Costs to Convert London Olympic Stadium Still Rising

(ATR) There have been many concerns about the rising costs of London’s West Ham United Stadium and Mayor Sadiq Khan plans to investigate.

The bill to convert the former Olympic stadium into the football team's new home, originally determined to be $335 million, is now calculated at $397.5 million. The final combined cost of building the stadium for the Olympics and the conversion is now around $925 million.

The successor to Mayor Boris Johnson - Sadiq Khan – believes the finances of the London stadium had been left in a "total and utter mess by the previous administration" and has ordered an independent inquiry, reports The Guardian.

The increase in the stadium's conversion cost has been attributed to the removal of 21,000 retractable seats and the largest cantilevered roof of its kind.

The football team was awarded a 99-year lease and contributed $18.5 million to the revamp of the stadium, with the rest of the cost being the responsibility of the government.

"For too long the details of this shabby deal were kept in secret and lacked proper scrutiny so Sadiq Khan is absolutely right to look again at the case," chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance John O’Connell stated.

"But instead of focusing our anger on West Ham for taking advantage of this ludicrously generous taxpayer funded subsidy, we should instead be demanding explanations from those that signed off on this agreement and ask how they ever thought that this offered value to those of us footing the bill."

Written by Courtney Colquitt

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