The London Stadium was not a happy place for West Ham United last season.
The Hammers’ move to the former Olympic Stadium last season has been controversial and not without problems.
Infighting among supporters marred early matches at the ground as did violent scenes with away fans, problems with segregation and insufficient policing and stewarding.
A perceived lack of the famous intimidating Hammers atmosphere from Upton Park has seen the stadium switch cited by many as a reason for the club’s contrast in fortunes compared to their fantastic campaign last term.
Slaven Bilic’s side won just seven of their 19 home games in the league last season and a host of pundits and fans blamed everything from the size of the pitch, to the gap between the stands and the playing surface to explain why.
There were always going to be teething problems and the general matchday experience has, on the whole, improved for the majority of supporters as the season has progressed.
And speaking to BBC Five Live Sport, co-owner David Gold says he is confident the club is over issues which blighted what should have been a memorable first season there and revealed he is still hoping to increase the capacity.
“We’d like to increase the capacity,” Gold told Five Live Sport.
“We had some difficulty in the earlier part of the season when we first moved to the stadium (but) we’re over most of those problems and we’re really looking forward to our second year, which should be a lot more comfortable.
“We’ve actually moved several hundred fans into places that they want to be.”
It remains to be seen whether the stadium in the makeshift football configuration it adopts once the athletics use ends each summer will ever truly be fit for football.
The athletics World Championships have once again reinforced just how good the venue is for the sport.
But doubts remain whether that will ever be the case for the Hammers as the anchor tenants there.
While Gold feels the club are over the problems, one rather more serious one could hinder Bilic’s side, the fact they must play four consecutive away games to start the new season and don’t play at home until September 11th.
Of course the situation is not helped by the fact the Hammers started the new campaign with a 4-0 thrashing away at Manchester United.
Bilic will be hoping to fare better on the road to Southampton this weekend.
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