Tottenham can’t share our stadium, declares Hammers vice-chair Brady
WEST Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady has hinted any request from Tottenham to share the Olympic Stadium for a season would be met with an adamant “no”.
Spurs’s new stadium plans have been rocked by an ongoing planning dispute that will now see them relocate from north London for the 2017-18 season.
They had previously gone to war with West Ham over tenancy of the Olympic Stadium in Stratford and last year three men hired by Spurs pleaded guilty to unlawfully gaining phone records and bank statements from the Hammers.
West Ham hold a 99-year lease and when asked if another club could play at the 54,000-seater ground Brady replied: “In reality, they probably could. But only with our permission.
“And no one’s asked us permission. And if they did it would probably depend on who it is…if you get my drift.”
Brady was speaking at the launch of Club London, West Ham’s hospitality offering at the Olympic Stadium, which will see 3,700 VIP seats installed in their new home.
The 45-year-old believes the stadium switch would help the Hammers reach an ambitious target of becoming a top-six Premier League side that regularly competes in Europe.
However, even with an expected increase in revenue from a larger ground, Brady insists West Ham would not overstretch themselves in pursuit of that goal, indicating that the club’s wage bill is already at its Financial Fair Play (FFP) limit.
She added: “We are interested in paying down our debt, being financially stable and putting every penny we raise into having a team that’s worthy of playing in the Olympic Stadium.
“Of course, there are always issues in how much you have not only with which to buy players, but with FFP how much capital you can spend on wages, and we are at our maximum.
“So we are trying to do these things holistically with much more investment into the academy, much more investment into retaining players that we have, much more thought about the kind of players we want to bring into the club to represent the stadium.”
Fans interested in booking their place in Club London ahead of the stadium reopening in 2016 can organise a “bespoke appointment” at the Reservation Centre in Westfield City, Stratford.