West Ham Olympic plan must overcome hurdles

After announcing a £50million takeover yesterday, David Gold and David Sullivan mapped out their vision for the Hammers with a ground switch to Stratford and a dream of Champions League football causing the biggest stir.

While the pair have a seven-year plan for West Ham to mix it with Europe's elite on the pitch, the ground issue is more pressing with just two years until the Games. And it is clear today that while the Hammers seem to provide the tailor-made solution to finding a long-term use for the £537m stadium, the reality of swapping the 35,000-capacity Upton Park for a gleaming new home just a few miles down the road is far more complicated.

Little more than two years ago talks between former Hammers owner Eggert Magnusson and the Olympic Delivery Authority broke down at a relatively early stage.

The club baulked at an estimated £100m bill to convert the venue from the temporary 80,000-seat capacity to around 50,000 after the Games.

They also objected to the ODA stipulations that the freehold for the taxpayer-funded venue remained with Government and the mayor.

City Hall and Government insisted that the running track - unpopular with English clubs - remained around the pitch to honour a pledge made by Lord Coe during the bid to the International Olympic Committee.

Olympics chiefs stress the intimacy of the Games venue and say the uppermost seats are closer to the pitch than Wembley but football bosses still believe that a running track between fans and the action kills the atmosphere.

As a further obstacle, the owners of the £1.4billion Westfield shopping centre soon to open next to the stadium have been quietly lobbying against a football club whose rowdy fans may deter weekend shoppers.

Before West Ham bowed out, Tottenham quickly opted to develop their own site rather than move to the Olympic stadium, deterred by the cost and the risk of moving away from their fan base. Other Olympic stadium refuseniks are known to include Leyton Orient and rugby clubs Wasps and Saracens. However since Magnusson's failed bid, the political will to find an anchor tenant to prevent the stadium from becoming another Olympic white elephant has intensified. London mayor Boris Johnson wants the venue to host World Cup matches in the event of a successful bid for the 2018 finals.

Sullivan said yesterday that the club would rent the ground rather than buy it but costs remains the main stumbling block to the Hammers' hopes.

Olympics minister Tessa Jowell may be able to find enough within the stadium's existing budget, which covers post-2012 conversion, to subsidise the cost to West Ham of moving home.

However, it has never been publicly revealed how much has been set aside to convert the ground and this figure could be the key if the Hammers are to realise their ambition.