Today I am proud that our great club has been awarded Highest-Ranked Bidder status to become anchor concessionaire at the Olympic Stadium, offering us an historic opportunity to return to West Ham and make this magnificent iconic Stadium our home for the next 100 years.
First and foremost I would like to wholeheartedly thank you, our loyal and passionate supporters, for your patience.
I thank those of you who have given your time to share your views and opinions. I assure you, despite the considerable constraints and confidentially agreements we were required to enter into, that your feedback has been instrumental in informing the Board's approach to our bid.
It is important for all supporters to note that while today's decision represents a huge step forward, as we have stated throughout, Highest-Ranked Bidder status does not mean that West Ham United have at this stage agreed to the move and it remains the case that we will only do so if the final proposal is right for the Club and our supporters. This includes the necessity of agreeing a Stadium design specification that is acceptable to us in terms of its ability to host world-class football matches.
Therefore we believe that this is the time for supporters to have their voices heard and a more intensive consultation process will commence immediately.
We have been given assurances that our full vision for a world- class Stadium in terms of supporter experience, sightlines and facilities will be realised and we cannot wait for you to be able to see this for yourselves. This Stadium will have sightlines better than Wembley. Our vision includes a state of the art solution to bring supporters closer to the action and a roof that can harness our world famous atmosphere.
We, like you, have been frustrated by the constraints upon us in terms of our ability to share our plans and can assure you that we will now share full details as soon as we are able to.
As part of this we stand by our commitment to conduct full supporter consultation regarding the move, including the polling of supporters. You can be confident that wherever there is an opportunity for West Ham to input in the decisions going forward, our supporters will be at the forefront.
We have already taken the first step towards this by calling an emergency meeting of our Supporter Advisory Board on Tuesday 11th December at 6pm to advise on the best methods to consult the wider support base going forward.
We truly believe that this move, together with the realisation of the many other key goals that we as a Board have set out to achieve from the outset, will play a huge part in helping us to realise our ambitious vision to move the Club to the next level.
Our absolute priority is to take you on this fantastic journey with us, to consult with you and ensure you are a part of it every step of the way. We are also hoping to make the club more accessible to those of you that have previously been unable to attend matches regularly due to barriers such as affordability and accessibility.
We have high ambitions for West Ham United and will seek your full input to ensure this iconic world-class Stadium becomes a true home for our club, our proud heritage and you, our deserving and loyal fans.
Karren Brady
Vice-Chairman