West Ham United Blog | Analysis & News
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Karren Brady, West Ham’s vice chairman was at parliament today to explain that the club must pay off their bank debt before they move into their new Olympic home in Stratford. That means the Hammers will have to clear around £35m worth of debt before the move takes place.
Brady insists that West Ham United have not been given any favours or allowed to use the iconic stadium on the cheap. [Read more…]
West Ham United will today find out if their Olympic Stadium proposal has been successful but the Hammers’ look set to be named preferred bidders.
Talks on securing a deal that would allow West Ham to be named as the preferred bidders are expected to continue right until the start of tomorrow’s meeting of the London Legacy Development Corporation board.
The Hammers’ latest offer is believed to be a £15m up front contribution, a £5m improvement on the original offer, as well as rent of £2.5m-a-year and £6m-a-year income for the LLDC from revenue from stadium naming rights and catering.
West Ham United Blog reported last week that sources close to the deal remain hopeful that an agreement will be reached that covers a funding gap of around £20m for the retractable seating, with West Ham United and Newham Council already putting in £20m to bring the cost down from £40m.
West Ham United are one of four bidders hoping to be chosen as the new tenants of the Olympic Stadium, which has already cost £486m so far and has been vacant since hosting the closing ceremony of the Paralympics in September. The other bidders are League One side Leyton Orient, a football business college and a proposal to bring Formula One racing to the Olympic Park.
In other Olympic Stadium related news, London Mayor Boris Johnson is seeking assurances from West Ham owners David Gold and David Sullivan that they will not be looking to sell the club on after moving into the Olympic Stadium or prepare to share the profits if they do as he believes West Ham will be a far more valuable club if they do indeed move in to the Olympic Stadium.
UPDATE:
West Ham have now been announced as the preferred bidder, read the clubs statement here.
What do you guys think? Leave us a comment with your thoughts.
As you will no doubt have seen and read this week, the Government has decided to start a new process to determine the future of the Olympic Stadium after it became bogged down in legal wrangling.
WHUFC: Our unanimously supported proposal which earned us preferred bidder status back in February was for a multi-use, multi-sport stadium that provided a real home for football and athletics.
It would have been open in 2014/15, and it would have been a destination for national sport and certainly a fitting stage for the 2017 World Athletic Championships.
We will tender again with the same energy, vision and determination.
We welcome the positive words from the Sports Minister and the Mayor of London. It is great to see a collective determination for the Olympic Stadium to live up to the promises rightly made by Lord Coe and his team when the Games were won back in 2005.
If we are allowed, we will deliver the right legacy for the East End and the wider community, ensuring that the vibrant Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with its thousands of new jobs and homes is well served.
It’s a shame after all the back and forth that we are having to start all over. Lets hope Mr. Levy can keep his toys in his pram if we win it again and not use every means possible to keep us out of it! But it may be a good thing, I was never a fan of sitting 5 miles from the pitch so maybe our new bid can include retractable seating?!
Tottenham’s attempts to throw a spanner in the works over West Ham’s move to the Olympic Stadium have been proved futile, after it was announced that the decision to award use of the Olympic Stadium to United has been upheld.
Independent investigators were called in after a newspaper accused West Ham of corruption due to personal links between an employee of the club and a member of the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC). Although it was Tottenham who used debatable means to gather this information! I can see this one going on and on.
However forensic accountants acting on behalf of investigators Moore Stephens have concluded that there is no evidence to suggest that the relationship had any bearing on the decision to award use of the £500million stadium to West Ham post the 2012 games.
Tottenham, who are set to continue with their request for a judicial review – despite both this and a previous investigation commissioned by West Ham into the affair having returned ‘no evidence’ verdicts – take their case to the High Court this Wednesday.
Does anyone else just wish they would let it go?!
