Page 5 - Deal Round Up October 2018

The Three Horseshoes

A great, friendly, traditional pub in Great Mongeham where you will
find a warm welcome from
Landlords Rachel and Johnny.
01304 379216
POOL TABLE - DART BOARDS
and all football matches
shown on HD screens
Christmas Bookings Now Being Taken
BOOKINGS - Now Being Taken For; GARDEN PARTIES - WEDDINGS
BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS FOR ALL AGES - CHRISTENINGS -
ANNIVERSARIES - (A Small Deposit Secures)
The Above Includes; Free Use Of Garden Facilities.
(Bring Your Own Food Or We Can Supply)
Children Have Free Use Of;
BOUNCY CASTLE - SLIDES - SWINGS - TRAMPOLINE
BOOK EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT - PLEASE PHONE TO BOOK
Sunday Roasts Comming Soon

who would prevent the stadium from turning into a defunct patch of overgrowth and
stinging nettles. Could they do it? Absolutely not.
As of a year ago, £783m of taxpayers’ money had been spent on the stadium with an
annual bill of £20m invoiced for security and cleaning and a host of other services.
So bad was the deal struck by the ground owners’ London Legacy Development
Corporation (LLDC) with West Ham, they appealed against a granted Freedom of
Information Act request to have the tenancy contract made public. This after it was
known that West Ham would pay £2.5m-a-year in rent over a 99-year lease.
Promotions followed for Hunt and Johnson, West Ham’s co-owners sold Upton Park
after 110 years on Green Street, while the Daggers sold top goalscorer Oli Hawkins
to Portsmouth for an undisclosed fee after relegation to the National League. Joined
by fellow East Londoners Leyton Orient in dropping to the fifth tier, some fan groups
have labelled the tenancy agreement as ‘state aid’. The sum of £2.5m a small drop in
the Premier League club’s well of riches. I brought this up with the man on the train
who said he and a lot of other supporters had failed to analyse what their board was
selling them with the move.
I asked him whether it must be painful watching football in a stadium built for
athletic purposes when Upton Park offered such a good atmosphere. So why
not swap his season ticket in 2019 for one at the Daggers? “They need to start
winning games if they want to get more than 1,500 through the gate,” he said.
“Go where you feel at home, you’re not a 400m hurdler are you?” I joked.
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