Karren Brady, the West Ham vice-chairman, has defended the decision to install the Premier League club as main tenants of the Olympic Stadium in the face of a potential legal challenge and stinging criticism that the move marks an inappropriate use of public funds. Former sports minister Richard Caborn described it as "the biggest mistake of the Olympics".
The Premier League club will move from their Upton Park home for the start of the 2016-17 season when work to convert the stadium, including the installation of a new roof and retractable seating over the athletics track in a 54,000 capacity venue, has been completed.
The original construction costs of the stadium were around 429 million pounds with the additional works expected to cost a further 150-190 million pounds , prompting suggestions that the decision to award West Ham a 99-year lease in exchange for a 15 million pounds contribution to those costs, an annual rent of around 2 million pounds and share of some revenues, including stadium naming rights, means the club is benefiting excessively from the public purse.
Funding will come from a number of public sources, including a 40 million pounds loan from Newham council. "This is the biggest mistake of the Olympics and lessons should be learnt from this. West Ham are basically getting a stadium costing more than 600 pounds million for just 15 million pounds and a small amount in annual rent."
However, speaking at the announcement of the deal, Brady said: "For anyone who thinks we have had a free ride, we most certainly haven't. We want to pay our way and we accept we have to pay our way. We will put in a lump sum, we will pay a rent that will cover most of the running costs and then we will share naming rights and other revenues. We accept much of the cost of making this into a world-class stadium has come from the government, but we hope over 99 years we not only pay that back but also a lot more than that."
The arrangement also ties West Ham into a 10-year deal to protect public funds should David Gold and David Sullivan, the club owners, profit from an increase in the value of the club following the move.
Sullivan confirmed proceeds from the sale of Upton Park, West Ham's current home, will go towards reducing the club's 100 million pounds debt. "It won't make as much as you would think because it is a very poor part of London," he said. "A chunk of that will go towards the development cost here and the rest will pay down some of our bank debt, who have got a charge over Upton Park."
The decision should mark the end of a controversial seven-year process that stalled when legal challenges were made to an earlier decision to award the stadium to West Ham at the expense of Tottenham, although Barry Hearn, the chairman of Leyton Orient, remains committed to seeking a judicial review of the more recent process that established preferred bidder status. Hearn said: "We don't think we have been given a fair crack of the whip."
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