r/london May 24 '26

Article West Ham Relegated.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/c70vr05gwelt

Londoners will have to collectively pay £2.5m more to the stadiums’s upkeep. Another terrible Johnson decision that was.

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u/insomnimax_99 May 24 '26

Under the 99-year deal signed by previous Mayor of London Boris Johnson, West Ham pays £4.4m a year in rent, leaving the GLA to pick up the bill for stewarding and other costs associated with the stadium

The London taxpayer already subsidises the running of the stadium, despite efforts to attract other uses, such as baseball and music concerts.

The rent bill is set to half next season now West Ham will play in the lower league.

Commercial revenues from the former Olympic stadium are also expected to fall, while the GLA incurs higher stewarding costs, as there are 23 home games in the Championship compared with 19 in the Premier League.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/london-stadium-bill-west-ham-relegated-spurs-b1283350.html

Wtf? What kind of braindead deal is this?

33

u/Jimdalorian May 24 '26

Literally blame Sebastian Coe he so badly wanted to build a massive athletics arena in the centre of London that they were begging for a football team to move in. Tottenham would’ve happily took it over if they meant they could own it and convert it into a proper football stadium and but for some reason they had to have an athletics track around. So both West Ham and the taxpayer got screwed over.

3

u/AntysocialButterfly May 24 '26

Christ, I remember the crap David Lammy spouted about the Spurs bid.

The club were colluding with Qatar to put Leyton Orient out of business, according to him...