Guardian news and Media/London
The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has insisted he is “perfectly happy” to see the details of West Ham’s Olympic Stadium contract published but claimed that the club was seeking to take legal action to block it.
Johnson, who oversees the London Legacy Development Corporation as mayor but is no longer chairman of the board, said he had “nothing to hide” over the deal after the information commissioner ruled that the details of West Ham’s rental agreement should be made public.
“I’m perfectly happy to publish the details of this arrangement,” said Johnson. “I understand the football club concerned is not so keen because they think it will give other clubs an insight into their finances. I think they may be trying to take legal action on that point.”
Johnson clashed over the issue with the Assembly Member Andrew Dismore, who said: “You wanted to cover up the fact West Ham had put one over on you and taken you to the cleaners.”
The Guardian revealed last week that the information commission had sided with those seeking greater transparency following an appeal by the Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust.
The LLDC has 35 days from September 3 to publish the ruling if it decides against appealing. A coalition of 14 football supporters’ trusts have called on Johnson and the LLDC to waive their right to appeal in the name of transparency.
“As far as I’m concerned, get it out there; we have nothing to hide,” said Johnson, despite the fact the LLDC has spent more than a year trying to block freedom of information requests. “We have a very good rental income coming in from West Ham. We will be spending no more public money on this thing. I’m very happy to get the information out there.”
West Ham are paying just £15mn towards the £272mn conversion costs required to make the stadium suitable for Premier League football, including the world’s biggest cantilevered roof. The total cost of the stadium has soared to £701mn.
The club will pay a rental fee believed to be around £2.5mn a year but never confirmed but campaigners want to see more transparency over its contribution to matchday costs and the split on catering, hospitality, naming rights and other income.
West Ham and the LLDC argue that the deal is a good one for the taxpayer because it gives the stadium a sustainable future that will not require further bailouts in future.
Johnson said that the LLDC was left with no choice but to undertake the expensive conversion scheme in an attempt to clean up the “mess” left by the previous Labour government.
In 2007 the then Olympic board decided to mothball the decision on the stadium’s future and proceed with a scalable design that could be reduced to 25,000 after the Games. Johnson said that the conversion had been a “fantastic success” and that the stadium, due to host five Rugby World Cup matches, was “doing brilliantly”.
But after the session Dismore, a Labour Assembly Member, said: “As usual he is trying to ride two horses at once. On the one hand he says he wants to transparency, on the other he is not going to do anything about it.
