Stratford's death still leaves us feeling White Hart Pain
So the High Court has refused our application for permission to bring a claim against the London Borough of Newham and the Olympic Park Legacy Company along with the Mayor of London and Government Ministers for the judicial review re: bid process for the OS.
What a guest list, would have been some party.
We await to see if Levy persists with this in the next few days (club can basically take an option to renew its application of complaint).
Vast majority (controversial?) of Spurs fans are probably more than happy to hear this news (happy and fed up) and hope the club, chairman and board of directors leave it in the past and move on with finding a true solution to the stadium issue. What's done is done. Right?
We've been told a few times by Levy that he can't reveal certain information due to the process at hand and from a business perspective, playing politics with local government can be a game of poker so he's hardly going to show us all of his cards. However, there has to be some transparency and based on the recent meeting between club and the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust it still sounds like we're walking through mud.
The NDP remains an expensive proposition, one without public sector funding. Which seems to be the excuse given (someone can remind me but I'm sure there's a fallacy surrounding Arsenal and the money they got for their stadium - i.e. they didn't).
In comparison (Stratford and the NDP) purely from a fiscal perspective (is there another perspective?) the OS was made priority because it would not have cost as much as remaining in N17 and in the long term was a far more achievable financial outgoing compared to the debt that will have accumulated with the NDP.
Business sense and shareholder gleefulness - Stratford was the answer. The other perspective? History of a geographical nature and various emotive arguments regarding identity. For most it was too much to ask and to see the club uproot and move from North London to the East. Progression off the back of increased revenue would secure the club's history even if we left our spiritual home, some said. Others preferred to remain anchored to the past and use that as the driving force to push on, remaining in N17, with an increased capacity.
There are arguments, good arguments for and against. But the one question that looks down at all of the in-fighting asks: Was it ever truly plausible for us to move to East London?
We've been over this a million times, so I wont lose myself in another rant. I will share a couple of thoughts off the back of the latest club statement.
Was the NDP ever viable? The reason I ask is, considering the business acumen of our chairman and the fact that forecasting every conceivable scenario would have been discussed in terms of the potentiality of increasing costs - why present the NDP as a viable project in the first place? Perhaps this is naivety on my part. I can appreciate that the NDP 'on paper' worked until it drowned in various red tape and outgoings once it began it's stuttering journey.
The more Stratford hogged the limelight, the less feasible the NDP became.
Stratford first appeared as a backup plan, then became our first choice (but there were mentions of it long before the NDP - the suggestion being it was always the clubs first choice). All guns blazing we went. Even though there were FA Premier League issues (ignored in the case of Orient post-decision) relating to boundaries and territory. Even if us bidding for it was (amongst the people locally and back in Tottenham) a non-starter - to Levy and from what we are made to believe certain people involved in the OS stadium process of selection and the Mayor - it was very much a competitive bid. One that stood a chance.
On paper, miles and miles ahead of West Ham's and in long term financial gain, utterly no competition when comparing the two clubs. The voting appeared to suggest that Tottenham never stood a chance. Hence the complaints made by club.
The crux of it falls on Daniel Levy. Here's me banging on about Machiavellian strategy and playing people off each other for our own gains, and yet looking back our hard nosed negotiator wore his heart on his sleeve. He was pro-Tottenham the club, the brand...and pro-Stratford to aid with elevating us to the next level of financial clout and stability. The sacrifice (the emotive stuff) worth while.
Did he genuinely believe we had a chance? Or did he expect to be p*ssing in the wind, all part of the game plan? Was the NDP only ever presented to us to appease the masses? Or is it still the ideal solution but one that simply isn't probable any more due to the constraints placed upon it?
Wouldn't moving to a different part of North London (or wherever else) equally see us battling against rising costs and political chess? As noted in the dismissal of the Tottenham Hale site.
Can't argue against Levy not wanting the best for the club. But that transparency, that direction...it's hard to know what we are concentrating on if we continue with our OS complaints whilst walking into brick walls that need to be knocked down first.
Perhaps everything that has played out has not been to his surprise. Although I can't quite grasp how any of it acts as a leverage towards the the NDP. But then I'm not a chairman of a football club and managing director of an investment company.
From the meeting with the THST:
“The Club is very busy behind the scenes trying to make the NDP viable”
If the OS never existed, what would our contingency plan be if the NDP went from viable to not being viable? Because that's where we currently stand at the moment.
It was never do or die for Stratford. Yet I can't shake off that feeling that some believe it to be the case.
