The Olympic Stadium deal is causing public outcry and West Ham United seem to be getting the most of it, but realistically it lacks sense for a number of reasons, one being that the deal is not as simple as the £2.5Million like the press would like you to believe, but before we talk about the deal let’s look at the real issue here and it doesn’t lay at the door of West Ham United.
Back in 2002 England hosted the Common wealth games and Manchester was the host City, when planning started for the Stadium it took into account what would happen after, the plan was for it to be a football stadium (paid for by the tax payer), now this cost around £250million with Manchester City paying £20million costs for Restaurant and Bar this has been confirmed by David Conn, now Manchester United where offered this stadium but rejected it, now both clubs where fortunate in the sense that the games where hosted in that area and they were the ones to gain from it, Man City paid £2million pound rent per season, it would be for the stadium host to provide the rest etc…
So here is why the blame lies at the door of a few people firstly Lord Coe, Boris Johnson and not forgetting Ken Livingston, now these people spent £537Million on a stadium but didn’t take into account what happens when the games are over, what are we going to do with a 80,000 seater Athletics stadium, now let’s not forget the Greece Olympic stadium it is a mess growing weeds and all sorts, if you use google it’s amazing to see the state of a number Olympic stadiums, realistically the only option was to turn the stadium not into a football stadium but a multi sports venue, and sadly to do that its costing the tax payer another £250million, but the stadium isn’t being turned into a football stadium it really will be a multipurpose sports venue as well as hosting concerts AC/DC are already booked to play. So I think the anger is being aimed at the wrong people, it should be aimed at the people who made a stadium not fit for purpose.
Now let’s look at the West Ham deal, that Barry Hearn dog could have done better the same Barry Hearn that offered £100,000 a season for orient to play there.
West Ham will pay £2.5million pound a season rent.
Stadium Sponsorship first for £4million directly to LLDC and 50/50, now lets look at major stadiums sponsorship around the country, Etihad 18.2M a year (though a dodgy ffp deal me thinks), emirates £6.75 per year, Anfield £7Mill a year, so realistically the tax payer will see back about £5million a year in stadium sponsor money if not more.
Food and drink income LLDC will take the first £500k and then 70/30 split there after given the cost of food and drink at football grounds today we can see this being at around £10 per head at least that probably get you a drink and a burger. So over 25days in a season with 60,000 fans this deal is already starting to look ok for the tax payer.
Now you have the league position finishing price money, ignore the BBC they actually have it wrong and still have not edited it:
they are cumulative amounts:
1st – £775,000
2nd – £675,000
3rd – £575,000
4th – £475,000
5th – £375,000
6th – £275,000
7th – £190,000
8th – £120,000
9th – £65,000
10th – £25,000
So its not actually a bad deal now you need to look at this in real eyes open stance this is a contract that is for 25days a year we are not talking about exclusive use. I am looking forward to seeing how much West Ham pay the LLDC after year 1 and 2 as I think it will be around the £20million mark now for 25days usage I think the tax payer is getting a healthy return considering the costs paid to transform it into a multipurpose stadium would be paid back within 10years. One thing that’s quite funny about all this is one of the 14 fan coalition clubs involved was Manchester City and they have a deal that appears quite sweet so expect a few FOI requests to go in regarding that deal in the near future I would think.
Sadly one thing I think has gone missing is the realistic option of the holding company of the Olympic Stadium to become insolvent very fast, and I actually think West Ham are planning for this to happen with a realistic chance of them picking up the stadium for something as small as a £1 and we can see Lord Coe and the rest saying “we tried our hardest”, the overhead costs of keeping the Olympic stadium open will cost Millions a year, we can’t expect West Ham United to pay them as it isn’t there stadium so unless LLDC have a trick up there sleeve to get more sports played here then there in for a rough ride I feel and West Ham will walk away with a far sweeter deal.
sportsandme 