League One Football Club Leyton Orient Chair Barry Hearn Blasts West Ham Stadium Move

League One football club Leyton Orient Chair Barry Hearn has claimed EPL side West Ham's move to the Olympic Stadium has been so underwritten by public money that it is "state sponsorship beyond my wildest dreams," according to the PA. West Ham is due to become anchor tenants at the stadium in '16 but Hearn claims that is "not a done deal" because of his ongoing judicial review and legal action against the Premier League. Hearn, giving evidence to the House of Lords committee on Olympic and Paralympic legacy on Wednesday, said, "We have ended up in situation where we have gifted £500 million ($766M) of tax-payers' money to a Premier League club that has a turnover of more than £100 million ($153M). It's a wonderful gift, but if I was an Arsenal fan, I would wonder why we bothered paying to build a new stadium" (PA, 7/25).