Karren Brady’s admission that Chelsea have inquired about ground sharing the Olympic Stadium “in 2018” will not be kicked into touch without a second thought from West Ham.
The vice chairman revealed in her Sun column today (Sat) hat she had shown Chelsea officials around the OS adding: “I have very good relations with Chelsea and, yes, they have enquired about a ground share in 2018.
Any final decision on letting the Blues move in will be ours and not the London Legacy Development Corporation’s, or indeed Chelsea’s.”
We spoke to a top insider at the club this morning and it was made crystal clear the fans’ position would be the first consideration in any decision.
He said: “We have good relationships with Chelsea. There was never any question of us sharing with Tottenham Hotspur but you would look at Chelsea in a different light. However, any arrangement could only be for a temporary one year and we would wait on the fan reaction.”
Were such an arrangement to go ahead it would give the Hammers a financial windfall in the shape of halved rent for the season.
Our source said: ” West Ham is entitled to a 50% discount on their £2.5m annual rent if we share but I don’t know how appealing the prospect would be to Chelsea or any other club because the stadium is so very West Ham. The stadium now looks and feels like our home.
“We have the shop and the only offices so I’m really not sure it works for anybody else. We have to agree fixtures with Premier League so that’s possibly a stumbling block.”
They can attach a romantic gesture to the lower portion of my body…
You mean a blow job 01?.Don’t believe what women say they find it romantic really,lol 😀
“We spoke to a top insider at the club this morning and it was made crystal clear the fans’ position would be the first consideration in any decision.”
I will get the ball rolling for them: NO, DONT WANT CHELSEA THERE.
Well, if a football club shares the OS we get 7.5 million back (half of our upfront contribution towards the conversion costs) and our rent gets halved, so from a financial perspective it is worth a thought.
On the other hand though us fans of course aren’t primarily interested in the financial ins and outs, we will worry about what some of those Chelsea fans might be doing to West Ham related signage, our club shop, the Bobby Moore statue etc.
I know groundshares do happen in some cases elsewhere in the world, but they are rarely solutions loved by all parties involved. Especially in London emotions run high between rival clubs. I could live with a club like Fulham sharing, Watford or Palace.
But not with one of our main rivals like Spurs, Chelsea or Arsenal.
Let them use the stadium of MK Dons, they will be grateful for some extra money up there…
We let Charlton ground share with us. They were really grateful weren’t they? All the stirring when we got the OS.
I wouldn’t want it in a perfect world but in terms of support there is little risk of the West Londoners nicking any of ours and if we get financially compensated to the tune of 7.5mil plus a year that we could spend on players then I wouldn’t dismiss it out of hand, plus we can get to experience our own Stadium as away supporters once or more a season, plus it would get the press off the LLDC’s and thus our backs about the stadium not helping the taxpayer out etc…
No. 32, There will be no £7.5m per year rebate. As we only pay £2.5m per year rent, the rental rebate will be £1.25m per year, maybe not enough to cover repairs to the WHU decorations which will likely get trashed. There is a possibility of a one off rebate of £7.5m for the contribution to conversion costs but that is not clear for only a one season ground share, not occurring at the start of our lease.
It is not worth the trouble. It won’t get anyone off our backs because the people doing the complaining already refuse to acknowledge the facts anyway and turn a blind eye to the fact that UK Athletics gets the stadium for less than 10% of what we pay and will generate almost nothing in terms of additional income for the owners because they will not fill it on their 35 days per year, as we will on our 25.
Fan No 32, you really believe the usual suspects would get off our backs if Chelsea were to share for a season or two ? I doubt that.
On the contrary they’d be complaining why West Ham only play so little money and even get money back and why Chelsea have to pay so much more rent.
In the current climate the media (nevermind rival fans) are not looking for positive angles in West Ham related news, it’ll all be negative connotations…
Possibly HH but at least we would be able to come back with a bit of ammo to say hey look all that extra revenue from more fans visiting the stadium, more money going to local businesses, if they are on our backs always nice to give them a bit back 😉
Don’t do it,the last lot we let share ended up becoming treacherous mongrels in the campaign against our move 😉
Just noticed Sparrow has already mentioned it but it’s true 😉
One of my favourite moments of the season was Andy Carrolls goal against Chelsea. I love beating Chelsea.
Maybe though if Roman abramovitch agrees to give us a large charitable donation from his personal fortune plus the best players from his youth team for our academy plus the best of their superstars that can’t fit on the bench then maybe.
But what happens in the game when we are away to Chelsea because technically we are still at home. And what happens when we stuff them.