L1lyBrown
Striker
Whoever sorted this deal out should be shot with the proverbial brown stuff.
The London Stadium will never be a great football ground, although the real calamity is for the taxpayer, currently funding annual operational losses of £13m with another 90 years left to go.
What is not in doubt is the scale of the stadium deal – and the scale of its repercussions. The 99-year lease agreed originally at a cost to West Ham of just £2.5m a year, which is around £4m now, remains excruciating for those on the other side of the table. The then-Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn, who railed against what he saw as the state’s subsidising of a local rival, claimed that his dog could have negotiated a better deal than the one the London Olympics legacy committee struck with West Ham.
In its most recent financial results, the publicly-owned entity that controls the stadium, and effectively subsidises West Ham’s tenancy, booked total losses of £68.4m. In 2022 that entity even sued its former legal counsel Allen & Overy over the West Ham tenancy deal, reaching an out-of-court settlement.
Apparently the losses will be greater still if they are relegated because the losses accrue every game played at the stadium and there are 4 additional home games in the Championship every season
The London Stadium will never be a great football ground, although the real calamity is for the taxpayer, currently funding annual operational losses of £13m with another 90 years left to go.
What is not in doubt is the scale of the stadium deal – and the scale of its repercussions. The 99-year lease agreed originally at a cost to West Ham of just £2.5m a year, which is around £4m now, remains excruciating for those on the other side of the table. The then-Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn, who railed against what he saw as the state’s subsidising of a local rival, claimed that his dog could have negotiated a better deal than the one the London Olympics legacy committee struck with West Ham.
In its most recent financial results, the publicly-owned entity that controls the stadium, and effectively subsidises West Ham’s tenancy, booked total losses of £68.4m. In 2022 that entity even sued its former legal counsel Allen & Overy over the West Ham tenancy deal, reaching an out-of-court settlement.
Apparently the losses will be greater still if they are relegated because the losses accrue every game played at the stadium and there are 4 additional home games in the Championship every season
