I have no gripe with West Ham. They are a club similar in size and ambition to my own, with similar support base and expectations, (although recent history tells us that they are a tad more entitled to these expectations than we at Sunderland are!).
But the sight of them basically being given a publicly funded football ground worth about £600m+, (perhaps a lot more actually) is mind boggling. This is so obviously wrong it beggars belief
Assuming West Ham stay in the Premier League for the next, say ten years, which is not ridiculous given all the circumstances, it is safe to count on their annual turn over being on average £80m+ and rising over that period. And they are to pay it seems all of £2m a year of that whacking sum each year in rent! They will also have to pay what seems like 10% (£15m) of the conversion costs of the Olympic Stadium.
At the same time Everton are in financial limbo as they seek to find huge sums for a new stadium. Liverpool are committing to spending £150m + on improving Anfield. Arsenal had to find £200m+ to build the Emirates. Clubs up and down the country have had to take on the cost of building or improving their stadia. For some it has resulted in chaos as they could not, in the end, afford the scope of their ambitions.
For West Ham there appears to be no such risk in upgrading. This amounts to a public subsidy of a football club, who will enjoy into the future a huge competitive advantage on the back of the tax payer.
I, like many I know, have never had a gripe with West Ham. We all have one now.
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