Skip to main content

Stadium owners have big legal war chest to fight West Ham

The owners of the London Stadium, the London Legacy Development Corporation aka E20, have built up a legal war chest of nearly £2m to pursue their disputes with West Ham United. I think it would be better for everyone if they stopped throwing their toys out of the pram and tried to work constructively with the club.

Chief executive Lyn Garner told a London Assembly hearing that the costs of staging West Ham matches are not covered by the £2.5m rent it pays (which would go down should the club be relegated). LLDC says that this helps to explain why it recorded a £22m loss.

West Ham said in response: 'As LLDC acknowledged today the losses are due to a number of factors, including the cost of moving the retractable seating, inefficient operating costs and the absence of a naming rights partner. There are other commercial opportunities that they have ignored.'

It is noticeable that the stadium empties out towards the end of games, not just because of what has been happening on the pitch, but because of the difficulty of getting away from the stadium. West Ham got a very good deal on the rent, but the stadium is proving far from ideal for a variety of reasons.

Comments

  1. Let's get this straight! It's not West Hams stadium we rent it, the club offered to buy the Stadium outright which was turned down. This would have saved the tax payer hundreds of millions. The LLDC are now going to waste more of "OUR TAX MONEY" (yes West Ham fan pay tax ) dragging the club through the courts with no chance of winning.
    Please West Ham find a site and build our own stadium and leave the London Stadium to rot.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Totally agree, we should acquire the Terrence McMillan stadium site off Price Regent's Lane near Plaistow; re-develop it. Plus points are 1) that it's our roots 2) near A13 for access 3) can develop it into something that we want rather than accept something we are lumbered with.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...

Gold standard ground boosts Tottenham's income

The gold standard in European football grounds is the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in north London, a £1bn construction project completed in 2019. Its impact on the club’s finances has become increasingly clear as the effects of the pandemic have faded. Previously, the average fan would spend less than £2 inside the ground on a typical match day, but now that figure is about £16, thanks to new facilities including the longest bar in Europe and an on-site microbrewery. Capacity has gone up from 36,000 at the club’s previous home of White Hart Lane to 62,000.  The new stadium — built on land adjacent to White Hart Lane — has opened the door to a broad range of other events that have helped to push commercial income up from €117mn in 2018 to €215mn in 2022. Last year, Tottenham hosted US singer Beyoncé for five nights on her global Renaissance tour, two NFL matches, as well as rugby games and heavyweight boxing bouts.  Money brought in from football has gone up too. Match day ...

Spurs to sell minority stake

Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to £3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between £3.5 billion and £3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women’s team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about £500 million to ...