The London Mayor seems to have significantly weakened his own negotiating position over the future of London Stadium, West Ham’s rented home.
By making a very public admission that he’d welcome an offer from the football club, Khan has surprised nobody with his desire to do a deal with the new regime at West Ham to offload the white elephant former Olympic Stadium that is now costing the tax payer a fortune, thanks to the terms of the lease agreed in 2016.
Now, even members of his own party are urging him to sell: As the bbc.co.uk reported:
“Sell London Stadium to stem losses, Mayor told” – referring to the comments made by Labour’s Bassam Mahfouz who wrote to Lord Khan urging the mayor to consider a sale to stop the stadium losing millions of pounds a year.
The thawing of relations between the owners (officially, London Stadium LLP, which is wholly owned by the Greater London Authority) and West Ham’s board, now that the hostile duo of Brady and Sullivan are no longer at the helm of the club, has probably raised the hopes of the Mayor’s office that West Ham will come sailing in and buy the stadium for a handsome price and relieve the London taxpayer of the £19 million a year loss.
I’d suspect they will be disappointed for a good few years yet.
Daniel Kretisnky will have big plans to revamp the London Stadium and is unlikely to rush into a purchase just to suit the Mayor
Daniel Kretinsky is no fool and has amassed a fortune through his wily, shrewd business activities and one thing I’m sure of is that he’ll not be knee-jerked into a rapid decision. West Ham have 89 years remaining on a bullet proof lease.
The longer the lease goes on, the more the owners have to subsidise the football club and therefore the greater their losses, and the weaker their negotiating position.
If I were Kretinsky, I’d stick it in the pending file for at least five years (after all, nobody else will buy the ground with West Ham in situ as the main lease holder and the losses so outrageous) and then come back and offer Khan’s successor a pound to take it off their hands.
Five years, almost another £100 million of losses and they probably will be ready to give it away for free – (and here’s the important bit:) And ready to agree to allowing all sorts of development in the surrounding area as part of a sweetener for the sale to go ahead.
How desperate?
Give stadium to whu and pay them compensation_£10m a year for next £15 years.
Saving council £10m a year.
If whu return to premiership they’ll save £5m a year in rent.
Sounds a bit one sided but council want it gone.
With 89 years remaining on lease seems like whu are holding all the cards.
The London Stadium has become the Capitals Fulkrug or Alvarez 😊⚒️⚒️
It was always so predictable. To start with those like Seb Coe saying that the athletics legacy is like something that came down from Mount Sinai while it was obvious that athletics could never hope to pay.
Now we’ve got Sadiq Khan being badgered by councilors into saying make me an offer, it probably will end up in give us a token quid for accounting purposes just get it off our books….