EPL side West Ham Vice-Chair Karren Brady cut "to the heart of the matter" regarding Olympic Stadium, according to Martin Samuel of the London DAILY MAIL. Looking around an arena "now readying itself" for the Rugby World Cup, she said, "You see, anyone could have bought this. Leyton Orient, the Qataris, anyone. But nobody saw it, nobody saw the potential here. So roll back that movie without West Ham. Taxpayers' money would have poured into a big hole, been concreted over and never seen again. Now the stadium is nearly finished, everyone recognizes what is here and says it's a steal. But it wasn't a steal when we were doing the negotiations, because where was the queue of rival buyers? Without West Ham this would have been pulled down. It was going to be 25,000 with no roof. ... This is going to be an asset, a national asset. We shouldn't have to keep justifying ourselves." But "they do." Each week a "fresh guardian of taxpayers' money pontificates over West Ham's deal for the Olympic Stadium." From failed bidders to vested interests, "all get a say." Brady stands accused of "doing too well for her employers." And "everyone ignores that bottom line." Without West Ham, what? A "miserably small, rain-sodden concrete bowl, with scant relation in size or emotional charge to the site of London's Olympics." It would be "as if the Games never happened." West Ham got the Olympic Stadium twice. Once "to buy outright, later as anchor tenants." It was the London Legacy Development Corp. that decided "not to go with the first option in which West Ham would have picked up the lion's share of costs." Brady: "Our choice was to buy and convert. We would have paid for the floodlights, the roof, the seats, the toilets, the turnstiles -- everything would have been down to us. We could easily have funded £200 million ($315.2M), particularly with the new television deal and we would have kept all the revenue, giving us a calendar year of income. We won the vote 11-0 and then they changed their minds. They wanted tenants instead. ... There were no sweetheart deals. It was me, on my own, against Allen & Overy, the government and all their advisers. They had more lawyers, more government consultants and officials than I have ever seen in my life and there was one seat on the other side, for me. ... I feel a huge sense of personal responsibility that I am part of the delivery program here. We've made a promise to fill this place and bring the Park to life and we will do exactly that. ... I don't think we're fleecing British taxpayers because we're taxpayers, too. We will ensure this stadium is full, that jobs are created and regeneration takes place. And I can say that because I'm the one doing it" (DAILY MAIL, 8/24).
