The media LOVE West Ham United at the moment, where else are they guaranteed such copious amounts of tasty morsels? There is currently a smorgasbord of items available for those with their snouts in the trough, whether it be the Chairman of the LLDC resigning as a consequence of the London Stadium's spiraling costs or massively expensive and injury prone striker Andy Carroll being chased at gun point, just another day at West Ham! Although the pantomime season hasn't really started elsewhere, it has surely already begun for West Ham,"look behind you"! Hammers have become the 'pantomime villains' and don't the media love to perpetuate the situation?
David Edmonds, the chairman of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) who are the owners of West Ham’s London Stadium, has resigned after Sadiq Khan ordered an inquiry into the cost of the ground, he was only appointed chairman just over a year ago in September 2015 and has ended his tenure after it emerged that the cost of converting the arena for West Ham had risen by £51million.
Mayor of London Khan demanded an investigation after being told that the conversion cost, to which West Ham contributed £15m, had increased to £323m. That took the total cost to the taxpayer of the London Stadium to £752m.
Edmonds has been a board member of the LLDC and its predecessor, the Olympic Park Legacy Company, since 2010 and chaired E20 LLP, the joint venture between Newham Borough and the LLDC that is responsible for the stadium,
the price of retractable seating has become a key issue, rising from a predicted £300,000 to £8million, with the company behind the original proposal, Alto Seating Solutions, having gone into liquidation.
The 15 days required to change the stadium from an athletics to football mode also means that West Ham are unlikely to be able to play a home game at the London Stadium until September next season, with the World Athletics Championships taking place in Stratford until August 13th.
Deputy Mayor Jules Pipe said earlier this week that the investigation into the costs of the former Olympic Stadium would consider all aspect of the ground’s management to understand why its cost had skyrocketed, however he conceded that there was little possibility of renegotiating the original deal with West Ham, which commits the ground’s tenants to paying £2.5m per annum in rent.
PERHAPS THE PRESS SHOULD GO BACK TO CALLING WEST HAM'S GROUND THE OLYMPIC STADIUM! IF IT HAD BEEN DESIGNED ON THE SAME BASIS AS THE COMMONWEALTH STADIUM THE COSTS WOULD BE MINIMAL!
If anyone is to be blamed for the Olympic Stadium debacle it should be Lord Coe, not him on his own, but the deluded thought that athletics would be sustainable on a regular basis once the Olympics had been held, there it is the word sustainable which is usually followed pretty quickly by the word 'legacy'. The Commonwealth stadium was conceived with reality in mind and from the outset Manchester City council involved City football club in the design and infrastructure process clearly realising that the only 'legacy' for the Stadium was for it to host football as it's key purpose as soon as the games had finished, thus relieving the tax payer of the burden. Eventually the conversion cost was around £50 Million, a fraction of what it has cost to convert the Olympic Stadium because it was NOT designed with a realistic eye on the future.
Of course it is much easier to blame West Ham for decisions they had nothing to do with, in fact the club should be commended for attempting to make a silk purse out of a pig's ear!
IN OTHER NEWS
Andy Carroll, himself a great provider of media copy, was apparently confronted by gunmen shortly after leaving training (many fans thought he was still unable to train, so the potential assailants couldn't have been disgruntled west ham fans!) On Wednesday night a police statement said: ‘The two men threatened the driver. The motorcyclists attempted to block the car as the driver sought to get away. The suspects rode off prior to the arrival of police. There has been no arrest.’ Police are continuing their investigations. A club statement said: ‘West Ham United can confirm an incident targeting one of our players on Wednesday 2nd of November. The matter is now being handled by the police.’ They are expected to step up patrols and security in the area.
Never a dull moment at West Ham is there? Currently just a normal day though! - Ed
