West Ham is able to veto any stadium naming rights deal with which it disagrees.GETTY IMAGES
The "controversial lease" allowing EPL side West Ham United to use its stadium "largely at taxpayers' expense even includes powers to give the club a veto on any naming rights deal to offset costs," according to Tom Morgan of the London TELEGRAPH. More than half a million pounds has been spent "in vain" trying to find a stadium sponsor as the London Legacy Development Corp. "desperately attempts to balance the books." Sponsorship talks have "repeatedly broken down in recent years," with the London Stadium set to lose £140M ($181M) over the next decade. LLDC CEO Lyn Garner explained that the landlord is "obliged to seek consent" from West Ham. She said, "The football club has rights to sign off on those naming rights ultimately." Relations between LLDC and West Ham, which pays an annual rent of "just" £2.5M ($3.2M), have been "close to breaking down" in recent months amid disputes over "look and feel" features at the stadium. Garner said that she "hoped the LLDC can work with West Ham to find a sponsor." She said, "I think there's a win-win in bringing that together because you can think about shirt sponsorship, general sponsorship, and so on, (but) the difficulty will be in the detail of that negotiation. We are dealing with an extremely well-run business. Football business is difficult and challenging, which is why it is important to have good commercial advice within the LLDC" (TELEGRAPH, 9/6).
