Mayor has nothing to hide on West Ham deal
“I would be perfectly happy to publish the details of the arrangement,” Boris told the London Assembly.
“I understand the football club concerned is not so keen because they think it will give other clubs an inside into their finances and so forth.”
“We have been very up front over not publishing the details so far as we have only just concluded the final letting contracts, We did not want to put anything out that would impact on our ability to negotiate future contracts.”
“But it should be a matter of public record and we should be very proud that we have got a Premiership football team in that stadium.”
“The stadium has been a fantastic success. It is doing brilliantly and it is basically unlike any other Olympic Stadium around the world as it has a long-term viable future with Premiership football at the heart of the deal.”
“I thought that was the right way forward for London and the right way forward for the Olympic Stadium. There are Olympic Stadiums around the world that are totally mothballed and don’t have any real activation in them. Go to Athens, go to Beijing.”
“It was perfectly obvious to me that the stadium could not have had a long-term future without a Premiership club in it.”
“We’ve got nothing to hide, we’ve got a very good rental agreement with West Ham and it’s fantastic that we will not be spending any more public money on this, so let’s get it out there.”