Sir Geoff Hurst backs West Ham's bid to lease Olympic Stadium
Last updated on .From the section Football

Sir Geoff Hurst believes former club West Ham must move to London's Olympic Stadium to fulfil their ambitions of becoming a "top" Premier League side.
The Hammers are one of four bidders under consideration to lease the £486m stadium after the Paralympics.
"In the long term [moving] is far more beneficial," Hurst, 70, told BBC Sportsweek. "The future of the club, I think, should be in the Olympic Park."
"I feel strongly that is where we have got to go," added the World Cup winner.
West Ham won the backing of Olympic executives ahead of Premier League rivals Tottenham to lease the stadium, before the deal was scrapped last year amid legal wrangling.
The Hammers, who have played at current home Upton Park since 1904, submitted another proposal in March after the bidding process was restarted.
League One side Leyton Orient and the UCFB College of Football Business have also tabled bids, while a plan to turn part of the stadium into a Formula 1 track is another under consideration by the London Legacy Development Corporation.
Hurst, the only man to score a World Cup final hat-trick after his heroics for England against West Germany in 1966, says he is "1,000%" in favour of West Ham moving to Stratford.
The Olympic Stadium, which currently has an 80,000 capacity, will be reduced to 60,000 post-Games, while Upton Park only holds 35,000 fans.
"Nobody has a greater feeling about West Ham United at Upton Park than I have," said Hurst, who scored 248 goals in 499 matches spanning 13 years for the Hammers.
"We want to be in a big stadium with more access, we want to be a top Premier League club. With the support we've got, which is fantastic, we should be mid-table and above in the Premier League.
"We don't want to be yo-yoing up and down as we have been doing."
Comments
Join the conversation
For the very reasons that you have stated is exactly why it should not be given to a football team. The Olympic bid was about creating a legacy for future generations; we therefore should be promoting 'unpopular' sporting events.
Btw i am a club member at west ham and i can tell you for a fact that the vast majority of home games do NOT sell out. If we're playing wigan in the olympic stadium it's going to be half full at best.
It will be good for the away fans (and home fans for that matter) that didn't get Olympic tickets to experience the olympic stadium, and watch there team beat West Ham inside of it.
How many of you have been watching the Diamond League?
If you as tax payers want some money back for the stadium, football is the only economically viable option.
I would imagine the contract West Ham sign on the lease would be similar to the one City signed for the Commonwealth stadium?
I just think if you leave the stadium for legacy purposes, it will end up being a fancy building that is rarely used and becomes a symbol of the wasteful part of the Olympics.
We may have paid for the Olympics as a nation. Your point? You could have attended. You may have had to travel further but you did not have to suffer the packed trains and restricted road lanes either.
The fact is that without West Ham in there it will rot away and fall into ruin, costing the taxpayer a lot more.