West Ham United may be flying high in the English Premier League but things are going through the roof for the club at the moment.
First of all as mentioned on this site previously pressure is being applied at Government level for the Hammers to ground share with cross London rivals Tottenham Hotspur while they get their ground upgraded. Baroness Brady of Knightsbridge, West Ham’s Vice Chairperson however continues to maintain that the club will not ground share on a temporary basis with any other club. Even though the Greater London Authority is applying pressure to the London Legacy Development Corporation claiming they need to revisit the deal done with the hammers as the current one was “a poor one for the taxpayer.” Anyone knows you can always get a bargain down the East end, funny how the government weren’t aware of that.
The big worry is the costs continue to rise at the former Olympic stadium, in fact they are going through the roof, literally. Work needed to strengthen the roof to accommodate the reconfiguring of the stadium is expected to cost in the region of UKL36million. Taking the cost of the conversion to a football stadium capable of hosting occasional athletics events to UKL619million.
The venue is due to host five matches at next year’s Rugby World Cup before West Ham take over the ground on a permanent basis. The fear is with additional costs to convert the stadium blowing out, the Government’s bubble has burst. Hence the pressure to find more events for the stadium to help pay off the debt.
Suggestions have been made that the Capitol One Cup – League Cup – final be played there as opposed to Wembley, or even England Under 21 or women’s internationals. One thing that works in West Ham’s favour is now most of the Greater London Authority would love to see them qualify for the Champions League and hope they can maintain their current form, as to do so would not only bring more games to the venue, but also much needed revenue.
One has to say some legacy…
