Sources: Landlords deal another blow to West Ham after £4m offer
West Ham may have to wait even longer to start banking sponsorship cash for the London Stadium as the landlords are insistent on finding a naming rights partner for the whole of the Olympic Park, sources have told Football Insider.
The stadium has been without a primary sponsor since the Hammers moved in at the begining of the 2016-17 campaign, and the relationship with the patrons of the 560-acre site is notoriously tense.
Lyn Garner, chief executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation, recently revealed that she would be willing to let the Hammers negotiate a naming rights deal themselves if they pay her company an annual £4million fee.
But as reported but Football Insider earlier this month, there have been no talks between the club and the landlords regarding such an arrangement.
LLDC are entitled to 100 per cent of the first £4m-a-year of any naming rights deal, with any extra cash split 50-50 between the company and the club.
A source close to LLDC has now told Football Insider that any deal they strike will be part of an overall sponsorship strategy for the Olympic Park.
The site includes various sports and leisure centres, a business park, a music venue, live-in accommodation, and outdoor community spaces.
LLDC’s stance will likely make it more difficult to find an appropriate partner, delaying the time when the Irons can start capitalising on their 68,000-seater stadium’s commercial allure.
E20 Stadium LLP, the company which is run by LLDC representatives and has been responsible for managing the London Stadium post-Olympics, lost £24.8m in the last financial year alone.
That took total losses at the taxpayer-funded stadium where the Irons pay approximately £3.5m-a-year in rent to an eye-watering £286.3m.
West Ham and LLDC have shelled out a combined total of over £1m to agencies since the search for a sponsorship deal began.
In other news, pundit tells David Moyes to “go to Specsavers” as West Ham controversy analysed.