April 26 – The first game to mark West Ham’s controversial move to London’s Olympic stadium that was the centre of world sporting attention in 2012 will be a friendly against newly crowned Italian champions Juventus.
The fixture takes place on August 7, a week before the start of next season.
West Ham move into the 60,000-seater stadium after 112 years at their current ground in east London and joint-chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold told the club’s website: “We are delighted to be marking such a monumental day in West Ham United’s history by welcoming one of the world’s biggest clubs to our fantastic new home.
“There has been an enormous amount of work done over the past few years to ready the stadium for our first game and we cannot wait to show our fans and the wider football world how incredible it will look. This will be a game you’ll want to tell your grandkids you were at.”
West Ham hope the move will significantly increase revenue and catapult them into the elite of English football but there are significant reservations about the deal that has been struck, with the club paying just £2.5 million a year in rent during their 99-year lease and nothing towards running costs, including policing, stewarding and pitch maintenance, all of which will be footed by taxpayers.
Most clubs have to build new stadiums at great expense to move home and the chief executive of Britain’s Tax Payers’ Alliance, a pressure group that campaigns for lower taxes and against wasteful government spending, says West Ham have been handed “the deal of the century.”
Jonathan Isaby added: “You can’t blame the club for taking advantage of the ludicrously-generous taxpayer subsidy they’ve been handed on a plate; instead, we should be directing our anger and awkward questions at those responsible for offering a deal for which most clubs would have sold their star striker.”
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