London Mayor Sadiq Khan is playing something of a political game with West Ham following his recent comments about the club’s continued residency at the London Stadium.
Diplomacy has never been Khan’s strong point, and his remarks about the Hammers’ frustrations with their home ground came across as a poorly disguised temper tantrum. To misquote Morecambe and Wise, the Mayor said “all the right words, but in the wrong order.” The message sounded very much like: “If you don’t like it, you can leave.”
Khan’s claim that he’s been hearing about new West Ham owners for nine years might well be true, but his insistence that he enjoys an “amazing relationship” with the club’s current ownership would have made Pinocchio blush.
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The Truth About the “Great Asset”
Khan described the London Stadium as “a fantastic asset to our great city” and praised its use for football, athletics, concerts, and baseball. But who is he kidding? The former Olympic venue reportedly loses between £20–30 million a year, and should West Ham be relegated, rental income will halve overnight.
The London Stadium-West Ham United
The London Stadium is not the world class venue many claim
Major League Baseball games at the venue make a huge loss, the O2 Arena is far superior for concerts, and UK Athletics barely use the stadium — with this summer’s national championships held in Birmingham. Next year, the UK will host the European Athletics Championships, another flagship event that should, in theory, have gone to Stratford. Instead, it’s being staged in Birmingham.
A quick walk around the site tells the real story. The warm-up athletics track beside the stadium is cracked, weed-ridden, and littered with discarded hurdles. Birmingham and Sheffield are used far more frequently because their facilities are better maintained and actually fit for purpose.
The truth is, the Olympic legacy needs West Ham far more than Sadiq Khan would ever admit. The best he can hope for is that new ownership eventually takes the stadium off his hands. Because with annual losses running into the tens of millions, it’s hard to imagine many Londoners are thrilled about bankrolling an asset they neither visit nor use