Fears grow about lack of London Stadium naming rights deal

Times

5 days ago

A naming rights deal for the London Stadium looks as elusive as ever after venue chiefs admitted there was 'a significant risk' that no sponsor will be found before 2028.
The owners of the stadium, which is occupied by West Ham United for most of the year, have been unable to secure a deal to reduce the venue's losses despite previously claiming one was imminent.
The risk of a continuing failure is spelt out in the draft annual report of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), which owned the stadium until March, when it transferred to be directly under the Greater London Authority.
The report also reveals that Lyn Garner, the LLDC's chief executive until March, received a £228,000 payoff for stepping down from the position on top of her £304,000 salary, only to be appointed as the chairwoman of the London Stadium's new board.
'Lyn's full-time role as chief executive of LLDC became redundant after a restructure and she received compensation in line with policy and procedures,' a GLA spokesman said. 'Her role at the London Stadium is part-time and is a non-executive role. Her appointment was made in line with policy and she brings a wealth of skills and experience to leading the London Stadium board.'
Five other LLDC executives also received payoffs of between £91,000 and £151,000.
In early 2023, Garner told the London Assembly she was 'very confident' that it would finally agree a naming rights deal for the loss-making stadium that year but it never happened. West Ham have to agree to any deal and the club shares any income worth more than £4million a year.
Meanwhile, West Ham are still in a dispute with the London Stadium owners over who should pick up the costs of staging matches involving their Women's Super League (WSL) team.
The club's 2013 concession agreement to use the stadium — labelled as the 'deal of the century' by one London Assembly member — makes the venue's owners responsible for paying costs such as stewarding, security and electricity, which are thought to be about £100,000 for a Premier League match.
West Ham are understood to have offered to pay some of the costs for staging a WSL match there — and make a financial loss in doing so — but that offer has not been accepted by the London Stadium.
'We cannot ask London's taxpayers to subsidise the cost of West Ham putting on these matches,' a London Stadium spokesman said.
Plans in place for Lionesses parade
The FA has pencilled in a victory celebration in central London for Tuesday should England overcome Spain in the Women's Euro 2025 final on Sunday.
The plan is understood to include a parade in the capital with a gathering in or near The Mall for the players to display the trophy, but the FA is keeping its cards close to its chest so as not to distract from preparations for the final in Basel, Switzerland.
Top teams to cash in with new TV deal
The Premier League's new television deal, which starts next month, will mean 70 more matches a season are shown live — which is likely to mean even more money for the top teams.
Clubs are paid a 'facility fee' for every live match they take part in and last season each match was worth £890,000. Liverpool, the champions, earned £24.9million and Ipswich Town, who finished 19th, the minimum figure of £8.9million.
Next season, every Premier League match will be live on TV apart from those played at 3pm on Saturday, so that will guarantee a facility fee for all clubs whose games are moved due to them playing midweek fixtures in Europe.
The plus side for the smaller clubs is that they should also get more money, but just not as much as the bigger ones.
Triathlon trouble
World Triathlon's reputation has been dealt a serious blow after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Uruguay's executive board member, Líber García, breached its anti-corruption policy in the lead up to last year's presidential election.
It found that García had implied to Australia's Michelle Cooper, a rival candidate to the eventual winner Antonio Fernández Arimany, that she would lose her place on the board if she did not withdraw from the contest.
Britain's candidate for the election, Ian Howard, whose campaign was backed by £12,000 of public funding from UK Sport, told World Triathlon's congress in October: 'We stand at a crossroads, you can choose more of the same and see the reputation of our federation increasingly damaged: unholy alliances, dodgy deals, dirty tricks.'
'Emperor' Infantino
Football's international players' union, Fifpro, has accused Fifa and its president, Gianni Infantino, of 'autocratic' leadership.
'Football needs responsible leadership, not emperors,' Fifpro said in a statement after a meeting of 58 national player unions, in response to Fifa announcing an agreement with unrecognised player representatives.
Infantino hosted that summit in New York but Fifpro and the English PFA — who have ongoing legal action against Fifa in the European courts — were not invited.