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Taxpayers 0 West Ham 1: Club could still move away from Upton Park without having to stump up £20million

Updated: 18:05 EDT, 11 October 2011



The news was good for West Ham. It was bad for the taxpayer. And, for all Barry Hearn's tub-thumping rhetoric, it was probably irrelevant to the other interested parties.

Those were the conclusions at the end of a topsy-turvy day in the endless and embarrassing story of the Olympic Stadium's post-Games fate.

Eight months to the day after the showpiece venue was awarded to West Ham, Minister for Sport Hugh Robertson announced that the whole process would start again. Nearing completion: An aerial view of the Olympic Stadium in Stratford

This time, the stadium cannot be bought but leased out under public ownership. The reason for going back to the beginning was the fear of what Robertson called 'legal paralysis'.

Tottenham and Hearn's Leyton Orient were objecting to the process though the British courts. The bigger problem was an anonymous complaint filed to the European Commission about the £40million West Ham's partners, Newham Council, were contributing towards the scheme.

It was alleged that it amounted to 'state aid' and broke competition rules. The potential for intractable red tape was too much. So, embarrassingly, here we go again.

The deadline for new bidders is tentatively set for January. The exact criteria are not yet known but one stipulation is that the running track must be retained.

'Non-negotiable,' said Robertson, in recognition of the promises Lord Coe made to the IOC about leaving an athletics legacy beyond 2012 and a prerequisite for London's bid to host the 2017 World Championships.

The mood at West Ham was bullish, and no wonder when London Mayor Boris Johnson made the prejudicial utterance that 'almost certainly' West Ham would prevail once more.

Karren Brady, the club's vice chairman, wrote to fans to assure them that the collapse of the original deal was not a mortal blow. Vow: Boris Johnson

In a joint statement with Newham chief executive Kim Bromley-Derry, she said: 'Our bid is the only one that will secure the sporting and community legacy promised - and an amazing yearround home for football, athletics and community events of which the nation can be proud after 2014.'

That is the date by which West Ham, or whoever, will move in. Shame we have to go through the same procedure - at public expense, of course - to reach the near-certain conclusion Johnson hinted at.

The same conclusion that the Olympic Park Legacy Company reached by a unanimous vote of 14-0 back in February.

Shame, too, that the taxpayer will have to pay more: the old deal saw £95m being spent on turning the stadium from an 80,000-seat arena into a 60,000-seat multipurpose venue.

The same reconfiguration is planned this time, but West Ham (who have debts of £80m) will not contribute a £20m share. It remains to be seen if their partners Newham will still hand over their £40m.

The £35m already committed in public sector funding stands - though, minus West Ham's old share alone, that will rise to £55m.

But Robertson said: 'It is a little bit which way you cut it. The (£20m gap) will be replaced by an annual rental charge by whoever the tenant is.'

The rental rate is expected to be around £2m a year, meaning the stadium reconfiguration will not have paid for itself until a decade after the Games.

Even then the money will go into the Mayor's coffers rather than refund taxpayers. If it is such a good idea, why go through the original tender by different rules?

For all that negativity, though, a similar policy was implemented at the City of Manchester Stadium, home of the Commonwealth Games in 2002, where Manchester City pay the council rent for calling it their home. Grand designs: Spurs also have plans for redeveloping White Hart Lane 

Tottenham appear near certain not to bid again. They announced in the summer their intention to stay in north London, next to White Hart Lane. The insistence on a track legacy would seal their withdrawal.

Nonetheless, they issued a gloating statement: 'We welcome the OPLC decision to end the current Olympic Stadium bid process. We firmly believe that the bid we put forward was in fact a realistic sporting solution for the stadium, along with a substantial return to the taxpayer, community programming and athletics provision (the redevelopment of Crystal Palace).'

Hearn was more rumbustious. 'It is one of the greatest days of my life,' he crowed.

'We gambled our future on believing in our case. You can issue as many statements as you like but basically we have won. They have turned round and said, "Yes, you are right, we don't want to go through a judicial review. We know you are going to win. Your case is unanswerable. We messed up". Delight: Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn will fight on

'The whole process is flawed and little Leyton Orient can hold our heads up because we fought our corner and came out on top. I thought we were going to win on points at the judicial review but we have won by knockout, which is even better.

'We will definitely be making an application. We have to look at the cost of doing that.'

UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner naturally welcomed the 'bold and decisive move', with an eye on the 2017 bid. But Andrew Boff, the Conservatives' Olympic spokesman in the London Assembly, was less impressed. He blamed a Tory peer.

'This catastrophe is entirely down to Sebastian Coe's insistence that the stadium should retain an athletics track,' he said. 'Coe's masterplan has turned the Olympic legacy into the Millennium Dome Mk II but with a financial climate that gives it a less positive future.'

The blame should be spread more widely. There is plenty to go around.

Sorting out the mess - what happens now?

So, what exactly is happening with the Olympic Stadium?

West Ham will not be allowed to buy the stadium after London 2012 because
of legal challenges from Tottenham and Leyton Orient.

And that means they won't get the stadium?

Well, they can enter the new bidding process and are still favourites to win - even if Minister for Sport Hugh Robertson says there is 'huge interest' in taking up the tenancy.

Tottenham, who are potentially their chief rivals, are likely to stay put in north London, but Leyton Orient say they will re-enter the running.

And the tenants are still obliged to keep the running track?

Yes - it's needed for London's bid to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships and to fulfil Olympic legacy promises.

Why all this mess?

When the plans for the stadium were first drawn up nobody admitted there would be problems covering the cost of running the building after the Games unless a football
club was involved.

A proper solution would have been to install retractable seating to cover the running track when needed - but unfortunately that solution was never seriously considered.





Taxpayers 0 West Ham 1: Club could still move without paying £20million




