The "toxic start" to EPL side West Ham's anchor tenancy of the London Stadium "was compounded on Thursday night after it emerged that negotiations with a multinational conglomerate for the naming rights to their new home had collapsed," according to Ben Rumsby of the London TELEGRAPH. One of the country’s "leading sponsorship experts also warned that the hooliganism which marred the club’s EFL Cup win over Chelsea" would make it "even harder to sell those rights," stopping the taxpayer from "clawing back millions of pounds of public money" spent on converting the London 2012 centerpiece into a Premier League ground. Indian technology company and carmaker the Mahindra Group had been in "advanced talks with the venue’s owners," before West Ham moved in, over a deal, more than £4M ($4.9M) a year of which "would have gone back to the E20 Stadium Partnership." Mahindra had a period of exclusivity which expired in August "and although there was optimism" in the weeks afterward that an agreement could still be struck, that reportedly "is no longer the case after it failed to meet the asking price." Sports and entertainment marketing agency Synergy CEO Tim Crow said that there was "no chance of a naming-rights partner being secured any time soon following the latest calamity at the stadium." Crow: "I’m sure that anybody who was looking at it -- and I doubt if there are many brands looking at it at all -- would have been fairly dismayed by what they saw." Crow claimed that "it would be a hard sell." He said, "If you look at the stadiums that have staged Olympics in the last 50 years, lasting -- or, indeed, any -- naming-rights sponsorship is like a unicorn" (TELEGRAPH, 10/27). In London, Alex Miller reported the design of the £700M ($851M) Olympic Stadium is "so flawed for football" use that it has created a "battleground" for fans, stadium experts said. One key figure, former Burnley CEO Paul Fletcher, who advised on the "original planning of the stadium," even suggested West Ham's new home should be "demolished" and "rebuilt for football." Despite spending £280M to reconfigure the arena for football use, the "London Stadium" will continue to "breed poor behavior" from home and visiting fans, it is claimed. A source close to the London Legacy Development Corporation "has broken ranks to express horror at the situation." That source said, "The stadium is so poor in football terms, it breeds poor behavior. The stadium is fundamentally problematic and like a battleground for fans both inside and outside." A spokesperson for the Sports Ground Safety Authority confirmed that "the issues of segregation and stadium design would be discussed at the next Safety Advisory Group meeting." Stadium expert Fletcher "was asked to advise on the stadium design during the original planning phase." He believes the problems "are so great it needs demolishing." Fletcher: "I said back then that oil and water don't mix -- an athletics track in a football stadium doesn't work as the sight-lines are all wrong" (DAILY MAIL, 10/30).
