Karren Brady is standing on the touchline of what, next season, will be West Ham’s pitch when she cuts to the heart of the matter.

‘You see,’ she says, looking around an arena now readying itself for the Rugby World Cup, ‘anyone could have bought this. Leyton Orient, the Qataris, anyone. But nobody saw it, nobody saw the potential here. So roll back that movie without West Ham. Taxpayers’ money would have poured into a big hole, been concreted over and never seen again.

‘Now the stadium is nearly finished, everyone recognises what is here and says it’s a steal. But it wasn’t a steal when we were doing the negotiations, because where was the queue of rival buyers? Without West Ham this would have been pulled down. It was going to be 25,000 with no roof.

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Karren Brady speaks to Sportsmail's Martin Samuel about West Ham's move to the Olympic Stadium

Brady has spearheaded West Ham's move from Upton Park to the Olympic Stadium, scheduled for 2016

Brady believes that West Ham were the first organisation to realise the potential of moving into the stadium

West Ham will look to fill the Olympic Stadium with 54,000 supporters for each home league encounter

‘And what would have happened then? Who would have come to that stadium? That’s a legacy? Tottenham just wanted to flatten it and start again. So no Olympic Stadium at all. This is going to be an asset, a national asset. We shouldn’t have to keep justifying ourselves.’

But they do. Each week a fresh guardian of taxpayers’ money pontificates over West Ham’s deal for the Olympic Stadium. From failed bidders to vested interests, all get a say. Brady stands accused of doing too well for her employers. And everyone ignores that bottom line. Without West Ham, what? A miserably small, rain-sodden concrete bowl, with scant relation in size or emotional charge to the site of London’s Olympics. It would be as if the Games never happened.

It is a bright August afternoon: school holidays, yet the Olympic Park is dead. Nobody visits The Orbit monument. The European Hockey Championships are taking place at Eton Manor, to a shrug. Of the 16 sessions, just one is sold out. Deserted, forgotten, the Park needs its anchor tenant. No Olympic legacy is created without one.

The Aquatic Centre in Athens is weed-filled and dry. The iconic Birds Nest in Beijing has moonlighted as a Segway racetrack. Even Barcelona’s Montjuic hosts events sporadically. In one of the greatest tourist destinations in Europe, it often stands empty.

With a small capacity and no roof in a wet country, London’s Olympic Stadium would have quietly expired. So if Brady got the deal of the century, as is suggested — West Ham’s end of the conversion is £15million, the government pay £257m — where were the other entrepreneurs jostling to get in on the act? How come a mid-table Premier League football club had the only vision worth pursuing?

West Ham got the Olympic Stadium twice. Once to buy outright, later as anchor tenants. It was the London Legacy Development Corporation that decided not to go with the first option in which West Ham would have picked up the lion’s share of costs.

The Olympic Stadium is currently being prepared to host games for the upcoming Rugby World Cup

France, New Zealand, Ireland and South Africa will all take the pitch during the Rugby World Cup

Two construction workers look out over the iconic stadium, one wearing a West Ham-branded high-vis jacket

An ice bath has already been installed in the dressing room ahead of West Ham's arrival

Brady admits that some of the public are against what she calls the 'West Hamification' of the stadium

Claret and blue tiles line the home side's shower room in tribute to the club's famous home kit

‘That was the initial deal,’ says Brady. ‘The LLDC recognised they had made a mistake by not working out the legacy, saw all the other Olympic Stadiums that were left to rot and decided something permanent had to happen.

‘Our choice was to buy and convert. We would have paid for the floodlights, the roof, the seats, the toilets, the turnstiles — everything would have been down to us. We could easily have funded £200m, particularly with the new television deal and we would have kept all the revenue, giving us a calendar year of income.

‘We won the vote 11-0 and then they changed their minds. They wanted tenants instead. So they collapsed the old process and started a new one, which is where we are now. We came out unanimously as the best bid that time, too. So I don’t think the criticism is fair.

‘There were no sweetheart deals. It was me, on my own, against Allen & Overy, the government and all their advisers. They had more lawyers, more government consultants and officials than I have ever seen in my life and there was one seat on the other side, for me. But I knew they needed a football club and, ultimately, nothing would happen in the Park without us.

West Ham's presence could stop the stadium becoming running into disrepair like the Athens aquatics centre

The iconic Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing has a second role hosting segway competitions

‘People think we got something for nothing in that room, but we didn’t. I can’t be the buyer and the seller. I can’t negotiate against myself, my employers and the West Ham fans. My job is to exceed their expectations so when they walk in they say, “You know what, she was right. We had to move here”. And then they don’t care that we don’t own it, or that it is ours for 23 days a year.

‘And when people are spilling out into the park, or going to the athletics or the hockey because we’re cross-promoting and they think of this as home and feel an attachment they didn’t previously, and when there are concerts and the flats are full and this is part of the national fabric, that’s the day I’m looking forward to.

‘Football is on the up right now so this gets called the deal of the century. But West Ham aren’t getting rich because of the stadium. West Ham were getting rich anyway. The television money comes to us whether we’re in the worst ground or the best, the brand value is building because of the success of the football club.

‘Sometimes I feel like we took over a house that nobody wanted, did it up and made a fortune. Is that lucky? Is that the deal of the century or did you have a bit of foresight and make it work?’

On the pitch, West Ham are eager to avoid relegation to the Championship ahead of their stadium move

West Ham have 17 home Premier League games remaining before they leave their home for the Olympic Park

Back-to-back home defeats have raised the dark thought that West Ham could arrive as a Championship club, still needing to fill 54,000 seats against Huddersfield. It is the worst-case scenario, but just three games in Brady is not panicking yet. Her point remains that the Olympic Stadium would still have needed its tenant, regardless of short-term status.

‘Simply, without West Ham, this place would have been demolished and the Park would be done,’ she continues. ‘If this is going to get the community usage, it needs a spark, a lot of events, and that’s why a football tenant is the most important because it is our supporters who will fill it and bring the income that pays for it to be maintained.

‘We’re here for 99 years, not one season – and if you took our financial commitment over that time, you could build two Olympic Stadiums for the money.

‘We are leaving a successful stadium that was ours for 365 days a year, giving up income streams, sharing catering revenue, sharing naming rights. Premier League football hits 4.4 billion people around the world. We bring that audience in. What would the naming rights be worth without West Ham?

‘We have to build a whole new club infrastructure, offices, a club shop, install new software, new facilities — all of that is going to cost around £7m on top of what we paid. And then people think we’re in it just to sell up. But every angle was covered. Obviously, West Ham’s worth will increase if we are successful here.

‘The LLDC were worried our owners would have an incentive to sell. But we had the club valued in 2013 when the deal was done and the government receives a massive slice of any profit made on our shares after that. Of course, with the new TV deal, West Ham’s value has risen anyway. But the government still gets its slice, even on stuff that has nothing to do with the new stadium.’

That is the fear, of course. A couple of wide boys on the make, David Sullivan and David Gold — West Ham’s co-owners, with their backgrounds in pornography and the Ann Summers chain — seizing this national treasure and as good as knocking it out from the back of a lorry.

Once West Ham have their 54,000-capacity ground, it is argued, they will sell their shares at a huge profit. Lovely jubbly.

David Gold, one of West Ham's co-owners, has played a key role in the club securing access to the venue

David Sullivan owns West Ham with Gold and will oversee the move from Upton Park to the Olympic Stadium

‘Look at it another way,’ Brady says. ‘You’ve got Goodwood, you’ve got Ascot, all these institutions that are leaving British ownership, and we don’t like it. So here are two businessmen, who pay all their tax in the UK and have given personal guarantees for every penny we owe. We can no longer borrow against our ground as an asset, so our owners have underwritten this move, personally.’

I say maybe there is distaste about Sullivan and Gold’s past. That people would have been happier if reputable folk from the spotless environs of the City had done the deal instead.

‘I don’t think owning a chain of underwear shops like David Gold makes you a porn baron,’ she counters. ‘And I think Fifty Shades of Grey is a bit racier than some of the stuff David Sullivan was involved in during his twenties. It shouldn’t taint you forever. David’s early business life shouldn’t define him.

CAPACITY INCREASE? West Ham have been so buoyed by the sale of season tickets at the new Olympic Stadium that the club are already discussing increasing capacity to 66,000. The expansion would make West Ham’s new ground the biggest of any club in London, eclipsing Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and Tottenham’s new facility next to White Hart Lane. Despite erratic form at the start of their final season at Upton Park, West Ham’s owners are greatly encouraged by the take-up of tickets at the Olympic venue. They will move in at the start of next season, 2016-17. And with the current capacity at 54,000, there is the potential to fill in space around the top of the arena with another 12,000 seats. Karren Brady, West Ham vice-chair, said this is something the club are already considering. ‘We always knew this was a possibility and it would certainly seem the interest is there,’ she said. ‘We have to look at the logistics of it because these would be the seats furthest from the pitch, so we have to make sure they are worth having. There is no point sticking someone in a corner with a poor view. But if the sight lines are still good, we could fit in 66,000. It’s a very exciting prospect.’ Advertisement

‘We don’t like losing Ascot but when two British taxpayers come along and show a bit of vision and ambition, we don’t like that, either.’

And there is vision in the way the Olympic Stadium has been remodelled. The way the floodlights have been inverted in the new roof structure, the largest cantilevered structure of its kind in Europe.

The Great Britain lounge will permanently celebrate Olympic and other sporting successes, with the World Cup winners’ medals of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters — all owned by West Ham — finally removed from vaults and placed on display.

People forget the elitist nature of the old stadium. There were 400 VIP seats, exclusively used by IOC members. Event tickets cost a fortune. A personal recollection? On August 10, 2012, my wife took one of our sons to the athletics. We paid £900 for the privilege of watching the biggest cheat of the Games, Asli Cakir Alptekin, win the women’s 1,500 metres. She has now returned her gold medal and is serving an eight-year ban, for a second doping offence.

So let’s not pretend that handing the stadium over to the tainted sport of athletics would be any less controversial in today’s climate. As for tickets, the main complaint appears to be that West Ham will make them too cheap.

‘I’ve heard we will be dumping free tickets everywhere to fill this place,’ Brady adds. ‘We won’t. If we do that, nobody will value a seat at West Ham. The Charlton Athletic Supporters Club are complaining, but Charlton can’t sell out. They have empty seats. So it’s not as if we are taking Charlton supporters. It’s that there are not enough of them in the first place. And that’s not our fault.

‘I think it’s quite insulting to Charlton fans to paint them as so fickle that they’ll buy a season ticket for a rival club, just because we’ve got a new ground. No Charlton fan is going to wake up on the first morning of next season and think, “Oh, I’m West Ham now”.’

It is CAST who have complained to the Information Commissioner about the redacted passages in West Ham’s contract, particularly specific figures detailing the split between the club and the LLDC.

‘They think it was all underhand, but there is a reason for the blanks,’ Brady insists. ‘This is a multi- purpose stadium. Other people will want to use it. If all they have to do is open West Ham’s contract and see the figures, that’s the end of the negotiation, isn’t it? The LLDC have no position.’

Brady, pictured with Gold and Sullivan in 2011, says the move will allow a regeneration of the area to take place

We watch a tractor with a handy piece of equipment erect rugby posts at each end. France are due here for their Pool D game with Romania on September 23. New Zealand, Ireland, Italy and South Africa will also visit — and the World Cup’s third place play-off will be the stadium’s final act before conversion begins in readiness for West Ham’s arrival in 2016. That is when it will look like West Ham’s home: claret and blue seats and the name above the door.

‘Some people don’t like what we call the “West Hamification” of the stadium,’ Brady says, ‘but it has got to look like our home or our fans are not going to get behind it. And they have got to do that for it to work.

‘I feel a huge sense of personal responsibility that I am part of the delivery programme here. We’ve made a promise to fill this place and bring the Park to life and we will do exactly that. And of all the clubs that could represent Britain, I think West Ham is that club.

‘I don’t think we’re fleecing British taxpayers because we’re taxpayers, too. We will ensure this stadium is full, that jobs are created and regeneration takes place. And I can say that because I’m the one doing it.’