West Ham United made profitable day-to-day in Premier League by idiots says finance expert
West Ham being the only profitable Premier League club day-to-day last season shows current spending in English football is not sustainable, according to Kieran Maguire.
The football finance expert from the University of Liverpool told Leeds United podcast Orta Know Better on 12 April that the only reason the Hammers were able to turn a profit was because of the hugely favourable deal to rent the London Stadium for just £3million per season.
While admitting that was a situation that saw taxpayers having their “trousers taken down” he doesn’t hold the Irons responsible, but rather the “idiots” on the other side of the deal who allowed it to happen.
Maguire said (27m 15s): “It’s not sustainable, I’ve got the numbers in front of me. On a day-to-day basis only West Ham in 2022/23. Even Brighton, had it not been for [Chelsea’s] Todd Boehly, would have lost £16m so that’s how reliant they were.
“And the only reason why West Ham made a profit is because all three of us and everybody listening to this show, we’re paying for their stadium, because they’re paying £3m-a-year rent on a stadium which cost £700m to convert into a football stadium from the Olympic Stadium.
“So it’s only because we are having our trousers taken down. West Ham themselves, I don’t have any issue with what the club did. You negotiate a contract, there’s two sides of it, if one side’s a bunch of clueless politicians and idiots then, well, so be it.”
West Ham reap major rewards from London Stadium
As unpopular as it might be for rival clubs, and the wider public, the Hammers clearly got an absolute steal with the “deal of the century” [Guardian].
Although taking West Ham from Upton Park remains an unpopular move among many fans it has, from a financial point of view, paid off.
And as profit and sustainability has now become a major fear for top flight sides in the wake of Everton and Nottingham Forest’s points deductions the importance of the club-friendly arrangement is all the more apparent.
However, since the current spending rules are now set to be replaced the landscape will soon change again in the summer, although Maguire’s recent prediction (11 April) has the Hammers well on the right side of the limit.
There remains plenty not to like about West Ham being tenants of the Stratford stadium, with issues such as the pricing of concessions and seating changes continuing in the years since the move.
But while Tottenham spend in the region of £70m every season for upkeep on their glittering new home [Price of Football, 1 April], it is impressive on one level that the Irons have managed to avoid such a huge amount of such a cost, and arguably makes any plans to buy the stadium unnecessary.
In other West Ham news, an update on a major collapsed Irons transfer deal is now in dispute.
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