The mayor of London Boris Johnson has this week urged Tottenham to accept a £17 million package to drop their legal battle with West Ham United over the future of the Olympic stadium, and instead stay in North London. Is this really enough of an incentive to end their Olympic fight?
Spurs have been embroiled in a long running battle with West Ham over who should move into the Olympic stadium, once the London 2012 games are over. There is a court hearing set for October 18th in an effort to overturn a decision to let West Ham move in. The case is based around the issue of whether West Ham United receiving a £40 million loan from Newham Council to finance the move, constituted state aid.
In terms of the amount of money West Ham look like they will receive for the move, and the amount of financial help other clubs have received when developing in deprived areas, the package of £17 million offered to Spurs is almost an insult, but in the current financial climate it is better than nothing.
The whole reason Spurs looked into moving into the Olympic Stadium in the first place was due to financial reasons, with the Olympic Stadium move potentially saving them half the amount of the Northumberland Park project. If they are to back out now, then the whole campaign would have been a huge waste of time and money.
If Spurs were to overturn the Olympic stadium decision then they would save more than the £17 million offered by the Mayor of London, but there are other factors that need to be considered.
Tottenham have always had the option on the table of regenerating their own White Hart Lane ground, however this stumbled after problems with the local council and suggestions by Daniel Levy that the deal was no longer financially viable.
If the deal wasn’t finacially viable, then I’m not sure how £17 million is going to ease their worries, especially when the whole package could cost them upwards of £400 million.
The Northumberland Park Development, would help to regenerate one of the most run down areas of London and kick-start a much wider scale of regeneration that would boost the local economy, as well as create jobs in the area. The stumbling block on the development has been with financial matters and transport issues, which could in some ways be resolved with the package offered to Tottenham.
As I understood it. a lot of the cost for the new stadium was to improve public transport and roads in the area.
Th 17 million is interesting but as London has not shown any interest in the transport improvements, this shows what London really thinks of the area and why there were riots.