Football Forum | Ticket Forum | Off-Topic Forum | All

The Mutts Nutz 8:35 Tue Sep 15
Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

From The Grauniad

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/15/west-ham-details-olympic-stadium-deal

Campaigners for transparency over West Ham’s move to the Olympic Stadium have scored a major victory after the Information Commissioner ruled the terms of the deal should be made public, the Guardian can reveal.

Both the London Legacy Development Corporation and West Ham had long argued that the deal for the largely-taxpayer-funded stadium should remain buried beneath a sea of black ink for reasons of commercial confidentiality. The decision could be embarrassing for the London mayor, Boris Johnson, who was desperate to conclude a deal with a football club to give the stadium a sustainable future, and West Ham, battling to convince the public the terms do not amount to a taxpayers’ subsidy for a rich football club.

It may also reopen the argument over whether the LLDC broke European state-aid rules, after the Guardian revealed earlier this year that it had failed to apply to the European Commission for an exemption.

Following a convoluted Freedom of Information process started last September by the Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust, the Information Commissioner has ruled that the commercial terms under which the east London club will become the stadium’s anchor tenants next summer must be published.

It is already known that West Ham will pay only £15m of the £272m needed to make the 54,000-capacity stadium suitable for Premier League football, athletics and other events. The annual rental agreement on the 99-year lease is believed to be around £2.5m, although the true figure has never been confirmed.

A host of other details around the proportion of the naming rights, catering, merchandising and hospitality revenues taken by West Ham have remained secret, meanwhile.

The LLDC will also be obliged to reveal which costs it is meeting, on matchdays and elsewhere, and which are being met by West Ham. The exact terms of the lease, including a negotiated discount if West Ham are relegated, will also have to be revealed for the first time. During a long game of legal ping pong with those who sought more transparency, the LLDC would reveal only that West Ham retained all the money from ticket sales and that the annual usage fee covers matchday costs.

Unless it is successful with an appeal the LLDC will be forced to reveal the terms of the deal in its entirety, giving rise to a new wave of scrutiny over whether the taxpayer is getting value for money.

West Ham had argued in its submission that it was “deeply concerned that the disclosure of the commercially confidential and sensitive information will inevitably have an adverse impact on the stadium partnership”.

It was also concerned that full transparency around the terms had “the very real potential to damage the perception of WHUFC in relation to the stadium”. It said it could affect its ability to sell tickets and prejudice its negotiating position with customers and suppliers.

The LLDC argued that it would impact its search for a naming-rights partner and prejudice future negotiations between the stadium operator, Vinci, and other potential users of the stadium. It also revealed that West Ham had threatened to sue for breach of confidence if confidentiality clauses were broken.

But the Commissioner ruled that neither the LLDC nor West Ham had been able to demonstrate how the information could be exploited by competitors or how it would place them at a commercial disadvantage.

A coalition of 14 club supporters’ trusts, formed to campaign on the issue, will now call on Johnson not to appeal the decision and to publish the contract immediately.

“The Information Commissioner’s decision could not have been clearer, and it is equally clear to us that publication must follow. This campaign is publicly backed by 25,000 individuals, football supporters’ trusts from around the country, and the public interest in the issue is there for all to see,” said a spokesman. “We call on the mayor not to use the appeal system to delay publication of this document further. If he does it will open him up to the suspicion that he has something to hide.”

The largest chunk of funding for the transformation comes from a one-off settlement of £148.8m from the exchequer in 2010.

Newham council has provided £40m, West Ham £15m, almost £40m comes from the original £9.3bn budget for the Olympics, and a further £25m from the government.

The cost of the conversion soared from the original estimate of £160m when the decision was taken to award West Ham a 99-year lease after an earlier process had collapsed amid acrimony and legal challenge.

West Ham and the LLDC have argued that without the upfront costs to convert and kit out the stadium to make it suitable for football, it would be an ongoing drain on the public purse.

The LLDC board was formerly chaired by Johnson, who quietly resigned from the post shortly before the general election, and is now headed by his long time Olympics adviser, Neale Coleman.

“We are disappointed by the Information Commissioner’s decision which we believe will damage our ability to secure the best deal for the taxpayer in future. The stadium will have many users and publishing the contractual details will undermine our ability to deliver the best financial outcome from numerous future negotiations. We always strive to balance transparency while protecting the taxpayers’ financial interest and we are considering the ruling carefully as we decide what action to take.”

It is believed that the LLDC will come to a decision in the next 10 days over whether to appeal. If it decides against, it has 35 days from 3 September, the date the Information Commission sent the letter, to make the information public.

charleyfarley 8:39 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

Do these people ever give up?

JayeMPee 8:43 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

Somebody should suggest the Information Commissioner does something of value like ordering the publication of the Chilcott Report

Takashi Miike 8:44 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

THEY WOULDN'T LET IT LIE

WHOicidal Maniac 8:46 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

I agree, they should be made public. Public money was used. Give them everything they want and then there will be nothing left to get snidey over......

whu 8:49 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

fuck these boring lefty tree-hugging cunts

old news

move on

Alex G 8:52 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

What will doing so actually achieve?

Headtheball 8:57 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

They will find a way to criticise the contract as state aid and demand a public inquiry to make the agreement null & void. The aim is to stop us going there.

Arko 9:02 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

Their aim is for West Ham to pay more money upfront, more rent, give away the majority of the proceeds from the Boleyn sale and also share corporate income.

They simply do not want West Ham to benefit from the move in any financial sense.

On The Ball 9:13 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

..... none of which will happen.

Side of Ham 9:22 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

As long as the statement before they make the deal public reads....

"West Ham United would not have not such a great deal had LORD Coe not INSISTED on an Athletics legacy at the expense
of the tax payer or that Spurs then scuppered a better deal for the tax payer had the original one gone through."

Staffs-Hammer 9:24 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

Headtheball 8:57 Tue Sep 15

peroni 9:32 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

This is great news.

Details made public.

Public are clearly shown we got a preferential deal.

Powers that be state there's fuck all that can be done.

We finish 4TH, but then win the Champion's League.

Northern Sold 9:39 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

Just show the fucking world... if the club has got nothing to hide let it go public... put it out there as this is going to go on forever otherwise... all the silence and ignoring it is just making it look as shady as you like

13 Brentford Rd 10:00 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

Ha ha you couldn't make this shit up. Nothing is ever straight forward with us is it. What next?

Not too worried as we have done nothing wrong and I pressume that after the first FIASCO and the subsequent wrangling and scrutiny that this deal is watertight and there are no skeletons in the cupboard.

However this is West Ham so I expect us to be homeless next season whilst Spurs are playing at Upton Park and Chelsea in the OS..........

whu 10:01 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

as stated, the running track comes to our defence as it's all conjecture as to what is and isn't a good deal. it's a far better deal for the public than the dome was early doors

Haz 10:03 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

The trouble is that it was done in secret and everybody knew that, including btw, Hearn, Levi et al. They had their chance and don't like the results so I say FUCK THE LOT OF THEM!

If we open it back up, you just know that the fucking idiot that is Levi will start crying that "he would have paid more, if only he had known. . . etc etc"

CUNTS

They must be fuckin shitting their pants seeing us on the up and them crying into their bagels. .

1985 10:06 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

oh these little whingers. why don't they just shut the fuck up.

we're moving, it's happening. don't like to see a club like West Ham progress. tough titties amigos, it's happening...

Spandex Sidney 10:49 Tue Sep 15
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

Who cares? There's no bad come back on us, the LLDC will cop all of that and it will just wind up all the tin pot clubs that hate our amazing deal even more.

Fuck them.

riosleftsock 10:13 Wed Sep 16
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

Firstly, it wasn't "done in secret".

Tender processes for multi-million pound deals are commercially very sensitive, hence the requirement for non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality agreements being attached to pretty much all of them.

Interesting that a FOI request was made regarding Spurs' tender bid and the commissioner rejected the request using the same clause that he has accepted the request for information on west ham's deal with LLDC.

I think West Ham's approach is quite laudable, but the LLDC may have fucked up by not citing clause 41 in their defence. West Ham (I believe did) and assert that the proper place to rule on revealing confidential, commercial information that is contractually bound would be a court and not a government commissioner/agent. I make them right.

Johnson 10:17 Wed Sep 16
Re: Details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium deal must be made public

Interesting. Maybe it's us that doesn't want the deal getting out.

I wonder why that might be.

Page 1 - Next