West Ham Up Their Game Capacity
West Ham United are aiming to increase the capacity of the Olympic Stadium to 60,000 in response to increased season tickets sales, according to vice-chairman Karren Brady.
The east London club intend to move across London from Upton Park at the end of this season but Brady said the initial 54,000 seats may not be sufficient to meet demand.
After a series of sell-outs at Boleyn Ground, Karren Brady believes West Ham can draw much larger crowds following the move.
The Hammers are sitting 7th in the Premier League table, lead by manager Slavan Bilic and are keen to obtain a place in the European places to open their new era at the Olympic Stadium in style.
Speaking to BT Sport, Brady said: “It’s 54,000 [at the moment], we are looking to take it up to 60,000 because demand for season ticket’s has been so high that we’ve now got several times as many people that want season tickets than we can actually fulfil demand, so, we are looking at increasing the capacity.”
The Hammers depart the Boleyn Ground and move to Stratford at the end of this campaign.
This controversial shift to the Olympic Stadium has created rows among supporter groups of rival London sides, as the Hammers allegedly are paying only £15m of the £272m conversion costs to transform the stadium in the new season. Their 99 year lease with the London Legacy Development Corporation for 25 days at the ground is approximately £2.5m per year.
It’s quids in for the London side though, in February 2015, West Ham United announced a new record shirt sponsorship deal with the online bookmaker Betway, after their previous sponsor, Swiss company, Alpari’s business went under. This is one of the biggest deals in the club’s history.
It is understood that under the agreement Betway will pay West Ham £20m over the next three and a half years. It dwarfs the deal with Alpari, which was worth £3m per year, and comes as the club prepare for their move to the Olympic Stadium. This combination of this fantastic new partnership and new 60,000 capacity ground could mark the beginning of a spectacular new era for West Ham.
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