Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has been discussing West Ham United’s revenue from catering at the London Stadium.
The Hammers left Upton Park and moved to the London Stadium in 2016, however, it has been stated that the move has been ‘problematic’ (per BBC).
For their use of the stadium, the Irons pay an annual fee of £2.5m, which the ground’s owner, London Legacy Development Corporation, has stated: “does not even cover [the] cost of staging matches” (per BBC).
In the latest episode of The Price of Football podcast, though, Maguire discussed how much money the club makes from the catering at the stadium.
He said: “As far as the London Stadium [is] concerned, we’ve got third parties here. We’ve got the landlord – E20 LLP – we’ve then got the people in charge of catering, who are a company called London Stadium 185; they’ve got a 25-year exclusive deal.
“And then they’ve got the people who effectively they’ve outsourced the catering to, who are called Delaware North. So, you’ve got lots of fingers in lots of pies.
“In terms of West Ham, overall, their catering income works out as around about £6m a year is the estimate, of which West Ham [United] Football Club get around about 30% of the profits after the first £500,000 worth of profit.
“So, you put that into a spreadsheet and you work out the costs of the food, the costs of cooking the food, the cost of staff and so on. I don’t think West Ham are going to be making a lot.
“I think the landlords claim that they made about £600,000 in profits – that’s E20 – last year, I’d be surprised if West Ham were making more than that.”
TIF Thoughts…
So, judging from what Maguire had to say, the Hammers will not be making all that much income from the catering at the London Stadium.
Was it a mistake for West Ham to move to the London Stadium?
Yes, we shouldn't have
No, it was a good idea
However, when the Irons are paying just £2.5m a year for a stadium which cost £323m to convert to a football ground (per BBC), then perhaps there is little room for them to have complaints about catering profits.