West Ham's tenancy at the London Stadium is proving an increasingly costly arrangement for taxpayers, according to BBC News, with the club's relegation from the Premier League set to slash its rent obligations even further.
Under the terms of the deal, West Ham previously paid around £2.5m a season for the stadium, though additional costs meant the overall bill to the public purse has been running at roughly £19m annually. Now, with the Hammers dropping out of the top flight, their rent will fall to less than half of the £4.6m figure they had been paying in recent years.
The arrangement, long criticised as a poor use of public money, was originally designed to secure a Premier League tenant for the Olympic Stadium after the 2012 Games. But BBC News reports that the financial burden on taxpayers continues to grow rather than ease, raising fresh questions about the sustainability of the deal as West Ham prepare for life outside the Premier League.