Hammers break silence on legal dispute

West Ham have released a statement today on the legal action it took against London Stadium owners E20 after Claret and Hugh first broke the story ten days ago.

The statement on WHUFC.com says “The Club continues to make improvements in line with supporter feedback and more are now imminent following a recent legal ruling. West Ham United took action to enforce the terms of its contract to secure the rights that we pay our landlord E20 for under the terms of our agreement. We did this in the best interests of our supporters to ensure the match day experience we secured on their behalf in our contract is delivered.

The Club was successful in all of four of the issues to be determined.

Over the course of this season, draught beer will be made available throughout the stadium and live sports channels will now have to be shown on the TVs in the Stadium in the hospitality areas. Issues concerning the hostesses in the hospitality suites has been resolved (in our favour) and costs wrongly invoiced and paid by the Club are to be reimbursed. The pitch surround cover will need to be replaced.

The Club has agreed that E20 and their operator LS185 can conduct a feasibility study in full consultation with West Ham United about the long-term solutions permanent solutions for draught beer in all lounges to ensure the offer is in keeping with the premium facilities and it’s expected that this will be rolled out later this year. The Club will keep supporters fully updated but this matter is resolved and draught beer will be installed for the benefit of our supporters.

On the issue of TV screens, E20 has been ordered to refund the fees they charged the Club previously. Compensation and payment going forward was also ordered in relation to match day hospitality hosts.

E20 will be replacing the green pitch surround at their cost with a suitable material that is a contrasting colour to the pitch. Naturally, the track cover now needs to blend in with the stadium which contractually must always look and feel like the home ground of West Ham United. The Club is in discussions with E20 Stadium LLP in this regard. The expert determination directed the parties to find a mutually acceptable solution which we hope will be settled before long.

Vice-Chairman Karren Brady said: “This is a victory for common sense. We did not want to start this legal action but felt obliged to do so to offer our supporters the services we had promised them, which they deserve and we had been in dialogue with our landlord over for two years without resolution. Following the expert’s determination, we feel vindicated, albeit we are disappointed that the expert needed to become involved at all.

“We hope these changes will improve our supporters match day experience in the coming season.”

She added: ‘’We are committed to implementing the expert determination and we expect E20 to do likewise. Sensibly, the expert determined that some of the finer details should be finalised between E20 and the club and we fully expect that E20 will play its part in upholding both the letter and the spirit of the legal ruling. We seek cooperation and collaboration with our landlord at all times, but if we are being denied what is our entitlement, we sometimes have to take steps to secure what is ours under contract. We will continue to do so, if necessary, but we hope that all parties can heed the lessons to be taken from this process and work together to achieve win-win outcomes. We have made some proposals to E20 which we consider to be fair and reasonable. We expect that these will be seen as a generous offer of compromise in all the circumstances.”

 

 

About Sean Whetstone

I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk. A Blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball, I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh. Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons! Follow me at @Westhamfootball on twitter