West Ham last night agreed a deal to be the anchor tenants for the Olympic Stadium in Stratford after a series of long drawn-out negotiations.
The deal was secured after the government agreed to put in £25m of their own money- and after the Irons condescended to increase their own funding of the project by £5m, to £15m.
The Treasury are now part-funding the move to the tune of £60m, and converting the stadium; including reducing the capacity from 80,000 to 60,000 and laying seats over the reviled running track in order to bring fans closer to the action and a retractable seating plan which will allow the athletics stadium to be converted to a football ground within days; is set to cost ultimately a figure between £150m and £190m.
The rest of the money will now come from a variety of sources, including London Mayor Boris Johnson's budget, a £40m loan from Newham Council and around £20m of borrowings by the LLDC. The club will, as part of the agreement which secured the 99-year lease, give the LLDC a cut of any future sale of the club in the next ten years; a sign, say West Ham, of co-chairmen David Gold and David Sullivan's long-term commitment to the club.
The LLDC will now start work on renovating the roof in a bid to get the stadium ready in time for the 2016 Rugby World Cup, and after the tournament, will close the roof, before restarting work on reconfiguring the stadium's lower seating bowl in time for the Hammers to start the 2016/2017 season there.
In addition to the £2m a year rent, the club will share catering and hospitality revenue with the LLDC but will take all ticket and merchandising income. West Ham will also work with the LLDC in order to sell the naming rights for the stadium to a major sponsor- it is thought extremely unlikely that the word 'Olympic' will be in the title unless the sponsor of the stadium is also a big commercial partner of the Olympic movement.
Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn is still hopeful of a judicial review into West Ham's move to the stadium, with regard to the supposed "challenge" posed to his club's livelihood.
By Alex Shilling, News Editor
@alexshilling
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