A long overdue report into the London Stadium commissioned last year by the London Mayor, Sadiq Kahn will blame the ‘onerous’ 99-year agreement the public body entered into with West Ham when the report is released at the beginning of November.
Moore Stephens were paid £140,000 to produce an independent report on the narrative explanation of the history of the London Stadium, understand key decision points and investigate the ongoing financial viability of the stadium.
The draft report is understood to be around 230 pages long but pinpoints the two tender processes and agreements with West Ham as the significant reasons why the London Stadium is not financially viable.
In a recent London Assembly budget monitoring committee, Martin Clarke from LLDC said the Moore Stephens report would concentrate on pivotal decisions around ending the first failed stadium disposal process in which West Ham were initially awarded the stadium with Newham before a state aid complaint scuppered it and the second disposal process in which West Ham were awarded the 99-year tenancy. “They are two key milestones they are focussed on” Clarke confirmed.
West Ham insists no-one from Moore Stephens contacted them during the investigation despite making themselves fully available.
A senior source close to West Ham told Claret and Hugh “We were surprised that no one from Moore Stephens has contacted us, despite us making ourselves available to them as we have operated stadiums for 25 years profitably”
Inevitably the press will turn on West Ham after the publication of the report rather than the politicians and public officers who the miscalculated stadium running costs and mismanaged the stadium disposal that offered the Hammers the so-called ‘deal of the century’
Someone should tell them that all they had to do was to sort out the naming rights issue, then they would have made around £6 million per year, and fixed a lot of monetary problems. Of course they are so hopelessly numb-brained that they haven’t been able to do it.
There must be thousands of international companies who would want their name on that stadium, and pay up to 10 mil for it, but mysteriously they haven’t been found.
Yes Sleeps, agree completely, if they don’t do their research and don’t design the stadium to be used for multisports afterwards, they are the mugs, they should actually be blaming CAST and Levy who stopped them being able to sell their White Elephant. It is their inept negotiating teams that are to blame not the club although we took advantage thank you very much.
The problem was the elitists did not want a Football Stadium. Just an athletics and concert venue. Then as unfortunately happens in this country we don’t think it through. Hence the bodge up re convertion to football.
The Tottenham plan was probably the best option of knocking it down and improving Crystal Palace athletics.
So the best option now is Birmingham Commonwealth games bid produces the 48000 seater stadium. Then Newham Council take over London Stadium in partnership with WHU. Then converted into a proper Football (cricket/rugby?) stadium.
Similar to Manchester City.
spot on and I’m praying every day lol.
It was the unholy alliance who caused the original problem. Coe and Livingstone
The problems go back to Seb Coe, Tessa Jowell and their cohorts who went on about ‘legacy’ and insisted it should field Athletics. The Levy option of knocking it down, building a proper football stadium and redeveloping Crystal Palace for Athletics would have been the best idea – particularly from a financial point of view.
What we’ve been left with is a dogs-breakfast of a Stadium which costs millions to run and is not fit for purpose!
West Ham’s presence at the Olympic Stadium is the only thing that prevents it from becoming a ‘white elephant’ – as it is it’s a black hole swallowing millions of tax payers money!
So what happens if everybody involved in the ownership goes tits up? Is the any chance what-so-ever that the stadium gets shut down with no one willing to pay it’s runnings costs/losses?
would the government like to pay our compensation for tearing up our contract? We could be the only viable option to take it over.
Sullivan, Brady and Co get to buy the stadium for a knockdown price before selling the club on to wealthy investors, taking off with a fair few hundred mil in their pockets and leaving West Ham as one of the most hated teams in the country. This has always been the plan. Dave Jnr practically said as much.
Newcastle is valued at less than £300m and they own their stadium. Brady reckons we’re worth £800m. She maybe be massively overrated but she’s not a complete moron. Where does all this extra value come from? I’d imagine paying ~£400m for the £800m stadium. (This is basically what happened to all publicity owned assets – thank you, Thatcher, and the rest of you Tory toffs for ripping us tax payers off to line your pockets).
The real worry is whether relegation actually aids the boards plans. We know the rent terms decrease if we go down, so if, as this story states, our agreement is the biggest source of losses, then effectively Sullivan and the rest of the muppet show could effectively force the stadium owners into administration before offering to be a white knight and buy it from them. If they think we can bounce back in one season, then with the parachute payments and saving £400m on the stadium, then potentially relegation becomes quite a profitable option. Maybe this is the source of their reluctance to replace Bilic?
I am not one for wild conspiracy theories but I do think this was the thought process behind the whole, Boris decision to keep it in public hands and give us anchor tenancy. The figures were never going to add up and the then Mayor can walk away saying that it was due to Levy and Herne who caused the issue and we end up getting it on the cheap anyway as no company will continually make a loss on it and we will be offered it for a nominal fee. It was the largest Pigeon loft in the world until we took it on and there was no hint of discussions re naming rights before we moved in although as others have said that has still be messed up in spectacular fashion. We will be sold the stadium and we will be vilified for it for a few years and then it will all die down and the original plan will be completed. We will wheel and deal to get the cost of redeveloping the redevelopment off the cost and we may just get a football stadium come 2025.
I can’t see the owners stumping up for the redevelopment costs. The seating is a massive financial drain but from what I understand, as the stadium is built on former brownfield land, being able to convert to a Paris style seating operation will be very difficult and expensive. My guess is they will be hoping whatever middle eastern oil guy or Chinese consortium that buys it will sort it out after they have f*cked off with the cash.
I hope the stadium gets a roof though. It would improve the atmosphere immensely.
Echo those thoughts wjo i would love to see levy’s face when its handed over to us for a pittance …COYI
Are we facing the loss of the lease if the contracting counterparts goes bankrupt?