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No change of ownership for London Stadium

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Reports that the Government could be forced to offload the London Stadium on the cheap because of the current health crisis are wide of the mark. The sad reality is that it is cheaper to mothball the former Olympic Stadium than run it for its multiple tenants.

The temporary closure of the London Stadium could save as much as £10m this year when the cost of not providing stewards for West Ham games, not moving the seats for Baseball and Athletics and savings on Newham council rates are factored in.

The stadium will still lose tens of millions but it could be a lot less than the £29m it regularly loses each year.

Even if by a miracle, West Ham were gifted the stadium by the public owners it would be a complete financial disaster for the Hammers while onerous contracts remain in place including Delaware North and UK Athletics. If these existing contracts stood, West Ham would need a multi-million-pound public subsidy to even consider taking over ownership of the stadium.

With naming rights sorted and operating costs under control, West Ham could look to break even within five years with a generous government subsidy.

However, the political will to agree such a move together with the re-emergence of cries of state subsidy of football means the likelihood of this happening is almost zero.

West Ham will remain tenants of the London Stadium for many years to come.

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I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called Moore Than Just a Podcast A Blogger on West Ham Till I die a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball,

I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh.

Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons!

Follow me at @Westhamfootball on twitter

4 comments

  • Graham Watts says:

    Future options are more likely to be explored after the next Commonwealth Games in Birmingham 2022. There will be the legacy of an athletics stadium in central England ideal for UK athletics and far better than London stadium. Very tempting for Goverment/tax players who will still be making huge annual deficit on London stadium.

    • Razorwine says:

      Agree with Graham sean this loss cant go on for years and the stupidity of athletics being there now and again . Birmingham is ideal with palace updated and the stadium being bought by the next owners of west ham hopefully not long . Tax payers and newham ratepayers should start now revolting against this money wasted every year. Total disgrace and bad planning due to coe saying athletics must carry on in that stadium and not looking at football being the new stadia for the future. Imo

  • Stephen Bush says:

    There’s one major floor in the above statement and calculation, who would be the benefactor of the London Stadium sitting there doing nothing, NO ONE. There use to be a financial contract you could take out to purchase a property called, ‘Lease Purchase’. The same Lease Purchase Contract could be agreed between the LLDC and West Ham United if they got together and sorted it out. A final purchase price would need to be agreed. West Ham already pay £3m a year in rent. If that was increased to £5m a year, £3m would be the Lease, the extra £2m a year would be to purchase the London Stadium. That would free up the funds to buy out the British Athletics Contract. As far as the over priced Delaware company, personally, I would show them the door. Neither the LLDC or the West Ham board have a full proof plan as what to with the London Stadium. Moth Balling it is out of order and a complete wast of tax payers money.

    • Sean Whetstone says:

      Athletics have a 50 year contract with an option with 50 more. They won’t be bought off cheaply

      Delaware have a 25 year contract and would want major compensation.

      There are other contracts for seating, stewarding, security and facility management via Vinci that are also onerous.

      It could cost more than £100m to buy them all out, maybe more. Can’t see LLDC or West Ham doing that.

      They are not just going to walk away

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