West Ham are set to be named as the preferred bidder for the Olympic Stadium next week after fresh efforts were made bridge the gap in funding required to convert the venue into a football ground.
The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) board is meeting on Wednesday December 5 with some sources saying they expect The Hammers’ will take a major step towards becoming the stadium’s tenants.
Preferred bidder status will not involve the signing of any contracts but will put West Ham in the driving seat to securing a new home away from The Boleyn under a 99-year lease.
The gap in funding to convert the stadium into a football ground with retractable seating over the running track is understood to now be down to around £20million after West Ham and Newham Council agreed to put in more money.
West Ham are one of four bidders trying to secure tenancy in the Olympic Stadium, which has cost £486million so far and has been vacant since hosting the closing ceremony to the Paralympics at the start of September.
We are competing against League One side Leyton Orient, a football business college and a group keen to bring Formula One racing to the Olympic Park.
West Ham’s latest offer is believed to be a £15m upfront contribution, a £5million improvement on the original offer, as well as rent of £2.5m a year and £6m-a-year income for the LLDC from stadium naming rights and catering revenues.
The LLDC confirmed this month that the stadium will not re-open until 2015 at the earliest and possibly the summer of 2016 – which would be two years later than expected.
The retractable seating means the Olympic Stadium will be far better suited to hosting Premier League football matches than the original plans we saw where the fans would need binoculars to see the players. If this goes through then along with the sale of The Boleyn ground it could push West Ham onto the next level and attract further investors.
