Olympic stadium to remain in public ownership

11 Oct 11
The flagship venue for next summer’s London Olympic Games will remain publicly owned after plans for the stadium to be taken over by an east London football club were abandoned.
By Richard Johnstone | 11 October 2011

The flagship venue for next summer’s London Olympic Games will remain publicly owned after plans for the stadium to be taken over by an east London football club were abandoned.

Olympic stadium

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport confirmed today that the proposal for West Ham United football club and the London Borough of Newham to take over the stadium had been dropped as it had become ‘bogged down’ in legal disputes.

Instead, the £486m stadium will remain owned by the government and will now seek a tenant.

The consortium was to have taken over a 250 year lease of the venue, paying a fee that a spokeswoman for the Olympic Park Legacy Company said was still being negotiated.

A total of £95m was to be spent in converting the stadium from its 80,000 capacity at Games time to a 60,000-seater venue afterwards. This funding was to have been made up of £35m from the OPLC, £40m from Newham council and a projected £20m contribution from West Ham from the proceeds of selling its existing Upton Park ground.

Tottenham Hotspur football club, which lost the initial bid for the stadium in February, argued that the £40m provided by Newham was against European state aid rules.

A judge had been due to rule on the objections next week but the DCMS plugged the plug in advance. The stadium will be retained as a public asset, with football clubs among the tenants being considered.

Sports minister Hugh Robertson said: ‘The government is committed to securing a legacy from the Olympic stadium, and wants to see it re-opening in 2014.

‘Ending the current sale process and looking for a leasehold solution will remove the current uncertainty and allows us to help secure the future use of the stadium with more confidence.’

Vice chair of West Ham United Karren Brady and Newham chief executive Kim Bromley-Derry said that the uncertainty had been caused by an anonymous complaint to the European Commission.
They added: ‘We welcome a move by OPLC and government to end that uncertainty and allow a football and athletic stadium to be in place by 2014 under a new process.

‘Our bid is the only one that will secure the sporting and community legacy promise of the Olympic Stadium – an amazing year-round home for football, athletics and community events of which the nation could be proud.’Spacer

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