That is the claim in Barry Hearn’s column in the Sun newspaper today.
Despite selling Leyton Orient earlier this year, Hearn uses his Sun column to demand Mayor of London, Boris Johnson tell the taxpayers the deal with West Ham. After being the self styled champion of the small club Hearn seems to be have appointed himself the new champion of all London taxpayers.
He demands “it’s time for Boris to come off the fence and tell us know where all our money has gone and what the deal is” adding “on behalf of all taxpayers we need to know full details of the rental deal with West Ham”
His main claim is West Ham are effectively getting the Stadium rent free by saying “As I understand it, West Ham are paying £15m but are selling Upton Park to developers and allowed to keep the money. Those same rumours are telling me that West Ham are also paying £2m per year rent plus a small share of catering income when the conversion of the Olympic Stadium is complete, hopefully in time for the 2016 season. For a Premier League club that is a minimum rent, especially with the stadium authority paying for the stewarding, police costs, stadium and pitch maintenance if the rumours are to be believed. A quick calculation reveals those costs should come to about £2m per year , so effectively West Ham are getting a freebie”
He added “To make things clear, I am compelled to point out I am not having a pop at West Ham or their fans because they are duty bound to get the best possible deal for themselves and their supporters”
I think the operative phrase here is “..i f the rumours are to be believed”.
Where this “person” is concerned I think the operative words are f€>kin c€>t!