By Andrew Warshaw
March 5 – After months of inconclusive meetings and several delays, English Premier League club West Ham could now be days away from finally securing agreement to move into the London 2012 Olympic stadium – and avoid it becoming a classic post-Games white elephant.
The club have twice been named as the preferred option for the stadium and have been locked in talks with the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) whose board is set to meet on March 26.
An extraordinary general meeting could be called if agreement over the £429m venue is reached before then. Negotiations with the LLDC have centred on West Ham, who would be tenants rather than owners, agreeing to share costs of converting the stadium, understood to be around £160m.
Retractable seating needs to be installed and West Ham co-owner David Gold said: “We will only go there if it is fit for use. I won’t go there if I have to look over a running track. But I believe we are in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I think we’re close.”
Whenever agreement is reached, West Ham would not move into the stadium until 2016. One complication is that, as part the successful Olympic bid, a legacy promise was made to keep athletics at the Stratford venue in the future.
Gold believes, however, that for that to happen, a football club is essential to help provide financial support. “Most Olympic stadiums have failed because they haven’t embraced the legacy and also saying the Olympics is over,” he said. “Athletics needs football to support it. There’s no other way.”
The saga over the future of the stadium has dragged on ever since West Ham were first named preferred bidders in 2010. Despite all the euphoria during the Games, the bidding process for the state-of-the-art stadium has been anything but smooth, given all the legacy pledges.
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