American consortium could buy the London Stadium

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”