Stadium owners E20 have criticised the French operator London Stadium 185 (LS185) which it awarded a 25-year contract to manage the former Olympic Stadium.
In a London Assembly committee, earlier this week Assembly member Jennette Arnold told the meeting: “The E20 board in their minutes are damming about LS185 saying they have yet to prove itself as a commercially astute organisation capable of identifying and exploiting income and generating opportunities despite promising substantial income in its bid document. In its original bid it said it would deliver £5m net revenue. Why is the LLDC persisting with a stadium operator that is clearly unable to meet its commitment?”
Acting London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) CEO Gerry Murphy replied: “It is fair to say that LS185 have not delivered the net commercial revenues they set out in their bid. E20 board are disappointed in their commercial performance. The financial performance has not delivered”
LS185 are a subsidiary of French company Vinci Stadium who were awarded a 25-year contract to manage the stadium on behalf of owners E20 which is now wholly owned by the LLDC which in turn is controlled and funded by the London Mayor.
The stadium operator receives a fixed fee of £5.8m plus West Ham’s annual rent of £2.5m and is able to bill E20 for any additional costs with a 5% management fee. It is LS185 who appointed American company Delaware North to run the catering and stadium tours and they also take a share of the profits that catering, tours and any stadium events generate.
A source close to the French operator told ClaretandHugh “The challenge of the cost and time to move the seats has limited the commercial opportunities available to the operator to hire out the stadium during the football season which has hampered commercial performance”
They also pointed out that “the operator was not responsible for the naming rights of the stadium”