Senior officials responsible for the development of the London Stadium have admitted that they 'got it wrong' over the design of the retractable seats that have become one of the biggest contributors to the stadium's financial problems. The £8m cost of removing and reinstating the retractable seats each summer could have been avoided, the London Assembly's budget monitoring committee was told yesterday.
David Edmonds, the former chairman of the London Legacy Development Corporation, said that the seats were one of three big issues facing the stadium. The others were failing to secure a naming rights partner (not surprising given all the problems that have been encountered) and being unable to attract more events to the venue.
Edmonds also admitted that the LLDC was forced to give into West Ham United's demands during negotiations to rent the stadium as they were the only bid left. 'West Ham were very hard, very tough negotiators,' he said. He also admitted that there had been 'too much detail' in the contract with West Ham. This gave the club the opportunity to claim that the LLDC were not fulfilling the deal such as giving the stadium the 'look and feel' of their former Upton Park ground.
It was also revealed that Karren Brady, the West Ham vice-chairman, wrote to London mayor Sadiq Khan accusing stadium operator E20 of being 'vindictive' over a number of issues which we discussed recently including the colour of the running track cover.
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