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Sunshine State Tour: Tampa

by milehighhammers, posted in Watch Parties

This past summer saw West Ham return for a tour of the United States for the first time since their now legendary tour of 2016. Supporters got a chance to see the first team play Wolverhampton Wanderers at Everbank Stadium in Jacksonville, FL on July 27, 2024, and then play Crystal Palace on August 3, 2024, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL.

Most of our group chose to attend the Tampa match, where we enjoyed the incredible hospitality of West Ham at an open training session, where the first team signed items, posed for pictures, and met with supporters, and then a supporter’s group party held at the Tampa Hammers’ local bar, MacDinton’s. The weekend culminated with the (literally) hottest tailgate party ever held on the Raymond James’ stadium concourse, and of course, the match against Crystal Palace. While West Ham did not take home the Sunshine Tour Cup, we had an incredible weekend of meeting other supporters from both US supporters clubs and British supporters who made the journey.

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The Beautiful Game

by milehighhammers, posted in Contributers

By Ben Skolozdra

The summer of 2006 was when I fell in love with football. I’d been playing in youth leagues in my small suburban New Jersey hometown for several years when the 2006 World Cup in Germany kicked off. I remember getting home from day camp and sprinting to the television to be enthralled by the world’s Beautiful Game. The sound of the crowds boisterously belting out in support of their countrymen was infectious and I couldn’t help but be in awe at the spectacle. Seeing the greatest players in the world run, strike, and save their way to glory in front of a global audience was something I’d never seen before. There truly is nothing better, nothing more special, than the World Cup. After the United States crashed out of the competition in the group stage I was bitterly disappointed but still couldn’t peel myself away. My favorite moment has to be when the pesky Ukrainian team slew Switzerland on penalties in the Round of 16. After the Headbutt Heard Round The World, Gigi Buffon’s epic save in extra time, and the confetti had been swept off the field in Berlin, I knew I was hooked.


The following autumn I was hungry for more world football. Of course I knew of the big English clubs: Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool. None of them really intrigued me; they all had the air of being airbrushed, clean cut, and a bit stuck-up from all their success. I was much more interested in a scrappy bunch of lads in Claret & Blue. The first West Ham United match I ever saw was Chelsea away in November of 2006. As I recall it ended 1-0 to Chelsea but I loved the way West Ham played. They played with grit, determination, and a little bit of gruff attitude that I’ve come to learn is the lifeblood of East London. It was from that day on I was a Hammer through and through. I’m extremely proud to have a football home here in Colorado and to be a small part of the Mile High Hammers. West Ham is a family and that family is global. In the end, we are all West Ham no matter where we come from. We are forever blowing bubbles, we are Moore than a club, and we are The West Ham Way.

Contributing blogger and member of the Mile High Hammers, Ben Skolozdra.