Parliamentary support growing for West Ham to take over Olympic Stadium

By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year

December 22 – Pressure is growing in the House of Commons for West Ham United to be given the opportunity to take over the Olympic Stadium after London 2012 ahead of Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Support is being led by Mark Field, the vice-chairman of the All-Party Group on Football and the Conservative MP for the Cities of London and Westminster.

“I believe that it would be right for West Ham to have the stadium, rather than it going further afield to Tottenham Hotspur,” he said during a debate in the Commons on the 2012 Olympics.

Field claimed that if Tottenham abandoned their current home at White Hart Lane it would be an unpopular move with their fans.

“In 1997, I was my Party’s candidate in Enfield North, where I reckoned at least two-thirds of the football fans were Spurs, rather than Arsenal supporters,” he told the Commons.

“I remember that in the Lea Valley area of the constituency there was a great passion for and pride in Tottenham Hotspur.

“For many football fans across the country, the notion of Tottenham Hotspur moving four or five miles away might seem to involve a small distance, but in the context of the villages that make up London it is very important.”

The debate had been secured by Stephen Timms, the Labour MP for East Ham, whose constituency includes West Ham’s current ground at Upton Park, but who supports them moving to take over the Olympic Stadium in Stratford.

Timms warned that if the Stadium was given to Tottenham and they carried out their plan to rip-up the track then London 2012 would breaking the promises they made during their successful bid to guarantee an athletics legacy after the Games.

“When the bid was submitted, a promise was made-it was a significant element of the bid-to retain athletics in the stadium beyond the Games, and that promise will be broken if the track is removed,” said Timms.

“It is very important that we do not let that happen.”

Timms backed an open letter sent by more than 30 Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists, world record holders and Britain’s top athletes demanding that the Stadium retain its track after the Games.

“They are right – we should not break the promise that has been made,” he said.

“The provision of a world-class athletics track in the stadium after the Games was one reason why the UK bid secured the crucial support ahead of the 2005 decision of Lamine Diack, the President of the International Association of Athletics Federations, and it is why the West Ham-Newham bid has the support of UK Athletics as well.”

Timms was also supported by Tottenham MP David Lammy, who told the Commons that it did not make sense for a club to take over the £537 million ($826 million) Stadium and rip it down to rebuild, as Spurs plan to do.

Timms claimed that the fact that West Ham planned to just modify the 80,000-capacity Stadium after the Games while retaining the track made it the best candidate for the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) to choose when they make their decision next year.

“As my right honourable friend the member for Tottenham pointed out, it does not involve tearing down a structure built with substantial public investment,” he said.

“The capital costs that the project would entail would be met from a combination of the funding made available by the Olympic Delivery Authority, the receipts from the disposal of the current ground at Upton Park and a loan facility provided through Newham Council-not a grant, as has been suggested in some quarters, but a loan.

“The club has been able to show how it will meet its continuing liabilities, even in the highly unlikely event that its recent run of poor results continues and it spends next season in the Championship, which I hope will not happen.

“For all three reasons-honouring our Olympic commitments, achieving a local solution and because the bid makes business sense – I hope that the West Ham bid for the future use of the stadium is successful.”

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