Rumours in London financial circles at Canary Wharf have suggested that an American consortium could bid for the London Stadium to take it out of state ownership in a similar deal to the proposed £900m purchase of Wembley stadium.

The cost of building and rebuilding the former Olympic Stadium reached £753m and accumulated operating losses have added another £50m so far since its transformation.

The Stadium owners reduced the value of the stadium in their company accounts to nil and a £200 million provision for has been recognised in relation to the cost of fulfilling the West Ham United Football Club and UK Athletics agreements.

A recent London Mayoral draft budget suggested that the London Stadium will continue to lose up to £20m per year for the next four years.  Unless these losses can be turned around the taxpayer could face a bill in excess of £1bn in operating losses over the lifetime of the remaining 94 years agreement with West Ham United.

A consortium could look buying the stadium for a tiny fraction of the build cost on the promise to wipe out future tax payer subsidy in operating costs.

However a West Ham insider believes the public owners would have trouble selling the stadium without the club’s agreement saying: “They can only sell to a government Dept under our agreement”