West Ham Fail In Effort To Change Saints Kick Off Time
West Ham United have been trying to move the kick off time for the game against Saints in the London Stadium, but they have been turned down.
West Ham have failed to change the kick-off time of their final home game of the Premier League season, after hoping to allow fans time to travel to see their women's side in the FA Cup final.
Manuel Pellegrini's team will play Southampton at the London Stadium in their final 2018/19 season home game as scheduled at 3pm on Saturday, May 4.
However their women's side face Manchester City at Wembley Stadium at 5:30pm on the same day.
The Hammers were hoping that if they moved the kick off forward to 12.30 then it would give time for some of their supporters to travel across London in time for the 5.30pm start at Wembley.
But the Premier League turned it down, the reality is that there would be relatively few of the crowd making the trip and the Cup Final is seen more as a showpiece for the Womens game than inter club rivalry.
West Ham had a crowd of 865 for their home game in the 5th round and the other games prior to the final have not been much better supported.
Last years final at Wembley attracted 45 thousand, but most of these were not supporters of either Arsenal or Chelsea the actual finalists, but fans of the womens game from around the country.
It is good to see the Womens game thrive, but at times it seems that it is given higher credence that it's actual popularity reflects.
That being the case I think the Premier league were right to refuse to move the kick off therefore inconveniencing 60 thousand fans at the London Stadium including 3,000 Saints supporters who would have had to leave home at 8am to get to the game in time, just to allow perhaps a 1,000 West Ham fans to make the journey across London.
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