Mayor Sadiq Khan has poured cold water on talk of selling the London Stadium to West Ham United, insisting he considers the venue one of the city’s “crown jewels”.
The former Olympic Stadium has become a financial millstone for the London Legacy Development Corporation as its long-term contracts with both West Ham and UK Athletics make a loss.
That has prompted suggestions that the Premier League club could take the 62,500-capacity arena off the hands of the LLDC, but Khan insists he is not interested in offloading it unless there is an offer that is “too good to say no to”.
“We’ve got to make sure that we recognise that this is a London asset. It’s owned by the taxpayers,” he told City A.M.
“We have a good relationship with West Ham. In the past that wasn’t the case. We’ve had a great Diamond League athletics event and a great Major League Baseball event there. Some great gigs as well.
“I think people need to realise that if you sell off this asset, it’s gone for good. It’s one of our crown jewels. So I’m keen to work with West Ham and other partners to make sure we can make it more successful going forward.
“This is one of the legacies of the bad deal done by Boris Johnson – we’re making do with the bad deal he left us, but it’s one of our city’s great assets. When I speak to colleagues across the globe, we can talk about an asset that we own.
“If a deal was too good to say no to then we’d have to have a conversation, but I hold it in trust for Londoners, just like the other legacies from the 2012 Games – the Copper Box, the Aquatics Centre and other great things in London.”
Under the terms of their 99-year lease, West Ham currently pay just £3.6m a year to stage their home matches at the London Stadium.
Khan says the London Stadium is one of the city’s “crown jewels” and not for sale to West Ham
That deal has proved so good for the club that the LLDC sued law firm Allen and Overy for its role in drafting the contract. Allen and Overy settled in October 2022 for £2m.
On that basis there is little incentive for West Ham to buy the stadium but one of the benefits would be allowing them to make changes such as moving seats closer to the pitch – a long-time bugbear of Hammers fans.