By Andrew Warshaw
January 13 – Tottenham Hotspur have admitted they would demolish most of the Olympic Stadium and make it more football friendly if they win the bid to move there after the 2012 London Games.
Spurs are battling with Premier League rivals West Ham to take over the stadium at Stratford.
Both have submitted bids, one of which will be recommended by the Olympic Park Legacy Committee (OPLC) by the end of January.
The clubs each have major issues in relocating to the site.
Tottenham are fighting mainly an emotional battle with fans, thousands of whom have signed an anti-Stratford petition and favour reconstruction of their existing White Hart Lane ground rather than moving into the catchment area of one of their main rivals.
But there are serious doubts about whether West Ham would regularly fill a 60,000-seater stadium, especially if they are relegated, whereas Spurs already have 34,000 on their waiting list.
Retention of the Olympic athletics track forms a crucial part of West Ham’s case.
But Spurs believe that argument is seriously flawed since keeping the track would mean fans would be at least 45 metres away from the action, more than twice the distance at Wembley and three times that at Arsenal’s Emirates stadium.
“We’ve set out to provide a fan experience that is better than anything else in Europe,” said David Keirle, chairman of Tottenham’s architects, KSS, and a vice-president of the club, who are working in partnership with American sports giant AEG.
“That is our starting point.”
Tottenham have already had plans to redevelop White Hart Lane approved but moving to Stratford would be around £200 million cheaper and transport links would be infinitely better than staying at White Hart Lane – continually gridlocked even with a 36,000 stadium.
The North London club have yet to commit to a preferred site, preferring to keep both options open, but Keirle told reporters that Stratford would be “the best connected site in Europe”.
As a quid-pro-quo for getting rid of the athletics track, Spurs have offered to pay for the redevelopment of the antiquated Crystal Palace athletics stadium in south London.
A final decision on the two bids will be made in March and the timing of Tottenham’s media briefing was a deliberate attempt to retrieve some of the ground lost in the public relations battle.
In a presentation in central London, Keirle didn’t mince his words when exposing the shortcomings of West Ham’s bid.
“The debate, such as it is, has been one-sided because we’ve not entered into this,” said Keirle.
“It’s been very ill-informed.
“There’d be nothing worse than, five years down the line, for a failing club not being able to meet its obligations because it’s not getting 60,000 fans, saying there’s no atmosphere.”
He insisted Tottenham’s plans were more viable than West Ham’s, claiming athletics would benefit more by revamping Crystal Palace than by a stadium that would only be able to stage athletics outside the football season.
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