Good morning.
There will be a raft of brain surgeons expecting me to be beaming from ear to ear at the news that the Olympic Stadium is back on the market. They are spot on. It’s great news.
The West Ham deal has collapsed under the strain of all that was so very grubby about it. Newham council’s feet became colder than a well diggers ass and they have bailed on the Porn Barons.
Whilst it would have made my millennium to know West Ham were playing Championship football in front of twelve and a half thousand unwashed Charlies in their finest Primark garb, the grim financial nightmare that now awaits them as they remain at Upton Park will actually be far funnier.
Sports Minister Hugh Robertson has announced:
“The key point is the action we have taken today is about removing the uncertainty. The process had become bogged down in legal paralysis.
“Particularly relevant has been the anonymous complaint to the EC over ‘state aid’ and the OPLC received a letter from Newham Council yesterday saying because of the uncertainty they no longer wanted to proceed. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back and we thought it better to stop it dead in it tracks now.
“We know there is huge interest in the stadium out there from private operators and football clubs and crucially we remove any uncertainty.”
“This is not a white elephant stadium where no one wants it, we have had two big clubs (West Ham and Tottenham) fighting tooth and nail to get it.
“The new process will be more like how Manchester City took over the Commonwealth Games stadium which is regarded as a leading example of how to do it.”
What depressed me about this whole process was the brutally thick nature of many Tottenham fans. Banging on and on about the running track. At no time have THFC even remotely considered playing with a running track between the team and the fans.
Some actually bemoaned the legal challenge as it was ‘wasting time and money that could be better spent on securing the services of striker.’ Please. Grow a brain.
I was even blasted for supporting an idea that would guarantee we could genuinely compete, but the love of litter, nail & wig bars and Chick King offers pulled at the heart strings of many.
The THFC bid has always been about a zero landfill recycling of the existing site into a state of the art stadium and that is what scuppered it for the unchecked egos involved, hello Lord Sebastian Coe, I mean you. These narcissists couldn’t cope with the shrine cast in their image being casually knocked down.
They want to be remembered for their pluck, their audacious delivery of an Olympic games in the nation’s capital. Nothing showy you understand, just a small plaque unveiled by the Queen so every young athlete in the country knows for ever who to thank.
L-E-G-A-C-Y.
What is left of course is a White Elephant to beat all white elephants. A venue hopefully perfect for athletics but unfit for purpose as a top notch football stadium.
The West Ham bid was no more than a highly polished begging bowl. The Porn Barons would still agree to play there if there was a long jump pitch in the centre circle. Their operations at Upton Park were a non starter.
Beneath an ‘Under New Management’ banner borrowed from a recently shut down local restaurant they banged a jingoistic drum with sinister references to the nationality of the club and it’s supporters. Sadly their specter of Evil Johnnie foreigners pouring squillions of filthy foreign dosh into a football club suddenly looked quite attractive when compared to a pair of iffy looking Sex Industry magnates trying to flog season tickets for 99p.
Then along came the Olympic Stadium and with a member of the OPLC publicaly acknowledged as having been on the pay roll of West Ham… The bidding process was a clean sweep in favour of Gold & Sullivan. They were so happy, they actually began celebrating the night before.
And so now what? Well Tottenham are in a ridiculously excellent position. They will presumably re-enter the new process knowing that they are significantly closer to being able to pursue to NPD which is everyone’s first choice.
West Ham are left well and truly in the lurch.
The stalking horse here is Orient. I hope the O’s come out of this not only unscathed but perhaps, slightly ahead. Barry Hearn I do not know, but he strikes me as an honourable type. I wish him well.
Everything’s coming up Milhouse!
If anything, this will make it easier for the pikeys to move onto a new site.
Why would Spurs re-bid knowing that the track now definitely has to stay?
It won’t stay, you and I both know that. It just cannot be removed while Coe and Johnson are in residence due to the furore that’ll cause. This has been a case of gross incompetence from the outset, it stank of collusion and I don’t doubt of corruption if the press had bothered to dig deeper instead of trying to make Levy and Tottenham look like scumbags. You’d have thought with all their attempts to tap phones and fabricate stories, that this one has all the hallmarks of a high profile scandel..watch this space..the penny will drop sooner later..ps I wonder what happened to the judges directive to drop the revue-Mmmm, Levy didn’t think so either?
Good point. I guess Murdoch must be getting greased somehow, or they would have broken this story ages ago
:devil:
It’s not a million miles from Docklands, is it?
I also meant to add this amount for fuel to an already brightly burning bonfire (and like my dreams etc)…..“The new process will be more like how Manchester City took over the Commonwealth Games stadium which is regarded as a leading example of how to do it.” I see no running track or athletics at the Etiad home of Manchester City FC, so what does that mean?
With the track, we won’t be interested. No way Levy will bid for the rental malarkey.
Dale farm ?
Steady on, we’ve not booted the invaders out yet, but that’ll be nice.
There’s a buzz about the place this morning, don’t you think?
It’s like a morgue but minus the air of nervous anticipation.
I was thinking more in ‘Duracell’ terms H
It’s probably the facelikeakickedinfridge woman using her industrial vibrator.
:sick: Another image for the front of your larder Essexian…. ;-)
Oh,so many nowadays-I hate food
Harry,I think all Spurs fans were aware that the Spurs bid was without the running track,most were aware Levy was playing a very smart long game and I don’t understand the hostility towards the fans who just wanted to stay at the Lane
You are mistaken. The hostility towards the uninformed was well earned.
And as f=or staying in N17 I was always in favour of the NPD but not if we were held hostage.
You are confusing thick people with anti Statford people. Two separate groups, but some had membership of both.
I think HH did a survey that showed that a good portion of HH readers were patently not aware of this.
Not that HH readers are representative of Spurs fans in general. Probably more representative of sectioned mental patients, but there you go…
This is more like it. Intellectual window-lickers.
Sweeeeeet!
Was very, very pleased to read Cloake’s article.
This is pretty much a perfect outcome from where I’m standing. Levy has already got the city officials to agree, de facto, to the principle that they should help with some of the costs associated to building a new stadium in N17. Why, a perfectly reasonable person might ask, should Spurs pay for bringing tube stops and other transport links up to the same level enjoyed by the rest of the City of London? Why, indeed, were BNP Paribas and JP Morgan Chase not asked to foot the bill for the light rail out by Canary Wharf (even though it was their moving of offices that neccessitated the extra transport capacity)? Apparently even some politicians are now willing no see this point, and agree with it. Sad to say, but I think the tragic and pointless riots were the deciding catalyst on this front.
We avoid the situation where facelikeakickedinfridge&co are awarded the stadium over us simply because they were willing to keep the track where we were not – and then go on to remove the track in three years time, complaining “you can’t have a running track at a football stadium so we have to remove it. Who’da thunk it?”
Wet Spam don’t get a clearly illegal (and shadily procured) loan from Newham.
No matter what the beast Brady may claim in posteriority, the OPLC’s decision to scrap the previous bidding process is a tacit acknowledgement that the complaints from Spurs and O’s were well founded.
In stead of gloating to Spammer fans, we should feel sorry for them. Their club hasn’t exactly been lighting it up on the pitch lately, and they have a bunch of self-involved criminals holding the reins.
Should, but won’t. Suck it you illiterate, reprobate, ugly spammers! Suck it hard.
One of my favourite posts of ever… The last line to end all sign-offs.
:daumen: :daumen: :daumen: :daumen: :daumen:
Nice. :lol:
Creosote arse, you certainly are not.
All joking aside this country is full of people like Brady,Coe,Boris,dildo duo etc.There is a sleaze culture once more boiling to the surface if it ever went away.If an unemployed bloke robs a shop or riots and has something he never paid for it is a big crime and throw the book at him but what about the scum who are already wealthy and through arrogance think they can fiddle,lie,cheat and leave the taxpayers to pick up the pieces with no comeback.Maybe this is Camerons big society in practice.Inquiry needed now with penalties for the incopetent and corrupt.