Features

COVID-19 venue news: West Ham, Brighton and more

West Ham

Premier League club West Ham United has detailed plans to unveil a large fan mosaic at London Stadium for its remaining home matches.

The Premier League will resume on June 20, when West Ham will host Wolverhampton Wanderers. Fans have been invited to send in photos of themselves doing the ‘crossed irons’ pose to create the mosaic, which will be placed in the Billy Bonds Stand.

Places on the free fan mosaic will be limited and fans are encouraged to submit their photos before 10am on Thursday. The club hopes that a wide range of fans, including season ticket holders and overseas supporters, will feature on the mosaic.

Brighton

Fellow Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion has announced a similar initiative to West Ham by offering supporters the chance to buy their own personalised cut-out, which will be placed at the Amex Stadium for the final five home matches.

The cut-outs will be placed in the upper tier of the East Stand at the Amex, with other areas of the stadium to feature club and partner branding. The initiative will be opened up to season ticket holders and MyAlbion+ members.

Personalised cut-outs will cost £20 each, with a percentage of profits to be donated to the Albion as One Fund. The cut-outs will first be displayed when Brighton hosts Arsenal on June 20 and the club has asked fans to place their orders by no later than midday on Thursday.

Due to the nature of the project, fans will not be able to choose where their cut-outs are placed and Brighton said it could not guarantee that families and friends will be situated next to each other.

Wolves fans have also been invited to feature in a giant mosaic in the Sir Jack Hayward Stand at Molineux.

Real Mallorca

Spanish LaLiga club RCD Mallorca’s home stadium will be renamed ‘Visit Mallorca Estadi’ for Saturday’s home match against Barcelona.

The ground is officially known as Estadi de Son Moix but the club will grant Visit Mallorca naming rights for the match to promote tourism as the Balearic island looks to recover following COVID-19.

Palco23 reported that the Hotel Federation of Mallorca and other tourism-related companies on the island will form part of the initiative. It is still being worked out whether the initiative will continue for Real Mallorca’s remaining home matches this season.

LaLiga will return to action on Thursday with the derby match between Sevilla and Real Betis.

SeatGeek Stadium

SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois will host a drive-in cinema experience as part of a new initiative launching this week.

SeatGeek Stadium is home to the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and until last year hosted Major League Soccer franchise Chicago Fire.

The Chicago Drive-in Theaters company will launch the experience on Thursday, with The Goonies, Honey I Shrunk the Kids and Trading Places to be among the films that will be screened on a 70-foot screen.

Tickets will cost $30 per car, with preferred parking available for $50. Social distancing guidelines will be in place.

Image: Hammersfan