Hooliganism at London Stadium cost taxpayer extra £500,000 last year

Poor fan behaviour at the London Stadium cost the British taxpayer £500,000 last year, a meeting of a London Assembly committee has heard.

Lyn Garner, chief executive of London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) which runs the stadium, said that the extra cost of half a million pounds dealing with rowdy supporters was not covered in their deal with West Ham.

Garner said that LLDC is required to pay for policing and stewards as part of their deal to lease the stadium to the Premier League club, so had to foot the bill for the rowdy behaviour of its supporters.

The club pays around £4m a year to rent the stadium from LLDC, but the London Stadium is expected to cost around £16m this year to run – creating a significant shortfall.

West Ham’s qualification for the Europa League last season added to these costs, with LLDC required to pay the costs of running the stadium for the extra games with no guarantee of compensation.

The club did offer an extra payment of £185,000 to LLDC, however, the £12m they earned for their run to the semi-finals of the Europa League would cover the stadium overhead costs in most normal years.

Inflation and rising energy costs have also affected the costs of running London Stadium, the committee heard, with an extra £4.6m needed this year to be paid by LLDC.

Garner said that the LLDC hoped to raise £2m a year from selling the naming rights to the stadium, a figure which members of the London Assembly said they hoped would be much higher.

Riot police

An incident at a match between West Ham and Anderlecht this year highlights the unbalanced relationships between the club and LLDC.

Riot police were forced to intervene when fans of the Belgian club began ripping out seats and throwing them at fans in the West Ham section.

The east London club were forced to pay for the repairs to the seating, but the LLDC have to pay for increased levels of stewarding and police now in place to tackle potential issues such as this, according to Lyn Garner.