West Ham’s long-serving stadium announcer, Jeremy Nicholas, has resigned after sixteen years on the microphone.
A statement on his personal website reads: “With great sadness, I have resigned as the stadium announcer at West Ham United after sixteen seasons on the microphone.
“The club asked me to take a 60% pay-cut in my wages, to less than half of last season’s salary. It’s part of a review of all match day costs, to cut the club’s debt.
“While I would do anything to help the team I love, this just wouldn’t work for my family and me at this time. My wife has been diagnosed with Lyme Disease and has been off-work and housebound for the past eighteen months. I have had to stop my freelance work as a BBC TV reporter to stay at home and look after her.
“While it was a tough decision for me to resign from West Ham, I had to put my family first. Without the TV work my main sources of income are now as conference host and an after-dinner speaker.
“I understand the decision and realise that we, and I will always think of the club as ‘we’, must be struggling with the debt. To put it into perspective, I have earned less in my sixteen seasons at West Ham than many Premier League footballers earn in a week.”
“I’d like to thank all the lovely people I’ve worked with at the club over the past sixteen years. We are in safe hands with David Gold, David Sullivan and Karren Brady who have saved our club from financial disaster. They have had to make some tough decisions. I just wish I hadn’t been one of them.
Jeremy’s full statement can be found here.
Everyone here at West Ham World would like to take this opportunity to thank Jeremy for everything and we send our best wishes to him and his family. All the best.
