One clause in the contract does permit major sporting events can be staged once every four years but West Ham must have two years notice and the clause must be mindful of the Hammers ‘overriding principle’ for football fixtures.
Our West Ham source says they could ask for the first game to be played away from home at best but would insist their second Premier League game is played at home. They never want to be in a situation ever again where West Ham plays two or more games aways from home at a start of a season. The Hammers remain nervous that the movement of the seats between Athletics and Football mode take twice as long than the original estimate and that would also be a factor.
The source also suggests West Ham would not agree to any major sporting events in July unless the Stadium owners agreed to provide Wembley Stadium as an alternative for any European games in case of qualification for the early rounds of the Europa League. This could well be cost prohibitive considering Spurs pay £300,000 per game for the hire of Wembley. They would also request the hire of Wembley Stadium for a Hammers pre-season friendly also at the cost of the Stadium owner.
An extra complication for UK Athletics and the stadium owners is a new Premier League rule states which that each club must have the right to cancel any other activity on the pitch with 48 hours notice if the club believes it would have a detrimental effect on playing their match so West Ham would have to be able to get governing body approval for an exemption of that rule.
West Ham also has the right to suggest alternative dates for major sporting events and our senior source has suggested: “I think we would recommend they host any event in June!”