From the season after next, West Ham will have a new home. An iconic new home and one that is deeply ingrained in the hearts of British sport - some might say just like the West Ham team that supplied so many members of England’s 1966 World Cup triumph.

It’s an iconic stadium for an iconic club, and one that might just catapult them up to where the big boys are. West Ham’s new stadium could be the catalyst for ‘sugar daddy’ investment, the kind enjoyed by Manchester City on the back of their stadium move. The fact that they had an iconic stadium and a strong and loyal fan base crying out for success was one of the main driving factors in the Abu Dhabi United Group’s decision to buy City from Thaksin Shinawatra in 2008. West Ham find themselves in a similar position and who knows what sort of inroads they can make on the back of their move.

But that’s the optimistic, positive part to this story. There’s a distasteful, negative part too. And one that’s been a gripe of anyone following the process. That’s the transparency of the process - essentially how much money is being spent and who’s spending it.

The total bill for the stadium since it was conceived as an idea has topped £700m - Wembley stadium cost around £800m. That’s a huge amount of money on a stadium that now seats just over half of the spectators that Wembley does, and Wembley wasn’t almost exclusively paid for by taxpayers - West Ham have paid just £15m towards the costs of converting the stadium into one fit for footballing use. Whoever that West Ham negotiator was, I want him the next time I buy a car!

From a West Ham point of view it’s the deal of the century, perhaps even the deal of history. For others it’s a steal and one that really grinds people’s gears. Whether West Ham will be forced to foot more of the bill out of sheer politeness and moral duty remains to be seen, but I can see no reason to direct anger towards West Ham.

The £702m figure that’s been touted is somewhat artificial. It’s the money used to build the stadium right from the start, which includes building it for the Olympic Games in 2012 too. We must remember that the initial construction of the stadium went over budget by something in the region of £150m. It should’ve cost £280m and instead cost £429m. The cost of transforming it after the games should’ve been £154m and is over budget already, soaring to £272.

Had the stadium been build on budget, we would have been looking at a figure of £434m, much less than it is now, and surely a very respectable figure for an iconic, state of the art stadium that’s delivered both a stunning Olympic Games and a new home for East London’s biggest football club. The Olympics has also transformed the Stratford and Docklands areas and brought new houses, jobs and a sense of pride to the area.

So it makes sense that we’re worried about the amount that West Ham will pay towards the costs, but the real worry should be why we seem to always go massively over budget when building stadiums in the capital. In fact, these aren’t just vanity stadiums, they’re completely necessary. The Old Wembley was just that - old. The FA needed a new place to host England games and cup finals, and they now have a stadium that can take pride of place in the list of world stadiums again. The Olympic stadium, as I said, wasn’t just for the Olympic Games but brought so much else to an area in dire need of investment. These aren’t just stadiums where we can skimp on the bill. We have to pay full price, these are important buildings.

So perhaps that means West Ham should pay a little bit more, but surely the more pertinent conclusion to draw is that governments and groups who help build these stadiums should keep to the budget. It’s not West Ham’s fault that this project has ballooned in cost, almost doubled. That’s the fault of the people building the stadium and converting it.

To pay £15m for such an incredible stadium is a steal at twice the price, and from a West Ham perspective, whatever happens they’ll have completed one of the best deals in their history.

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