The English Premier League football club West Ham United has been named first bidder for the right to move into London's Olympic Stadium, but the BBC reports that their owners will be asked to agree to share profits from any future sale of the club.
London mayor Boris Johnson believes the award of a 99-year lease to move to the stadium would make the club much more valuable and is seeking a commitment from owners David Gold and David Sullivan that they would split profits if they sold up.
English champions Manchester City play in the stadium built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and have prospered after being bought by Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
West Ham are competing with third-tier football club Leyton Orient, a football business college and a Formula One racing group to become permanent tenants of the east London arena.
West Ham hope that leaving their current 35,000-capacity Upton Park home for the much larger Olympic Stadium would enable them to compete with the leading clubs in the Premier League.
West Ham's preferred bidder status does not involve the signing of any contracts but it puts the club in pole position to secure the 99-year lease on the stadium.
The Olympic Stadium, which cost almost $950 million to construct, has been vacant since the end of the Paralympics in September.
Before West Ham could move in, the stadium would have to be converted into a football ground with retractable or moveable seating over the running track, as the stadium must continue to be used as an athletics venue.
Any future tenants would therefore have to share the ground with UK Athletics, while the 2017 World Athletics Championships are scheduled to take place at the stadium.
