A planned meeting between David Sullivan and London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) Chairman Sir Peter Hendy later this Summer is unlikely to resolve the long-running issue over an increase in the London Stadium capacity.
West Ham’s concessionaire agreement with stadium owners E20 Stadium LLP defines a minimum football capacity of 54,000 but there is no definition of a maximum football capacity.
The stadium has 66,000 seats already in place and West Ham believe they have the right to use all seats on a match day as the contract defines they have full use of all concession areas.
E20 owned by the LLDC disagree with this interpretation and say West Ham must pay more to cover the incremental costs of additional staff and facility costs relating to an increased capacity by either an additional 3,000 or 9,000 supporters.
The Hammers argue they have a fixed contract for 99 years and that the stadium owners would benefit from increase catering income and sponsorship deals relating to the increased footfall.
Last December Gerry Murphy, then acting chief executive of the LLDC, told a London Assembly budget monitoring sub-committee meeting: “There is a dispute about what the contract says in terms of capacity. We feel that if West Ham want more seats, they should commensurately pay more. It is subject to legal proceedings.”
Just give them a percentage of the season ticket money on the extra seats a percentage of something is better than 100% of nothing… would be good pr also
A percentage of 693,600 ain’t gonna come to much.
This does annoy me,when we already have a 99 year contract in place,with an amount to be paid yearly,they shouldn’t get a penny more and we should be able to use all the 66,000 seats ,they took part in the negotiations and signed.Just because their predecessors messed it up,it’s not up to them to try and change clauses,we hold the cards and should hang on tight to them.COYI
No point in talking about capacity if the seating isn’t brought nearer the pitch . The running track needs to be eliminated and athletics moved to another venue . All the talk is useless and a waste of time if the LS is not altered to accommodate football .