West Ham to pay £2.5m annual rent at Olympic Stadium

Matt Stead

West Ham will pay £2.5million a season to play 25 games at the Olympic Stadium, it was revealed on Thursday.

The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) published its full deal with West Ham.

An information tribunal on Monday rejected LLDC’s appeal against a London Assembly ruling that the contract between it and the Premier League club should be made public.

LLDC, which is responsible for transforming venues used for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, declined to take up the option to appeal.

And the details of the funding for the Olympic Stadium, built for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, were published.

The contract showed the Hammers would make a greater contribution than £2.5m if they were to play more than 25 games per season, while the first £4m of any naming rights for the stadium would go to LLDC, with any figure above that split 50-50 between LLDC and West Ham.

An LLDC spokesman said: “We are disappointed by the tribunal’s decision.

“Our motivation in bringing this case has been to protect millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.

“The stadium needs to be a profitable and successful commercial operation otherwise it will rely on public subsidy.

“We were concerned that the publication of this contract and the precedent it may set for future agreements could make it harder to do this.

“However, we have decided not to seek leave to appeal, and have today made the contract available on our website.”

West Ham were awarded a 99-year tenancy of the 60,000-seat Olympic Stadium ahead of Tottenham and will leave their Upton Park home this summer.

The Hammers are due to move into the arena in time for the start of the 2016-17 Premier League season.

The venue is also to host the 2017 IAAF and IPC Athletics World Championships and there is a 50-year agreement for British Athletics to use the venue each July.