While Tottenham Build Supermarket, West Ham Are Handed Olympic Stadium

The decision that West Ham United will move from Upton Park to the Olympic Stadium in 2016 was announced this week and when the figures are digested, it clearly demonstrates how West Ham are benefitting at tax payers expense while Tottenham build a supermarket to as the initial stage of their Northumberland Development Project to generate the necessary funds for a new stadium.

Let me say at the outset that I didn’t want Tottenham to move out of Tottenham to the Olympic Stadium – we are, after all, Tottenham Hotspur, not Stratford Hotspur or East London Hotspur. When, one looks at the figures involved in West Ham United’s move, it is clear why Daniel Levy and the Tottenham directors considered making the move which so many Spurs fans opposed – it made great financial sense.

Olympic Stadium

Olympic Stadium [Photo: Mirror.co.uk]West Ham United have been handed a stadium worth £600 million on a 99 year lease for an upfront sum of £15 million (Premier League clubs can’t buy a decent player for that amount in the current transfer market) plus an annual rent of £2 million (Arsenal presently bring in that amount every matchday). West Ham plan to have the stadium ready for the summer of 2016.

The Olympic Stadium cost £429m to build and a further £190m will be spent to convert it to a football stadium. Concerned that they would be left with an empty ‘white-elephant’ of a stadium, the authorities are providing the additional funding from tax payers money. In the Daily Mail, London Mayor Boris Johnson explains it as a good deal,

"“The result represents a very good investment for the tax payer because it will deliver long-term revenues and regenerate a part of London and create thousands and thousands of jobs.”"

White Hart Lane

Tottenham have been working on plans to develop a new stadium as their White Hart Lane ground which was built in 1898 is too small by modern day standards. White Hart Lane has a record attendance of 75,038 in March, 1938 for an FA Cup match against Sunderland. The modern day all-seater ground has a capacity of 36,240 and although near full for every home game, it is leaving Tottenham far behind in the financial stakes. Old Trafford holds 75,765, The Emirates 60, 362, St. James’ Park 52, 405, Sunderland’s Stadium of Light 48,707 and White Hart Lane is only the twelfth largest League stadium in England with non-Premier grounds at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough and Elland Road, Leeds having a larger capacity.

Hoardings near White Hart Lane show pictures of Tottenham’s new stadium [Photo: Logan Holmes]Northumberland Development Project

In 2007 Tottenham announced the Northumberland Development Project and their intention to consider their options for increasing stadium capacity involving redevelopment of the current site or a move to a new site. There have been many detours and obstacles along the way through the planning stages over design, planning permission, transport infrastructure, the need to regenerate the Tottenham area as well as raising the required finances. The building of a Sainsbury’s supermarket is the first step to a new stadium. In these austere times funding is crucial and difficult to find while grants and assistance from government have been hard earned. On the other hand, West Ham have been gifted not only the stadium but another £65m from the local and national government to help make the stadium suitable for Premier League football with a capacity of 54,000 seats.

Richard Caborn, a Labour former Sports Minister criticised the decision in an interview reported in the Financial Times. He described the deal as “the biggest mistake of the London Olympics” and said that the changes required to make the stadium suitable for use by football should have been made in the original design seven years ago. He commented,

"“I do welcome the fact that the future of the stadium has finally been secured, but we should also realise that the public sector is picking up the tab.”"

Manchester City were the beneficiaries of a similar situation following the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002. City leased the stadium from the City of Manchester council after the council had spent £22m to covert it from an athletics arena to a football stadium. They moved into the City of Manchester Stadum in 2003 and became a very attractive proposition for a takeover by wealthy investors. The Etihad Stadium, as it has become, provided the launchpad from which City have been propelled to Premier League Champions and FA Cup winners as well as one of the wealthiest clubs in world, entering the Deloitte Money League top ten for the first time in their history. In the most recent list published they moved up five places to 7th.

West Ham’s co-chairman, David Sullivan, clearly have similar ambitions for West Ham. In comments reported in the Daily Mail, he said,

"“Since we came to West Ham in 2010 we have had a vision to really take the club forward so West Ham United can compete on the pitch at the highest level. Today’s decision offers us a real platform to do this and we are fully committed to making it a real success.”"

Construction work on the supermarket as the first stage of Northumberland Development Project [Photo: Richard Hill]

The Olympic Stadium now makes West Ham United an attractive proposition for investors and without the burden of debt associated with the development of a new stadium, their fans will be eagerly anticipating a very bright future.

Leyton Orient quite rightly feel aggrieved that West Ham have been allowed to move onto their ‘patch’ of east London. West Ham are moving only three miles but it’s right onto the door step of Orient’s Brisbane Road ground. Tottenham, as they continue their slow journey to the provision of a new stadium, can feel concern over the ease with which West Ham have found funding and ‘favour’ in every aspect of this process to provide tenants for the Olympic Stadium.

Meanwhile, Tottenham will continue to seek the investment for the completion their new stadium. How much have Tottenham spent to get to this stage and how much will a completed Northumberland Project cost the club? I don’t know and probably, neither does anyone else at this moment in time.

Fellow HotspurHQ writer, Alan Hill penned the following thoughts on the decision over the Olympic Stadium.

The Decision to Let West Ham Use the Olympic Stadium

I think they are the right club, although I also think that Leyton Orient should win the judicial review to be allowed to share the ground. What is clearly unfair is the funding. From what I have seen West Ham have only had to pay £15m as a deposit. They then get the equivalent of a £40 million mortgage from Newham Council. So far, fair enough. They then get a grant, subsidy, call it what you will from the government of £50 million. That’s not on, in that it means that the government have favoured West Ham to the tune of £50 million over all other clubs. It means you, me and every other taxpayer has a share of £50 million pounds in West Ham that I did not vote for and do not want. Why should Spurs and Arsenal have to pay for their new grounds and not West Ham? For this to be at all acceptable, if the government can afford to bung West Ham £50million, then they should bung us the same amount.