I saw a documentary on the BBC about Wet Sham United's 2016 move to the London Olympic Stadium. As a sports fan I was intrigued, and by the end of the half hour, as a sports fan my jaw was on the floor... Let's kick off with some numbers about money. The cost of alterations to the stadium to make a home for Wet Sham are now at an eye watering £272 million. Of that, West Ham are paying just £15 million, and yearly rent of £2 million. Interestingly, as part of the deal, West Ham are getting many running costs paid for them, costs which include policing and stewarding, lighting, heating, ticketing and even the goalposts! Those running costs are estimated at around the £2 million a year mark, meaning that they get to use the stadium effectively rent free once they've paid the £15 million. As those figures digest, I'll move on to the story behind the deal, and why we know so little about the money numbers in the future... The word 'legacy' was bandied around a lot during the London 2012 Olympics, with the yid Seb Coe being at the front of the queue to shout about it. He insisted that the shiny new stadium would be at the head of this legacy because it would always have a running track. Now, someone should have told the yid that the number of days where it would make sense to have a stadium that size for athletics could be counted on one hand, not including the thumb, but it seems no-one did. It also seems that little thought was actually given to what would happen to the stadium after the games. Tottenham Hotspur put in a proposal, which would basically have involved knocking it down and building a new one, but with virtually no cost to the taxpayer. That proposal was thrown out because it had no mention of a running track in the new stadium. That left Wet Sham in prime position to call the shots, because they knew it was basically them or no-one, and as long as they included a running track, they'd be a shoe in. When the Wet Sham club was bought in 2010 for around £100 million, the new porn pimp owners David Gold and David Sullivan made a surprise announcement at their press conference that they intended to move into the Olympic Stadium. That raised a few eyebrows, even more so when after the deal was done, the club's value rose to an estimated £300-400 million. Although they said they had no intention to sell, all sorts of investors will be sniffing around a Premier League club in the iconic stadium, and a profit of a couple of hundred million might change the minds of the current owners. So, if the club does get sold, how much of that profit will be paid back to the taxpayer to go towards the £272 million conversion costs? It's a reasonable question, but the answer is that no-one knows! Despite a freedom of information request to release information about the deal, the London Legacy Corporation have blacked out those kinds of details, citing 'confidentiality.' Hang on - confidentiality? Confidential to who? This is a public asset, being transferred at huge public cost to a commercial business, but the public aren't entitled to know how much of the money they'll get back, if any? That's not right. When the Commonwealth Games were held in Manchester in 2002, another shiny new stadium was built, but on that occasion the legacy had already been worked out. It was agreed in advance that it would be converted for use by Manchester City, and this meant the original design bore that fact in mind. As a result, the conversion only cost around £42 million, with the tax payer footing half the bill and Manchester City the other half. Why did London seemingly ignore that model? Why did there seem to be no idea about what would *actually* happen after the Olympics? The stubborn insistence on a running track, plus refusal to release details of future payback of taxpayer money, leave huge questions to be answered. The BBC asked Boris Johnson, Seb Coe and West Ham for interviews, but all declined. Never mind eh, what's £272 million of taxpayer money between friends? I'm sure we haven't heard the last of this story, and I'm equally as sure my jaw will be on the floor a few more time before it's done!
Great post TC. Funnily enough me and another wall guard were talking about this in the mess room last night - gobsmacked too say the least!
Obviously the pimps of West Ham have got their girls doing special favours to all the right people, but come on that £272m could had provided luxury yachts to pick up all the migrants fleeing persecution and housing them in nice new luxury apartments with a fat wedge of money to cushion the suffering they have endured.
Here is the reply sent back from the petitions team; Hi *******, The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “Hold public inquiry into West Ham & LLDC deal for rental of Olympic Stadium”. Government responded: West Ham United has a concession at the Stadium and their contributions reflect that status. The contract, awarded after an open public competition, has been widely scrutinised and tested in court. Following the completion of its transformation programme the Stadium will be - unlike so many previous Olympic Stadiums - a world-class multi-use arena with a long-term future, and one that won’t require continuous support from the taxpayer. The stadium remains in public ownership (E20 Stadium LLP – a joint venture between the London Legacy Development Corporation and Newham Council) and the profits from its multiple uses will flow to the taxpayer. As a long-term concessionaire West Ham United will only access the full stadium facilities for and shortly ahead of home matches, anticipated to be an average of 25 games a year. The stadium’s other anchor concession-holder, British Athletics, has a concession for one month a year. The stadium will be available for commercial and other uses at all times outside of these existing commitments. The Stadium is a multi-use venue, which has already hosted a major athletics meet this year, the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games, and will host a range of other events in 2015 including five matches during the Rugby World Cup this autumn, a Rugby League international between England and New Zealand and the Race of Champions motorsport event. In addition the Stadium will host elite athletics including the IAAF and IPC Athletics World Championships in 2017. A world class stadium operator has been appointed and it is part of the operator agreement that the Stadium will host concerts and other events. None of these events will financially benefit West Ham United. All revenues from these events will be shared by the operator and the Stadium owners. The stadium operator has a proven international track record of success in managing and maximising revenue from multi-use stadia and is contractually incentivised to generate maximum income. The agreement with West Ham United, including their contribution to transformation costs and rent, followed an open competitive process, which was delivered under EU rules, conducted visibly and exposed to significant scrutiny. The outcome has been tested in the courts and upheld. As the winning bid this constituted the best available return for the taxpayer and secures the commercial viability of a national asset for the next 100 years. The European Commission (EC) is responsible for assessing whether public investment distorts the competitive market. The EC has considered this issue on more than one occasion and has done so with full sight of the contractual terms, comprehensive detail of the tender exercise and in depth legal opinion on compliance with UK and EU law. It has found no case to answer. Therefore we do not believe that a public inquiry is necessary. The detail of the rental agreement between the Stadium owners and West Ham United is commercially sensitive. Disclosing details of the contract would undermine the future negotiating position of the Stadium's operator, Vinci, who are working hard to bring in future events to get the greatest possible return and ensure that the Stadium is a commercial success. It is important that the stadium owners and operator are able to negotiate future contracts in a way that derive maximum value and are not constrained by any one agreement. Such arrangements are standard practice and are designed to both protect the previous public expenditure and maximise the return on this investment. Department for Culture, Media and Sport The Petitions Committee will take a look at this petition and its response. They can press the government for action and gather evidence. If this petition reaches 100,000 signatures, the Committee will consider it for a debate. The Committee is made up of 11 MPs, from political parties in government and in opposition. It is entirely independent of the Government. Find out more about the Committee: https://petition.parliament.uk/help#petitions-committee Thanks, The Petitions team
The thing is Steve thousands have drowned in their quest for a better life but now someone was silly enough to cram onto a dinghy with his kids resulting in one drowning it has become a gamechanger with the image all over the media. On another note a mate of mine is holidaying in Bodrum and after a day on the beach he partly deflated his dinghy and left it on his balcony, woke up the next morning and some git had nicked it, not long later this story broke and he now wonders if he is too blame in anyway?.
Is he bollocks to blame. We should have nuked the murdering IS ****s which they're all fleeing from. The dead boy is manner from heaven propaganda for the do gooders. The issue should be tackled at source for the ****s making fortunes that are cramming these people into the boats.
You could say the same for you ****s cramming people onto southwest train. You are just a people trafficker with a flag and whistle.
And here is my problem; Quote; The Committee is made up of 11 MPs, from political parties in government and in opposition. It is entirely independent of the Government. How can a committee be independent based on that make-up? That's a bit like saying Blair is an independent from the media when his best buddy is Murdoch! While down at the Brook's....I know nothing and return to my job. While the whole lot of them would be better suited in a Terminator movie, aptly named Skynet. The Establishment rules the game and the same people that support it. The only way you stop madness in football is by refusing to subscribe to this obscenity that creates it including every corporate connection. Will that ever happen? Quite simply NO WAY! The modern factions are the supporting pillar of such foundations. We can moan about migrants in a separate debate but we (Europe) created it. The puppets of recent decades, where we are supposedly hard up but can afford the outlay for things such as Sky TV, while the Ted Baker clones think nothing of spending hundreds of pounds for colourful handbags and ridiculous shoes, while at the same time sneering down at 'not in our country.' We are a small piece of land yes, but how can anything in this country ever be taken seriously when West Ham and the Government make muppets of all. Thatcher started the social cleansing in football, Europe started the social cleansing throughout its land, in a manner Hitler would have been proud. The German influence still exists today as it did in 1945. Nothing has changed, we are all now one state, until it don't suit us, so people need to make up there mind but that will only happen after Cameron has brain washed the new generations into believing Europe is great, or leave it until successive governments have, in that is all that people know, because the coffin dodging revolutionaries such as me will fade away to dust, and leave the big brother politicians to a free reign. We can go round on this like a ****ing wind-mill but its always the same breeze and nothing will change, while we allow money to dominate OUR game. I just piss myself laughing at it all, hence my humour. Now i've got that off my chest where am i allowed to go for a smoke.
Fecking hell Roy.... This is the wall forum they won't understand a word. But most of all you have forgotten yours, here you are borrow mine.
Indeed she did Roy. Look at the state of these ****ers - now cleansed by the female hand of iron please log in to view this image
