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.
Note to the OPLC
If all else fails
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjqviacvzOQ
RIP Annie’s bush and all who sailed in her…… ;-) Let that be an end to it, thanks Ginola14
Has anyone….ever..really…naming no-names, but she has a love child..from the East..there was a star..it blew up..the rest is..bollocks
Amen…. :angel:
I must say I take a similar pleasure to this as I do to a warm cognac in front of a log fire; a satisfaction in the world righting itself once more……all it needs now is the public humiliation of that complete arse Coe, but ah, perhaps the fumes wafting up from my snifter have taken me.
The spin is already trying to take the responsibility for this away from anyone who actually had anything to do with it and looking wildly around at any convenient target; who knows maybe Coe might still get hit by this winged-turd…. a pipe, a dream.
Our situation tho’ must have improved. Clearly the powers-that-be are using the challenges as a means to get out of a bad deal that has serious potential to go sour on them, once the full facts come to light. The Euro challenge is as much to be feared because it will not be constrained by UK judiciary covering for their mates as for its potential to hang around for eons.
Debacles such as this, can really only be caused by two factors: incompetence or corruption – in this case I think we have lashings of both!
We should be sitting pretty. We have a publicly-made promise of money from Boris, which may yet be upped to get a deal over the line and we have pressure coming down on Haringey from higher up on council to effect what needs to be done to get the NPD underway.
Basically, if THFC (and Daniel Levy) can be accommodated they will be so busy getting on with it, that they’ll be less inclined to pursue embarrassing revelations about the lack of integrity of public figures and probity in public process, especially in the wake of government expenses scandals.
We have the backdrop of social conditions in the area and the rioting acting as a political thorn to be encourage public bodies to be seen to support redevelopments in the area and to top it all we have this: an alternative to consider!
Of course I cannot see us moving there but what a great sidebar to posture on and add more pressure which might just result in the establishment upping the ante a bit more and even a chance of a settlement on the costs associated the OS bid.
I’m guessing we’ll pursue the stadium, maybe for business reasons (who knows it may be a good business to do both – we could possibly sublet it to both Orient and WetSpam as a ground-share), but more to turn the screw on Lammy, Newham, Haringey, Coe and the OPLC and maybe on the reasons the judiciary advised DL not to pursue this.
I think the outcome DL wants is his money back from the bid, development money from Boris and Haringey dropping the obstacles to development…with this happening, he might just get the lot!
The only way we can bid again is if Levy publicly states that Spurs will keep the running track; something he has been clear about not doing all along.
Levy won’t bid again.
I think he’d given up on the OS some time ago but was more interested in ensuring that a. he gets compensation for being misled into believing that he and AEG actually had a chance in the previous carve up, and b. that there were stronger guarantees in place to stop WHUFC ripping the track out at a later date.
Mission accomplished on both points.
Immediate mission accomplished I agree, but I’m not so sure we won’t bid again.
If DL is convinced of the long-term commercial case for a move to Stratford (in the main resultant from the OS’s proximity and links to The City) we may continue to pursue this option.
I tend to agree, however I think he’ll reserve his disinterest or may even play it up to pressure other parties. Everything is pointing towards parties within the broad sweep of the “authorities” not wanting the facts of this to come out into the open.
Brinkmanship but exquisite none the less.
It seems that finally someone might be bought to some kind of account for all of this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/8821141/London-2012-Olympics-officials-to-be-questioned-by-Parliament-over-collapse-of-stadium-deal.html
Fair play to Barry Hearne for keeping up his battle in all of this. I would have thought that the final settlement will include a ground-share for them & the Spammers, which is the least they deserve. Having said that, that bowl is going to look bloody empty with only a few thousand in it… It might look busier for the O’s games though!
:whistle:
It might look busier for the O’s games though!
:lol: :daumen:
Ha ha like it Astro!! :lol:
It would be interesting if the O’s managed to get a super-rich Oriental backer!
This is aimed at no one in particular hence not as a reply.
My view on THFC entering the process again is quite simple. I really wouldn’t get bogged down by the running track or indeed the time or money involved.
I could enter a bid if I wanted. My suggestion would be to fill it with fresh cut flowers. This might not be successful, but one would hope all bids are assessed on their merits.
West Ham’s bid last time around if we ignore all the bent aspects of it ticked all the boxes for Seb Coe etc. But a child could tell you as a business model it was a joke.
A Championship club with falling attendances no decent players and more debt than your average African Prime Minister propped up by a state loan?
Add to that what? The gate receipts from a minority group who like running round in circles, throwing sticks and the European Tiddlywinks Biathlon? Get real. Now they’ve had their loan pulled. So no dice.
At least cut flowers would look nice. They cheer people up.
THFC have already prepared their bid. It’s all shiny and new. And let’s face it nobody looked at it last time so it’s hardly thumbed to death.
The ‘wasting time’ element is equally redundant. This is all part of preparing for the future. What would you rather Levy & Co spent a few hours doing, a fun run for a donkey sanctuary, teaching Arry how to say, ‘no comment’?
I would rather we stay in N17, but the stability of THFC as a business would be guaranteed if we got the OS. And by OS I mean Olympic site. Not stadium. That shrine to those who ‘delivered the London Games happen’ wants pulling down the minute the last Olympian is safely off the premises.
Hopefully we stay where we are and build something magnificent. But that option is really bloody expensive. Some of you don’t appreciate just how expensive. The reason THFC haven’t just waded in and splashed the cash is simply because that which can be borrowed must be repaid.
In the poll I ran a while back, the overwhelming majority of you wanted to ship in new strikers. Equally I imagine that most of you feel ill when you constantly hear that So and so player wants £300k pwk.
So how do you want it? Don’t weasel out of this, just tell me where the money is coming from to fund a black hole of debt stadium and swanky player purchases?
Thankfully the cries of ‘get ENIC to weigh in’ have died down. Who are ENIC? They related to the tooth fairy? Santa Claus’ brother in law?
We ought to stay in N17. But like the man said, there isn’t a successful business model in the world based upon the word ought.
Top, top post Harry, sums up how I feel about it too. The stadium will be virtually the same at N17 or Stratford, it’s the transport links which make Stratford so attractive to an entertainments based partner who would cross finance the whole thing. The stadium is our future though, and wherever it’s built it’ll mean big changes, for better or worse. It’s still cause for huge amounts of optimism imo.
Mind you, Daniel could spend a few minutes teaching Harry how to say ‘no comment’, It would make things a little less combative on here.
goodun! :daumen:
Don’t agree at all old girl.
It’s precisely because of the track that this whole thing is in the bog it is now.
Sure, anyone could bid, but unless I’m mistaken, in the new process, allegedly unlike the last, there is no possibility of a bid which doesn’t intend on keeping the track winning?
Is that the case or not? If it isn’t the case, then I agree with you. If it is the case, where’s the leverage? “If you don’t give us what we want, we’ll enter a bid everyone knows is impossible to win”.
And what if Levy actually does an about face and says he now intends to keep the track just to give his new bid just an ounce of credibility/sense, and then actually wins the bid? It would be years before we could get rid of it, if at all. It wouldn’t even be ours to get rid of.
As for funding the NDP, the loan will be paid back by a mixture of sponsorship and the obvious increase in extra revenue (the same way it’s always been intended to be funded). £300k a week players won’t be turning up any time soon, but only a moron would expect them to when you’ve just borrowed the best part of £350m.
As you say, we’ve already spent a whole sack of money (not a striker’s worth of money, but maybe a rising-star-of-a-keeper’s worth?) on delivering a bid for the Olympic Stadium. As it turns out (and as many theorised/warned at the time) we never had a chance of winning last time.
Would be nice if somebody compensated us for all that wasted effort, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Ultimately the taxpayer is the one who would have to pay, and I don’t really see what the taxpayer did wrong re: the bidding process. I simply don’t see how the responsible parties (OPLC, West Ham, Boris, Newham, you name it…) will ever be held to account for our financial loss.
All that is in the past, though, and we can only look forward.
-We have a bid (more or less) ready to go.
-There will be a new round of bids at some point.
Regardless of what our preferred destination and/or main area of focus is (and personally I certainly hope it is in N17), it would be a near criminal waste of club assets to not deliver a new bid. And whether or not readers individually agree with this, it is certainly how the board will see things.
There are a many reasons why a new bidding round might proclude our participation. The running track might be explicitly stated as a neccessary element of any agreement (as it should have been last time), in which case I strongly doubt the club will be interested (Levy has stated, time and again, with empirical evidence to back him up, that football stadia with running tracks are doomed to fail – and I honestly think he believes this too). A long-term lease may be a requirement (rather than ownership) that THFC might not be willing to accept. Or maybe we will have signed a letter of intent in order to secure public funding for NDP.
Barring any such dealbreakers / mitigating circumstances, we will deliver a new bid.