West Ham United Football Club (WHU) will begin selling season tickets for the 2016-17 season – its first at the Olympic Stadium – this April.

The club announced that the seat selection process for current season ticket holders will run from April 2015 to February 2016.

Those who want to guarantee their seats at the 54,000-capacity arena for WHU’s first game in August 2016 will also have to commit to a season ticket for 2015-16 – the club’s final season at Upton Park.

In October 2014 the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), which owns the Olympic Park and the stadium, revealed that the cost of converting the stadium had risen from £154m to £190m due to complications in installing the new roof.

As a result, LLDC allocated an extra £35.9m for the project to ensure the venue is ready to host five games during this year’s Rugby World Cup.

The work on the Populous-designed stadium is being undertaken by Balfour Beatty, which will be given the extra funding to complete the job. Balfour Beatty signed the £154m contract ($246.7m €195.1m) in January 2014.

Meanwhile, WHU has agreed to sell its Upton Park stadium to developer The Galliard Group, which will use the space to build a mixed-used development with leisure, retail and new homes.

Galliard also plans to establish a central garden park named after the late WHU legend Bobby Moore.