Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has stated that "a lot of progress" has been made in the negotiations to secure West Ham the Olympic Stadium in Stratford. The Hammers had been hoping that a deal could be confirmed yesterday, but were left disappointed as it emerged that the approval process involving the LLDC would take longer than originally imagined, with the issue of converting the stadium and Newham Council's part in paying for the conversion a particular hold-up. But BoJo told the Daily Mail that talks held yesterday between the club and the LLDC were positive, and the Mail claimed that its sources had informed them that a deal could be signed within weeks rather than months, which would be good news for the organisers of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, who hope to stage some of the tournament's games at the stadium. Although the Mayor says that is a separate issue, our chairmen need to be careful here.
The government are delighted that we want to move into the ground because they are desperate to avoid a "white elephant" situation with the stadium after last summer's Olympic Games, but they will always be very keen to have the Rugby World Cup here, in order to maximise the stadium's revenue and increase the extent of their pet word "legacy" in regard to the ground. As such, they will likely be keen to get a deal signed with us as soon as possible; and what we need to be careful of is being pushed into a deal which isn't totally right for us, just because the government want to get the stadium signed off to the club so they can get a deal with the Rugby Wold Cup organisers as well. We want the deal that is the right one for West Ham United, and David Gold and David Sullivan should be wary of that.
By Alex Shilling
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