UNITED KINGDOM: GENERAL SPORTS - A deal to award London's 2012 Olympic stadium to West Ham United after the Games falls through

Record ID: 332597

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: GENERAL SPORTS - A deal to award London's 2012 Olympic stadium to West Ham United after the Games falls through
  • Date: 12th October 2011
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (FEBRUARY 11, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF WEST HAM'S BOLEYN GROUND STADIUM (4 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 27th October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom, United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA2E43Z776LZAG0OVRTQSQB3HPN
  • Story Text: deal to award London's 2012 Olympic stadium to West Ham United after the Games fell through on Tuesday (October 11) but the English soccer club could still end up renting the facility.
    The Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) has brought negotiations to an end amid a protracted dispute with Premier League soccer side Tottenham Hotspur and the stadium will now remain in public ownership.
    "The key point is the action we have taken today is about removing the uncertainty. The process had become bogged down in legal paralysis," the BBC quoted UK Sports Minister Hugh Robertson as saying.
    A new winning bidder would rent instead of buy the venue in a plan backed by London mayor Boris Johnson and UK Athletics, which believes it will safeguard the stadium's athletics track which is central to a bid for the 2017 world championships.
    "I am confident that this decision is the best way to ensure we have certainty over the stadium's future," Johnson said in a statement. I believe it will also put us in the place where we always intended to be -- delivering a lasting sustainable legacy for the stadium backed up by a robust but flexible business plan that provides a very good return to the taxpayer."
    Championship side (second tier) West Ham, who had been scheduled to move to the stadium in 2014, were quick to express their desire to still become tenants at the venue which has cost around 500 million pounds ($784 million) to build.
    If West Ham were to win the bid again, any rental agreement is likely to save the club money compared to the original plan, which is likely to be welcomed by the outfit who were relegated from the Premier League last season.
    A joint statement by the club's vice chairman Karren Brady and Kim Bromley-Derry, chief executive of the London Borough of Newham, welcomed the OPLC and government's decision saying it would allow a soccer and athletics stadium to be in place by 2014.
    "Uncertainty caused by the anonymous complaint to the European Commission and ongoing legal challenges have put the Olympic legacy at risk," the statement said.
    "West Ham will look to become a tenant of the stadium while Newham will aim to help deliver the legacy."
    West Ham were selected to inherit the stadium, the centrepiece of the July 27-Aug. 12 Games, in February before Tottenham Hotspur sought a judicial review saying a 40 million pounds loan from Newham Council gave West Ham an unfair economic advantage and made the decision unlawful.
    Tottenham had been given a three-week ultimatum to accept a 17 million pounds ($26.6 million) package to stay in north London and drop the legal battle over the future of the stadium, which is in east London and nearer to West Ham's current Upton Park Home.
    Spurs executive director Donna Cullen said her club, which has alternative plans for a new ground close to their White Hart Lane stadium, would not comment until they had seen a formal announcement. Keeping the stadium in public ownership is likely to safeguard the athletics track, which was one of the key legacy promises London gave when bidding for the 2012 Games.
    The track, which was laid earlier this month, is also vital to the British capital's bid to host the 2017 athletics world championships and the legal row with Spurs had threatened its existence given Tottenham are not in favour of keeping it.
    UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner said the government and OPLC had taken a "bold, decisive move". "I'm absolutely delighted," he told Sky Sports News.
    "It guarantees we are going to get this athletics stadium open, up and running, in the summer of 2014 and capable of hosting a world championships which is what we've been after all along."
    Athletics world governing body the IAAF visited London last week to assess the 2017 bid in the wake of the Spurs row.
    Another London soccer club, Leyton Orient, had also been part of a legal challenge. The third-tier side, also based near the stadium in east London, feared they could lose fans and said Tuesday's decision vindicated their actions.
    "Today is a fabulous day for Leyton Orient fans, it puts the whole thing back in the public domain," Orient chairman Barry Hearn said.
    "Now they have to go back to the beginning and start again and we will be an interested party in that bidding process," he added without specifying in what capacity, admitting his club would be "lost" in a 60,000-seater stadium.
    Spurs plans included upgrading the Crystal Palace athletics stadium in South London and remove the running track from Stratford.
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