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West Ham have become involved in another legal dispute over their London Stadium home, The Times has reported. The club, already involved in one case with stadium landlords the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) over increasing the capacity of the venue, are now in dispute over issues including beer provision. West Ham have asked for draught beer to be provided in bars throughout the former Olympic Stadium but the LLDC says they should pay for the installation of pumps. Another part of the dispute involves the showing of Sky Sports inside the stadium. West Ham pay the business licence fee and want all televisions to show Sky, but the LLDC has said the club should pay extra for that. It also says West Ham should foot the bill for hosts and hostesses in the hospitality lounges from which they generate income. With the stadium facing a loss of up to £140 million in the next decade, the LLDC wants to minimise costs to the taxpayer but West Ham say they are being denied services due under their £2.5m-a-year rental deal. "We are seeking no more than we are entitled to under our contract and for which we pay rent," the club said in a statement to The Times. "In simple terms the issue in dispute is this: if you entered into a contract to rent the whole of a house and afterwards the landlord said that you could not use one of the upstairs bedrooms without paying extra, you would not pay up. "The way this has been misdescribed in some press reports infers that we are asking for something we are not entitled to. This is not the case." The dispute will be resolved by an independent figure through an "expert determination" process. Angry protests marred West Ham's recent Premier League defeat to Burnley at the stadium, with pitch invasions by some supporters and hundreds demonstrating against the board beneath the directors' box.
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