Rome Lazio fans there was 30 ,000 fans there all at one end with one guy on a mic looking at the fans singing the songs and all the fans were singing all of them were singing he was talking back to them and getting the whole place going and that atmosphere in there for those 30 fans was on another level.

15:48You know, should we be doing something like this? Should we be looking at creating an atmosphere that matched Upton Park when everyone was on top voice? Now, that last game we all went to Upton Park against Man United, 36 ,000 of us, men crying, you know, singing their hearts out. That's what we want at West Ham now. But people are just pissed off. People are angry. People are upset. People are just, some people are just going, you know what, I can't even go down there anymore, what am I wasting my money for, we've got, what are we coming in together, we've got like 28 games left, 28 games left to keep us up, I know that's desperate and it sounds awful but we've got 28 games to keep West Ham alive, I don't want to be jumping down into the Championship, you know as an owner of a club, you jump down the Championship, the value of your club's gone right down, is it time for Sullivan to go do you know what I've taken this club as far as I can I'm going to be speaking to people out there who want to take this club forward with a lot deeper pockets than he's got I see like the petition going around petitions are great but they're quite easy just read thrown under the carpet you know the petition for the concessions worked brilliant everyone got together on that one but I think this is different this is about West Ham surviving.

17:12This is about our future. If we get relegated, at the moment we get 170 million quid in broadcasting rights. Lovely. If we get relegated, we only get 55 % of that in year one in a parachute payment. That might be roughly 90 million quid. The following year it drops down again. Roughly might be 70 million quid. Then it drops down again, like a massive drop on the third year. You know, if you think about it, we're going to get, the revenue streams at the moment are really, really strong. You know, we are paying some players like Jared, Bowen,£150 ,000 a week. Good on him. Good luck to him. Paquette,£150 ,000 a week.

17:52Good luck to him. You know, we have got a squad. There is a bill there of£100 million a year, roughly, on players' wages. But if we drop down, the players we're going to lose and the fans who aren't going to want to renew to watch Championship football in a bowl, that's going to be soulless. I think it's desperate times. I'm more upset, not for myself. I am upset for myself. I'm more upset for the kids coming through. You know, this protest on Sunday, I think, is a big protest. It's live on Sky TV. We want the whole world to see this. You know, there's loads of fans are going to stay behind. Even if you're thinking about booting off early, getting a train early or going to the boozer, going, you know, I've had enough.

18:37Just stay behind. Just stay behind for the hour. No one wants to do that stop and go thing when you're trying to get to the station anyway. Who gives a shit about that? Just stay behind and let's see what happens. Let's see if Sullivan and Karen Brady, you know, come and speak to the fans, which I'm sure they won't. But that disconnect between the fans and the owners is really bad. Really bad. You know, as a businessman, I've been involved in sport and business for 30 years, myself, you've got to speak to your loyal fans. You've got to communicate. If you don't communicate with them, they're just going to get more and more angry.

19:18Just get out there and be a front man of it. Go, do you know what? These are the sums. These are the facts. This is what we're looking to do. This is what we're looking to do in the future. And if you are going to sell the club or want to sell the club, let us know. We'll help you try to sell it. We'll help you try to find someone. we've got to stick together. We've got to make sure that we are really, really fricking loud on Sunday. And if we can nick three points or even a draw, I don't like the thought of the London Stadium reminds me of the old Wembley before it got knocked down. Rubbish atmosphere.

19:46Another track around it. Everyone who comes to our stadium as a player goes there, this is like their FA Cup final or World Cup final. Playing West Ham, we're going into the game where we should be intimidating the opposition. The fans should be intimidating the opposition. I can't stand it as well that the away fans at West Ham are right behind the goal. Put them at the top. Get them at the top. Like they do at Newcastle. Go away at Newcastle. We're all right at the top. You're watching them with binos. Why are we making it more advantageous for teams coming to our stadium? When we were at Upton Park, people had to fear.

20:27you know and I go back from what I spoke about earlier Bill Gardner spoke up the other day he's been loyal West Ham fans he's been a loyal West Ham fan going home and away for 67 years he's speaking up and when he speaks up people listen all I'm doing is just when I heard that the other day I think I thought I heard it last night I watched it last night I just had to speak up and I really hope West Ham get a win or get something on Sunday and I really hope the owners of West Ham listen to the fans because it's not good right now and we're like a ticking time bomb anyway I've had my rant I love the club I love everything about the club but I don't like the disconnect I don't like the feel and I don't like the toxic feeling we've got we've got the most loyal fans in the world fact you ain't gonna beat West Ham fans really loyal and as other clubs look in, they all love West Ham as a second club.

21:28Everyone speaks highly of West Ham. Maybe not Tottenham or Millwall or whatever, but deep down, lots of other clubs speak highly of West Ham. No one wants to see West Ham not in the Premier League. The Premier League will be a worse place not having our club in it. We've got another six months ahead of us. It's going to be a long six months. Listen, as a West Ham fan, since a young kid, we've had ups and downs all the time. We know what it's like to feel pain. It's just part of being a West Ham fan. But the thought of what it could be on getting relegated into the championship, that's scarier than anything because I can see the finances, what it looks like.

22:07I can see, you know, if you had a 36 ,000 capacity stadium and you got relegated, you're still going to get 36 ,000 West Ham fans there. You've got a 62 ,000 or 66 ,000 cap stadium. You're going to drop down to 40 ,000 or 35 ,000. That's a different ball game. clubs in that championship would be delighted to come to the London Stadium and play against us with us lot rattling around in there. You know, this is a call. This is a call. We've all got to stick together, all West Ham fans, and get behind this club. Get behind our team. And if Sullivan can come out and speak and say some words, it's only going to help the pain here.

22:45Sullivan, get behind the club. Speak up, please. We just want you to speak up. Hiding behind the badge is not a cool thing to do. Anyway, there's my little 10 pence worth. Really hope West Ham nick three points on on Sunday or a point and I really hope it's a peaceful protest and I really hope the club listen to us. Anyway, take it easy lads. Come on you irons. Hi guys, I really hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. Can you do us a favour and leave us a review as it massively helps us grow the show? Cheers, guys.

23:50We'll be right back. of July clearance now through July 6th at Wayfair.com. Wayfair, every style, every home.