Karren Brady Hits Out at London Stadium Ownership With Venue Set to Lose £140m in 10 Years

According to the West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady, the London Stadium should be making money as opposed to incurring huge losses.

She denied figures stated by stadium owners, the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), who claim it costs taxpayers up to £250,000 for each West Ham match.

Instead, Brady said there should be a surplus of money as the stadium pulls in millions of pounds every game day.

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Speaking to a London Assembly hearing, Brady spoke of a poor relationship between her club and the LLDC, citing "sporadic communications" as the reason.

BBC Sport reports that Brady said she felt that "nobody" in the group responsible for running the stadium had any expertise in that field, and found it "hugely frustrating" that offers of help have been rejected.

She explained: "We would like more control over our matchdays, no one knows how to do that more than us. When we first wanted to move in, we offered to buy the stadium, and we would have been responsible for all costs and that was rejected.

"London Stadium craves direction, it should be a jewel in the crown. It needs financial control, it needs investment, it has nowhere near reached its potential and that's incredibly frustrating.

"Unfortunately our help has not been sought."

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She went on to deny that the issues related to low rent, saying:  "I refuse to accept any criticism that our rent is too low, because that is simply not the case. Costs are too high."

But Brady admitted that the rent they had settled on with LLDC was based on an estimate of previous matchday costs at Upton Park of £51,000 - but the former ground has about 22,000 fewer seats than London Stadium.

The venue is still set to lose £140m over the next 10 years with West Ham paying an index-linked annual rent which has now reached £3m-a-year.

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During the discussion at the London Assembly, much of the conversation centred around previous confusion about stadium losses on matchdays.

Brady said she had been presented with varying costs to the taxpayer of "£250,000 per match, £83,000 per match and now £43,000 per match," and said she was unsure if they were being confused with the actual cost of staging matches. 

Regardless, she concluded "I don't think the numbers are right."