Hearn calls for "inept" London Mayor to be excluded from Olympic Stadium decision-making process

By Andrew Warshaw

October 18 – Barry Hearn, chairman of Leyton Orient, has written to the Government asking for London mayor Boris Johnson to be excluded from the next round of talks over the future of the Olympic Stadium.

Last week plans for West Ham United to occupy the stadium after London 2012 collapsed, resulting in Tottenham Hotspur and Orient withdrawing their bid for a judicial review into the process that gave West Ham priority.

With retention of an athletics track now a prerequisite for any future tenant and the venue likely to be rented rather than purchased outright, Tottenham appear to have dropped their challenge but Hearn is furious that Johnson still takes the view that West Ham are a “near certainty” to win a new tender process.

He says Orient will bid again to occupy the stadium when the retendering process begins but wants Johnson to be removed from the decision-making process.

Hearn believes Orient could go out of business if West Ham move into the 60,000-seat Stadium, with the top-flight club sweeping up local support, and claims Johnson has already prejudged the outcome.

“They seem to want to fast track it, they won’t be allowed to fast track it,” said Hearn, speaking 24 hours before the High Court judicial review would have taken place, only to be called off.

“Our Mayor of London says West Ham are a near certainty and by that statement he has rendered the entire procedure [invalid] in one line.

“The ineptitude of our Mayor of London in this is unbelievable, the fact that he can say something like that.

“Why should anyone now bid if the Mayor of London who makes the final decision says West Ham are a near certainty?

“What’s the point in spending tens of thousands of pounds on evaluations and reports when the Mayor has made his mind up?

“We have written to the Government saying that he should be removed from the process because he has overstepped the mark.”

West Ham would have received a £40 million ($62.5million/€45.8 million) loan from Newham Council towards the £95 million ($150 million/€109 million) to revamp the stadium.

Tottenham and Orient both felt this constituted state aid and was unfair.

As fears of a white elephant intensify – just what the Government and the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) have been at pains to avoid – Hearn says he will press ahead with trying to make Orient a tenant.

The club, in the third tier of English football, would propose going back to the original plan of reducing the Stadium to a 25,000 capacity and finding a way to cover over the track to make the ground more suitable for football.

“The question for us remains the same: how do we stay in business?” said Hearn.

“We will look at the stadium in a football and a non football basis and it is going to take some time to put our bid together, and we hope that the process is not as flawed as it was last time.

“We all have to work together with common sense, without prejudging it as Boris appears to have done.

“I would not want to play football in that stadium with the running track.

“If the track has to stay, which seems to be the mood, then you have to look at design features to rectify that by covering the track in some way.

“If that athletics track has to say then it does not suit football.

“It suits West Ham because of the financial situation they are in, I understand that, but we have to step back and take a bigger view on what’s good for sport.

“It may be that there may be other activities more financially advantageous for the government.

“As it stands successive governments have invested £600 million [$945 million/€688 million] in the Olympic Stadium and will waste £600 million the day after the Olympics.”

An OPLC spokesperson said: “This will be an open process and we will consider all bids on equal terms, as long as they meet our objectives and criteria, are workable and are backed up by a robust business plan.”

Meanwhile, a statement from the mayor’s office backtracked from his apparent preference for West Ham.

“The Mayor has made it clear as recently as last Wednesday in front of the London Assembly that he is keen to see the maximum number of responses to any commercial competitions that take place for stadium users including for football tenants,” the statement read.

“The Mayor has a completely open mind as to the outcome.”

The situation is further complicated by Football League sanctions against a club moving closer to another club if it affects the business of that other club.

The Olympic Park is 750 metres away from Orient’s Brisbane Road (pictured) ground and the Olympic Stadium a further mile away.

If West Ham moved closer to Orient, Hearn believes his small club’s fan base would disappear.

“West Ham can’t just assume that they will be in the Premier League by then,” Hearn told the Daily Mail.

“How, therefore, can the Olympic Park Legacy Company, whose job it is to decide who takes over the stadium, allow West Ham to remain in the bidding process?

“We want them thrown out because they don’t have permission from the relevant authority – the Football League.”

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