Saturday, January 22

Should we stay or should we go?


Well, at last West Ham and Spurs' bids are in. The recently pickpocketed Harry Redknapp hasn't been slow to stick his oar into the Olympic Stadium debate saying West Ham 's athletic track won't work. We seem to have abandoned any plan for retractable seats over the track which is a worry, although you'd trust West Ham fans to create atmosphere anywhere — even the Arsenal Library.

You do wonder if Brady, Gold and Sullivan are playing a clever long-game. If athletics fails and the government has changed in five years' time will they just decide to fit seats over the track anyway?

Thankfully that IOC geezer has laid into Spurs' proposal to knock down the stadium and build their own ground saying that would be "a big lie" on the UK's part.

Interestingly the Standard points out that the environmental cost of this would be huge, "the equivalent of 100 years' lost energy will go to waste if the new stadium is knocked down. This takes into account the energy used building the existing stadium, on its demolition and the creation of an alternative athletics facility."

Now Spurs are involved we can't afford not to go for it. I dont like the idea of deserting Ken's Cafe and the Newham Bookshop. But we'd be stuck in a 34,000 stadium at Upton Park with Sratford Spurs (aka Cuckoo FC) pulling 60,000 down the road.

2 comments:

Chrissy Brand said...

Really interesting views- I have mixed feelings- vacating Upton Park goes against my heart but my head says the Olympic Stadium is the best move (even more so now that Tottering Hosepipes are going to cause such rampant and irresponsible disregard to the environment if they moved there- shame on them).

As an Iron in exile in Manchester I recall that when City left Maine Rd for the Commonwalth Games stadium a few years ago it was a similar situation. That one paid off for Man City, hopefully it would for us Hammers too.

But then,as Andy Gray and his Sky sidekick might say: What would a woman know about football?...

Pete May said...

You're welcome to explain the offside rule to this male...

BTW Sian Massey was on the line at West Ham versus Barnsley and no-one seemed to give her any stick. We are clearly more enlightened at Upton Park than the dinosaurs at Sky.

Man City is the example I'd hope we'd follow. Love Upton Park but the thought of matching Arsenal's gates is enticing, just as long as we can solve the track problem.