Yesterday turned out to be far more interesting than I expected it to be, or rather, more interesting than my Sundays usually are. After the sound and fury of Saturday, I thought I would just go up to Stratford for a nice, quiet walk around the Olympic Park. As I got off the tube train though, I noticed a lot of West Ham supporters heading that way too: there was obviously a match on at the London Stadium. To begin with, I just continued with my plan, following the growing crowd heading for the park. As I got closer to the stadium though, I had an idea: how cool would  it be to watch a football match at London Stadium? I hadn’t actually been inside the stadium since 2012, and to be honest I was curious to see how it was doing. It would be even more awesome to watch an event there.

With that in mind, I asked one of the attendants how I could get a ticket. They took me to the ticket office, but there things grew a little complex. I was told that disabled fans could only get tickets if they booked them online in advance. I replied that that was a bit discriminatory, as able bodied people could obviously just walk up and get tickets on match day. The growing number of attendants around me agreed, and told me that they would see what they could do.

Long story short, about twenty minutes later I was being shown into the stadium and up to the wheelchair viewing area. The biggest surprise, however, had been the price: seventy quid! I was only told what it would cost after it was decided I could get a ticket, but by then having caused such an issue, it would have been utterly ungrateful for me to roll away. That’s how, yesterday afternoon, I came to be watching West Ham vs. Nottingham Forrest at London Stadium.

We all know how so much infrastructure built for events like the Olympics by various cities around the world has later been allowed to fall out of use and rot. It’s one of the biggest problems with such mega-events. I’m very glad to say, however, that that hasn’t been an issue in London. Not just the stadium, but all the other venues built for 2012 are still in regular use. As I went into the stadium yesterday, though, I was filled with awe and joy: thousands of people packed the seats, shouting and singing. The noise was incredible. London has surely lead the way in using it’s olympic infrastructure.

The match itself was a lot of fun. As I explained once, I am a de facto West Ham supporter, despite knowing virtually nothing about the club. It was a close thing, and the referee made some very dubious decisions, but West Ham eventually won 3-2. After that, I was left to make my way home having had such an incredible afternoon. Whether I’ll go again remains to be seen due to the price, but it was great to see the stadium in such fine form.