One million pounds down the pan

  • by Staff Writer
  • Wednesday, 25th January 2012

The cost of West Ham's aborted bid for the Olympic Stadium is estimated to be an astonishing £1million, according to reports.

An article in today's Evening Standard claims that United's efforts to secure rights to the Stratford-based complex after this summer's Olympic Games have cost the club's owners in excess of seven figures.

West Ham were granted preferred bidder status for the stadium back in February 2011, afer the OPLC - the Olympic Park Legacy Company - unanimously voted in favour of handing use of the £500million ground to United.

However the decision was reversed last October due to ongoing legal action, mostly at the behest of Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient whose claims of wrongdoing are yet to be substantiated.

A number of sources are suggesting that West Ham will now pull out of the second round of bidding havng failed to receive reassurances with regards to a number of issues including naming rights, sponsorship and the use of the stadium by non-football activities.

Co-chairman David Gold, who stated as recently as November that, "I am ruling out developing the Boleyn [as] that would be pouring money down the drain" has recently made noises suggesting that he would be willing to consider redeveloping the ground's East Stand in order to raise capacity to 40,000.

The East Stand - which contains the former Chicken Run - is the only stand at the Boleyn Ground that is more than 17 years old (having been opened in 1969).

The Bobby Moore Stand - that replaced the former South Bank - was opened in 1993, followed in 1995 by the Centenary Stand (former North Bank) and then the new West (aka Dr Martens aka Alpari) Stand in 2001.

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