West Ham United vice-chairman Karren Brady has made a pledge to angry fans over the London Stadium.
The Hammers have had to request to play the first four games of the season away from their new home due to the World Athletic Championships taking place there.
The IAAF competition and the much-criticised relocatable seating at the ground – which will cost an eye-watering £8 million each time it is done – will have to be reconfigured again for football mode, a process which takes around 15 days.
When the club left their beloved Boleyn Ground home of 112 years supporters were worried about the fact West Ham did not own their new stadium and were only anchor tenants.
But those fans were reassured West Ham fixtures would always take precedence over other events and sporting fixtures.
So when Karren Brady appeared as a guest on Sky Sports show The Debate Live, it was inevitably the resounding topic when fans were invited to send in their questions on Twitter.
And Brady made an unequivocal pledge to the West Ham faithful after being quizzed on why athletics was taking priority and leaving Slaven Bilic with four away games to start the new campaign.
“When we signed the contract in 2013 we were aware that the IAAF (World Championships) was going to happen this summer,” Brady told The Debate Live.
“I have to say what a fantastic event it was and I’m sure London and the whole country were very proud to be part of it and that’s part of the (Olympic) legacy.
“It’s a once in a lifetime situation and it’s the only time that our games won’t take precedence.
“We’ve reversed the middle fixture (vs Southampton) so we end up with three Premier League games away from home and obviously the (EFL) cup game we’ve reversed as well (vs Cheltenham) which obviously Sky is going to show on TV.
“I think it would be an excuse to say that that’s going to affect the team, I mean Slaven’s said ‘we have to play everyone anyway, which order we play them in doesn’t matter’ by the end of September we’ll have had four away game and three home games and if you think about March we’ve got three home games in a row.
“But we do understand the supporters are not happy about it but it was already in the diary for the stadium and we asked the Premier League’s permission before we signed the contract to be able to have the fixtures reversed in 2013 but it is a one-off.”
When asked if she felt comfortable that fans have not been ‘hoodwinked and it was an anomaly’, Brady responded “Yes” and cited the example of Liverpool last season while firmly reiterating her point.
“This is a one-off, it’s a once in a generation, once in a lifetime, it’s part of the legacy of the stadium, I think it was a very good event, the manager says it’s not going to affect his preparations and it’s not going to effect the team, the away form was pretty good last season, so I think it’s one of those things but it won’t happen again,” Brady added.
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