October 29: West Ham United’s London Stadium is targeting boxing crowds of up to 85,000 as its operators look to make greater commercial use of the former Olympic venue and reduce their persistent operating losses.
Under proposals put forward to Newham Council, boxing would be reclassified alongside events such as Soccer Aid as an ‘other leisure event’, allowing major fights to take place above the 60,000 cap currently applied to sporting events.
Qualifying events could then host up to 85,000 spectators, putting the stadium in a stronger position to compete with Wembley Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur for the biggest fights on the British boxing calendar. The plans have not yet been approved.
The change is part of a wider planning application first submitted in August rather than a new proposal prompted by West Ham United’s relegation, although that certainly didn’t help.
It is important to note that West Ham does not own the stadium. Under the club’s long-term stadium agreement, its annual usage fee falls when it is outside the Premier League. The City Council say the club had been paying around £4.6m a year, and the relegation reduced that figure by around £2.5m.
Championship football also brings more home games, increasing the number of games the venue has to play. The London Assembly has previously estimated that relegation could increase the cost to the taxpayer from around £2m to £2.5m a year compared to West Ham remaining in the Premier League.
To help with the financial losses of being out of the Premier League for the first time in 13 years, the ground wants to increase the number of concerts and other leisure events allowed from 10 to 24 each year, with up to eight to reach 85,000 spectators. Other sporting events will go from a cap of 60,000 to 62,500.
There would be no physical alterations to the stadium and no change to West Ham’s current capacity of 62,500, meaning no additional money needs to be spent to grow the stadium.
London Stadium chairman Lyn Garner has put the venue’s annual losses at around £19m.
Consequently, major non-football events have become an important part of attempts to improve stadium economics. Take That and Metallica played there this summer, along with Soccer Aid and major athletics, while the operator’s own assessment estimates its expanded events program could generate a further £15m a year for Newham’s economy through an extra 800,000 visits.
Boxing offers another potentially lucrative market. Wembley has previously had no trouble attracting crowds above 90,000 for major heavyweight competitions, while the London Stadium’s location and transport links give it the infrastructure to pursue similar events if planning restrictions are relaxed.
The bigger question for the stadium operator to answer is whether filling the calendar on days when the Hammers aren’t there can finally take some weight off the public balance sheet.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at (email protected)