Coe: "Moral obligation" to back West Ham's bid for Olympic Stadium

By Andrew Warshaw

January 24 – Sebastian Coe waded into the debate over the future of the Olympic Stadium today, declaring there was a “moral obligation” to back West Ham United’s plans over those of Tottenham Hotspur for using the venue after next year’s summer Games.

The 2012 London chairman warned the world would be watching if the running track around the stadium is removed, as Tottenham have proposed.

In a spiky radio interview, Coe did not mince his words.

“It’s serious we deliver what we said we were going to unless we’re prepared to trash our reputation,” Coe said.

“It’d be very difficult for us to be taken seriously in the corridors of world sport and arguably beyond.”

A decision on the future of the site is expected to be made on Friday by the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC).

West Ham’s bid has the backing of the local council whereas Spurs would convert the stadium to a football-only ground with the quid pro quo of revamping British athletics’ current home at Crystal Palace.

West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady and Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy locked horns on BBC 5 live’s Sportsweek programme today before attention turned to the views of Lord Coe who spearheaded London’s bid to host the Games.

Spurs insist their legacy programme would be as strong as West Ham’s and that theirs is the only proposal that makes economic sense and reduces the likelihood of a white elephant.

But Coe was having none of it.

“I remember delivering a vision about a generation of young people being inspired to take up Olympic sports, I remember talking about young people in a poor community in East London fashioning their future through sport,” he said.

“I’m prepared to revisit my words but I don’t recall a whole heap about bulldozing down a publicly-funded community facility, replacing it with a football club and inspiring a generation of Tottenham season ticket holders, however many there may be on a waiting list.”

Brady said the discussion over the future of the stadium “isn’t a debate about Spurs v West Ham – it’s Spurs v West Ham, the London Borough of Newham, UK Athletics and the promises made and the people of the East End of London and anyone with an Olympic aspiration.”

She warned that should West Ham’s bid be unsuccessful, Britain’s standing in world sport “would take a crashing blow” if athletics was not preserved at the venue.

“Athletics was a huge part of winning the lobbying ][to get the 2012 Games] and the promises that were made,” she said.

“Just because Tottenham have decided their area’s not smart enough and doesn’t generate enough money – it’s outrageous.”

Both clubs will develop a 60,000-seater ground but while West Ham are already located in the London Borough of Newham, Tottenham are seven miles away.

Levy nevertheless revealed his club had opened discussions about moving to the Olympic venue six years ago, and stressed athletics would actually fare even better under Tottenham’s proposals.

“It will be significantly better than the original legacy promise of a 25,000-seater venue in the Olympic Park,” he said.

“We believe our plan will not under any circumstances provide any form of white elephant, there will be a return to the public purse and we will underwrite a very significant community and athletic legacy.”

Tottenham’s plan to remove the running track at Stratford has been supported by many players and ex-players, including Pele, but Coe said it did not make the slightest difference.

“We might as well get the winner of X Factor and Celebrity Masterchef out there,” was his response.

There was only one way he could possibly vote if he was part of the OPLC, he said.

“The West Ham bid meets those commitments – I would have to vote for it.

“I hope the decision supports a community legacy.

“I think it can work, it’s the one we took to Singapore (for the 2012 vote).

“The bid was very clear and unambiguous.

“This was a community facility, multi-sport, track and field.

“We must be really clear here.

“What we pledged in Singapore was not ambiguous.

“I took those words very seriously – I delivered them.

“This is about our ability to be taken seriously again in the corridors of world sport.

“I find it inconceivable that grandparents will take children back to a Premiership football ground, stand among the tiers of sponsorship boxes and say actually somewhere among this lies dormant the memories of Jessica Ennis or Usain Bolt reaching the heights of sport.

“It just does not smell right to me.”

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