LLDC Finance Executive, Geraldine Murphy, told an information tribunal appeal today in London that a ground share of the former Olympic Stadium could happen “if the teams co-operate and the Premier League co-operates.” She added “It’s a very competitive market, competitors will use the release of this agreement to undercut commercial deals. It would benchmark negotiations at a point. In any commercial negotiation, it’s very difficult if you’ve got an anchor.”
A three-person panel headed by the tribunal judge, Melanie Carter, heard arguments from Murphy as to why the tenancy details should remain private.
A West Ham United spokesman told ClaretandHugh: “As anchor tenant we have primacy of use during the football season and our contract gives us overriding priority to use the stadium, ensuring our fixtures and events are ring-fenced and will always take priority over all other events. It would therefore be impossible to accommodate the fixtures of another Premier League club without West Ham agreeing, a position which was fully supported at today’s hearing.”
it only says our fixtures, it doesn’t ring fence the weeks in between when we are playing away. quite clearly if the LLDC want to rent those weekends out to another club it can and only needs the co-operation of the premier league to make sure the games fit on the days we are not using it. once they release the details of our deal what’s the betting it will be much cheaper than renting wembley ?
All the clever language seems to imply that although difficult if they wanted they could look to go over the clubs head and work a deal with the FAPL to arrange that our home fixtures didn’t coexist with another of the suggested clubs ? Not sure if I am misinterpretting or reading incorrectly between the lines but to me at least I would be preparing for the worst.