West Ham owner casts doubt over Olympic Stadium move

West Ham co-chairman David Gold has admitted for the first time the club may not move into the Olympic Stadium.

The Hammers were awarded the stadium earlier this year only for the deal to collapse last month due to legal challenges by Tottenham and Leyton Orient, as well as an anonymous complaint to the European Commission.

A new tender process is being launched by the Olympic Park Legacy Company and the venue, complete with an athletics track, will now be rented out after the London 2012 Games with West Ham seemingly the most likely tenants.

But Gold today revealed that while the club remain desperate to leave their current Boleyn Ground at Upton Park, there is now a doubt surrounding their plans to move into the Stratford site.

"I have mixed feelings," Gold told talkSPORT. "The Olympic Stadium is very exciting, but we need a consultancy procedure with our fans, that is important.

"I am ruling out developing the Boleyn, that would be pouring money down the drain.

"But what we can't do is nothing. West Ham have been at the Boleyn for over 100 years. I believe we are the eighth largest supported club in the country, and yet we perform more like the 20th biggest, and that's because we are at the Boleyn.

"So we have to change that. The obvious change that everyone is looking at is the Olympic Stadium. But there is a doubt, there are issues unresolved."

PA