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Olympic Stadium: London 2012 chairman Lord Coe would 'have to vote for West Ham' to take over arena
Sebastian Coe has piled pressure on the politicians who will ultimately decide the fate of the Olympic Stadium, saying there is a “moral obligation” to back West Ham’s bid for the arena, which will see the athletics track retained.
Final bids from the two clubs were submitted to the OPLC on Friday, and if the chairman Baroness Ford has concluded that the bids are sufficiently detailed to allow a decision the full board will select a preferred bidder at the end of the week.
Should she require more detail then the final decision will be delayed, before being passed to London mayor Boris Johnson and ministers Jeremy Hunt and Eric Pickles for ratification.
With Tottenham proposing to dig up the athletics track and fund the redevelopment of Crystal Palace instead, Coe said that only West Ham’s bid delivered on the promise he delivered of an athletics legacy that lay at the heart of London’s bid.
He dismissed Tottenham’s bid as essentially self-interested, and said Britain’s reputation would be “trashed” if the White Hart Lane club was granted the stadium
“We have a moral obligation to make this work,” he told the Sportsweek program on Radio 5 Live. "It's serious we deliver what we said we were going to unless we're prepared to trash our reputation. It'd be very difficult for us to be taken seriously in the corridors of world sport and arguably beyond.
"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 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.
Coe was also dismissive of elements of Tottenham’s campaign, particularly the intervention of Pele, who wrote to the OPLC in support of Spurs, claiming to remember Crystal Palace as “the home of athletics”.
"On this case we might as well get the winner of X Factor and Celebrity Masterchef out there,” he said.
West Ham deputy chairman Karren Brady dismissed Tottenham’s bid to move into Newham without honouring the athletics pledge as “outrageous”, and said her club was backed by the whole community.
"This is not Spurs versus West Ham, it’s Spurs versus West Ham, the borough of Nehwam, UK Athletics, the communities of east London. There was a promise made [to the IOC] in the Queen’s name, and we have to honour it,” she told Sportsweek.
"Just because Tottenham have decided their area's not smart enough and doesn't generate enough money - it's outrageous."
In response Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy said that he the club was bidding to move to the Olympic Stadium because its initial choice, adjacent to White Hart Lane, was “not financially viable at the moment”.
It is the first time he has admitted that the site at Northumberland Park which the club has spent two years working on is is too expensive to deliver.
"It's very simple - we have a 36,000-strong waiting list for season tickets and we sell out every game, we need a bigger stadium," he said.
"It's exceedingly difficult to find a site to build a new stadium, and the North London Development project [redeveloping White Hart Lane] is not financially viable at the moment.
"We're committed to financing whatever it takes to redevelop Crystal Palace into a 25000 stadium which would be expandable up to 40,000 for a World Championship.
"It will be significantly better than the original legacy promise of a 25,000-seater venue in the Olympic Park.
"It's essential we get a larger stadium or how do we get the next generation of fans to watch our games?
"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 very significant community and athletic legacy.”