Today’s 160-page report by Moore Stephens proves once and for all that the London Stadium problems are related to Athletics rather than football.
The report lays bare poor decision after poor decision made by politicians in both parties as well a string of inept civil servants on the Olympics and quango gravy train. Retaining Athletics at the stadium was a vanity project which would never pay its own way.
The report confirms for the first time that the London Stadium needed a Premier League football club to avoid becoming a white elephant. The government quango had an option to build a stadium capable of supporting a Premier League football before the London Summer Olympics but rejected it on cost and time grounds.
On the first bid process in 2009, the government department had another chance to lease West Ham and Newham the stadium for 150 years with the costs and risks on the football club’s side but were panicked into abandoning the process after judicial reviews by Spurs and Leyton Orient together with an European state aid complaint by Steve Lawrence. Again it was a missed opportunity.
By the time of the second bid, it was a buyers market and West Ham got a great deal. So what! Should we be ashamed that the board negotiated a deal which was best for West Ham and their fans?
Take Athletics out of the equation and the London Stadium problems are resolved overnight. Move them to Birmingham to a purpose-built stadium and the job is done. It is the only solution that makes sense once the politicians have stopped their point scoring games.
Once that is sorted allow West Ham to operate and run the stadium including concerts, catering, sponsorship and naming rights sharing profits with the government stadium owners. Long term it is the only sensible solution to make a bad situation good and return some money to the taxpayer.
Can’t say they weren’t told……
Let’s hope they pull it down………we won’t need it, we can play our home game’s at Rush Green………were finished, thanks DILDO BROTHERS AND MS WHIPLASH !
Don’t know if Rush Green can hold 30,000 +
you can easily have both in that stadium, just stop moving the seats.
Push them back, leave them back.
Good enough for west ham in the first bid as there was no moveable seating.
Brady pledged athletics legacy when bidding, that is the easy solution
Change the name to west ham harriers and become an athletics club ! But we would be bottom of the league still !! We can’t run ffs , maybe a bowls club would be better ? They’re approaching the right age group lol thing is with that noble keeps rolling the ball sideways into the team playing next to him ? Or better still we could turn the pitch into a bird sanctuary and view them through binoculars , so all is not lost lads , 😉
Cant see them agreeing with Sean’s idea, but it is the best one out there. Get the athletics up to Birmingham, and leave us to run the stadium proprly, with naming rights which should have been in place 2 years ago.
But they’re not in the business of promoting football premier league (championship) clubs 😂
Let them sort it out , they made the mess lol , the bill comes to 2 billion quid after 97 years without adding inflation and at 3% a year ish that’s 300% after 97, oops ? It looks like they’ll end up giving it to us in the end , maybe ! Nice little family legacy ehh ! They can’t lose can they . that is if we don’t get relegated ? 😎