Newham residents to watch Bolton cup game

Newham residents have been offered thousands of free tickets for the League Cup game between West Ham and Bolton Wanderers next Tuesday after thousands of  London Stadium season ticket holders decided not to take up the offer of buying cheap tickets for the 3rd round of the Carabao Cup.

Newham council are entitled up to 100,000 free tickets for their residents for West Ham match per season as part of the concessionaire agreement with West Ham. Newham taxpayers contributed £40m as a loan to Newham Legacy Investments in return for ownership of 35% of the stadium and free tickets.

Last season the West Ham v Domzale in Europa League saw 1,739 tickets given away while the first Premier League of West Ham v Bournemouth had just 50 tickets given away to residents. Newham gave a  further 1,502 tickets for the Europa league against Astra but since those early games, they have refused to reveal any figures.

Mystery surrounds how many of the 100,000 tickets were actually given away last season. Numerous freedom of information requests were rejected last season by Newham on grounds of future publication at the end of the season but Newham failed to publish details over the summer as promised. The request for transparency over the ticket give away is now being appealed to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) with a judgement expected soon.