Exclusive
West Ham have been vilified right across the media after it was revealed we will pay £2.5m per year index linked over 99 years to rent the Olympic Stadium.
The Guardian, followed by the BBC, egged on by the Charlton Athletics Supporters Trust managed to convince many the Irons were fleecing the taxpayer by paying so little.
However, ClaretandHugh can now exclusively reveal that according to official financial accounts released by the LLDC at the end of May other stadium hirers appear to have paid absolutely nothing in the last two years.
Figures between 1st April 2014 and 31st March 2015 show zero income for the Stadium in rent while the same period for 1st April 2015 to 31st March 2016 show a minus figure of -£157,000 for income rental.
Meanwhile, the operating cost of running the stadium was reported as £2.62m for the year finishing March 2015 and £1.176m against a budget of £705,000 for the year finishing March 2016. So the taxpayer has forked out £3.8m to the run the stadium and appears to have received nothing back in rent.
Last year a total of 12 events were held at the Stadium on a paid for basis:
UK Athletics Anniversary Games over the weekend 24th-26th July 2015
Rugby match between Barbarians and Samoa on 29th August 2015
Rugby World Cup matches including France v Romania 23rd September 2015, New Zealand v Namibia 24th September 2015, Ireland v Italy on October 4th 2015, South Africa v United States on October 7th 2015 and the Rugby World Cup bronze final on October 30th 2015
Rugby League match between England and New Zealand on 7th November 2015
Race of Champions on weekend of 20th to 21st November 2015.
ClaretandHugh submitted a Freedom of Information request to the LLDC in April to ask what rent other hirers had paid after the LLDC was forced to reveal details of the confidential agreement between West Ham and the stadium owners E20 Stadium LLP.
That Freedom of information request has been initially refused last month on grounds of protecting commercial interest of the stadium owners, and another 20 days to consider the public interest case in that request was requested.
Maybe – and I am only speculating – they don’t want know other potential hirers to know they rented the stadium for free between 2014-2016.
ClaretandHugh asked the LLDC press office to officially comment but we were told “We are looking into this for you and will get back to you as soon as we can.”
Haters keep on. At least taxpayers will get some money back. What would all the knockers prefer ? sometimes i despair that there are so many jealous people out there. What would you knockers prefer? lets have a magnificent stadium that goes to seed Or should we accept a deal whereby a national asset makes a profit over the long term. Don’t just complain for the sake of it, come up with some viable options. COYI X
I need to memorise all of this so I can quote it back to any moaning t*** who starts on about the OS. Anyone know the email address of that Charlton bloke who lives in Prague?
totally agree essex
i also think there maybe a chance we could buy the stadium at some point maybe 10 to 20yrs time but sick of hearing them moan all the time THE DEAL IS DONE legal and above board
That will be our fault for some off-the-wall reason. Let be honest we might have signed a 99 year lease of the stadium but does anybody really think that it will still be standing by the end of that time?? Not a chance in hell will it. How many hundred year old stadiums are there? As it is one great giant bowl you might struggle to replace any section with the rest left. Any club who say that they will stay at the same stadium for that long are kidding themselves. Triggers broom springs to mind. West Ham were at the Boleyn for 100+ yrs… really? So apart from every side of the ground being replaced over that time we were still in the same stadium. The only thing that stayed the same is the address.