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The Devil Is In The Detail As Khan Admits E20 Not West Ham Liable

nevillenixon's picture
Submitted by nevillenixon on Tue, 27/03/2018 - 09:24

After delaying the meeting for months, London mayor Sadiq Khan finally sat down with Lady Brady to discuss the impasse that is the London Stadium and the commensurate financial fall out that is grabbing the headlines. The prime detail to initially emerge is that E20 the company who 'manage' the London Stadium are liable for all the staffing costs, not West Ham United. As Hammers pay 'only' £2.5 Million per year in 'rent' most observers feel the club negotiated too good a deal and that the long suffering tax payer is footing the bill for Hammers' swish rented accommodation in Stratford.

The feeling that West Ham are 'getting away with it' is generally held by the public, however in this instance it is doing the much maligned Hammers' hierarchy a disservice, quite simply West Ham may have negotiated a good deal but the finances would not be called in to question if the stadium was being run correctly for all the rest of the time that it is not being used for football. One of the main reasons that the London Stadium is not viable is that it is not fit for purpose in it's current format, and without massive investment it never will be. Currently running at around an £18 Million loss annually, the stadium needs to be redesigned if it is ever going to make money, and the first action should be the sale of the stadium to West Ham United with the proviso that the club run the facility as a business utilising specialist partners to maximise profitability.

Most Olympic facilities become 'white elephants' for their host countries, but it doesn't have to be that way, the Russians despite their political aims and the odd assassination attempt, dealt with the issue of redundant facilities very efficiently when converting their 'show case' stadium from hosting athletics to football. They realised that the appetite for athletics on a continued basis was non existent and that football was the only realistic path to pursue when it came to making the stadium viable. The sooner a similar conclusion is made about the London Stadium the better, currently it is neither one thing nor the other despite the 'beautification' of the stadium for match days, surely an arrangement can be reached that ensured the tax payer no longer had to support the running of the stadium, after all the Olympics finished years ago!

To conclude, the only sensible realistic outcome of the discussions between the Mayor and the Baroness would be the drawing of a line in the sand regarding past events and confirmation of a mutual desire to move forward effectively. The 'bad blood' surrounding the move from the Boleyn will take a generation to over come, but it will come sooner if the London Stadium is finally fit for purpose!

Perhaps West Ham United are not capable of 'running' the stadium 365 days a year?, perhaps they do not possess the necessary funding?, but surely they can make more of a go of it than the shambolic organisation that currently runs it?
West Ham have repeatedly offered to pay for visual improvements but have been refused permission, this is an area that is of particular interest to the London Mayor and one of the reasons for the initial delay in his first meeting with West Ham, as his 'assistants' trawled through the mine field of information pertaining to the stadium's running and finances, it seems clear now that on inspection the 'faults' all lie away from West Ham, and if Lord Coe and Co hadn't been so hard headed this ridiculous situation would never had occurred.

This coming Saturday will be massive for the club and the Stadium, defeat to fellow premier league strugglers Southampton would leave West Ham firmly mired in the relegation battle and in the bottom three. The term 'six pointer' is often used to describe relegation tussles, but this really will be a six pointer, actually a 'twelve pointer' if you take in to consideration the importance of the match. It will be three weeks since the defeat to Burnley and the pitch 'incursion' that happened, we use the word incursion rather than invasion because that's what it was, a pitch 'incursion' by four individuals!

David Moyes has had to juggle his squad to compensate for it being threadbare due to injuries and senseless player sales, he may well be without at least two key players ahead of the Saints match. Manu Lanzini and the ginger pele James Collins are doubts to face what will probably be a resurgent Southampton side as they play their first league game with ex-Stoke City boss Mark Hughes in charge. Results wise you can see what the projected outcome of the match will be by using football tips, it will be interesting to see if Mark Hughes is as ' industrially verbal' to Marko Arnoutovic as he was when they last met during Hammers' 3 -0 victory over Stoke.

There is always anxiety associated with sending players away on International duty especially if the club is embroiled in an epic relegation battle, they can come back tired or sometimes injured, hardly ideal preparation for the crucial games ahead. It is to be hoped that all of Hammers International players who went away on duty come back unscathed, so the news yesterday that Manu Lanzini had picked up an injury was not well received, although he has apparently made a remarkable recovery that has enabled him to be available for selection for the second of Argentina's friendlies, he is keen to share game time with Lionel Messi and did his future hopes no harm by scoring with a delightful chip over Bufon in goal for Italy as Argentina ran out 2 - 0 winners.

James Collins was also injured in a friendly, the match he was injured in was the fund raiser for Dagenham and Redbridge which was played in a very 'unfriendly' way by the home team who were NOT being managed by John Still but by a 'fan' who had paid handsomely for the privilege and obviously wanted his money's worth. Unfortunately Hammers' are really down to the bare bones as 'H' used to love saying, the January departure of Jose Fonte has come back to bite David Moyes in the proverbial as there is very little senior defensive cover available. Declan Rice, fresh from his man of the match appearance for the Republic of Ireland, has surely earned his place in the starting line up for the side to face Southampton, he has come on leaps and bounds this season and although prone to the odd error is an exciting prospect, let's hope he can further develop his undoubted skills in the Barclays Premier League next season! - Ed

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They are talking about demolishing 2 stadiums in Sydney. The Olympic Stadium and the Sydney Football stadium as one is not fit for purpose and one is old and outdated...respectively.
The public are up in arms as refurbishing both would be loads cheaper.
Why the f**k don't the architects have get their plans approved by sports and supporter bodies before they even dig a hole in the ground.
Retrospective design changes cost a shed load to implement and rarely fulfil fans expectations.
Off with their heads, I say...will keep you updated as to the decisions on demo or re-furb
COYI

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193 users have voted.

to the board i wonder if they wanted the stadium for a knock down price all along as it now stands as a waste of tax payers money and not fit as a football stadium ,so to get it on the cheap and rebuild from the inside might suit a lot of money men!!!!!!

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175 users have voted.
nevillenixon's picture

I think you are bang on there, I think all along they knew that eventually they would end up buying the stadium outright for a pittance because otherwise it is an enormous money pit for the government and local authority.

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215 users have voted.

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