Sell stadium to West Ham, assembly member tells mayor

Bassam Mahfouz called on Sir Sadiq Khan to sell the lossmaking London Stadium to the Championship club reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter

London Stadium, the taxpayer-funded home of West Ham United — London Stadium

The London Stadium should be sold to West Ham United, a Labour London Assembly member has told Sir Sadiq Khan.

Bassam Mahfouz has urged the London mayor to consider selling the stadium to the football club as way to avoid losing tens of millions of pounds a year.

He said the current arrangement, where West Ham pays rent to use the stadium as its home ground, had proved “disastrous” for London taxpayers.

London Stadium LLP – wholly owned by the Greater London Authority (GLA) – revealed earlier this year that it loses around £19million annually.

After its relegation to the Championship, West Ham now pays up to £2.5m rent to London Stadium, under the terms of its 99-year contract signed with the GLA in 2013.

However under the same contract the club doesn’t contribute towards costs such as stewarding, policing and pitch maintenance.

London Stadium now wants to host more concerts to boost income. But having questioned stadium boss Lyn Gardner at the London Assembly in July, Mahfouz believes the “onerous” contract puts too many “barriers” in the way.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that West Ham had “very little incentive” to agree to more concerts during the football season, and a “veto” over naming rights.

In a letter to Khan, he said: “Whilst the onerous contract is not something that can be amended, a new way forward is possible if it were to be made redundant.

“That could be facilitated through a sale of the stadium to the club.”

London Stadium has applied to Newham Council to lift planning restrictions limiting the number of concerts it can host from ten a year to 24.

However the club gets priority use over the stadium during the football season.

Speaking at the London Assembly in July, Gardner explained it can take two weeks to return the stadium to a football ground after its use for other events.

This means that if the stadium wanted to host concerts in September, West Ham would have to play all of its matches away that month.

The club also gets a say over the venue’s naming rights, which Gardner said had scuppered stadium sponsorship deals in the past.

Mahfouz told the LDRS: “The deal cannot be renegotiated. There’s very little incentive for the club to agree these things.

“It needs a refresh and a rethink – if you can’t renegotiate the deal you need something new on the table and that has to be a sale”.

However he said any deal should ensure athletics events can still take place at the stadium, which was built for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Fans attending West Ham’s match against Wrexham in September told the LDRS they supported a sale.

One said: “It should happen – it’s not fair on the taxpayers paying for it, we want the stadium and see what we can do with it, and actually build a better stadium.

“It’s not a football stadium, it’s an athletics track. Nothing like Upton Park.”

Another, Jamie, said: “I think they should sell it. I think it would be better for the club. They could do whatever they wanted with it, and I know a lot of taxpayers’ money goes to the stadium.”

A spokesperson for Khan did not rule out a sale.

They told the LDRS: “The mayor has been clear that he would consider any credible proposal for the stadium, provided it offers value for taxpayers, protects the public interest and preserves the wider economic, social and sporting benefits the venue delivers for London.”

West Ham United declined to comment, but the LDRS understands the club will consider proposals from London Stadium for hosting additional events.

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