I am, for my sins, a supporter of football, and in particular, the love of my sporting life Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. I dallied with Liverpool as a child in order to curry favour amongst my peer group and to irritate my family, but my heart always belonged at White Hart Lane. It is a magical place, and I wish I could go more often. Tottenham have been doing the unthinkable lately and being rather good, and I have loved every thrilling moment of it. The years of torment and frustration almost seemed worth it seeing us slaughter the current Champions of Europe, or come back from 2-0 down to beat the loathsome Arsenal at their awful vacuum of a stadium. However, there is a dark cloud looming on the horizon. Football is, and by and large always has been about the money. It is an inescapable fact that even going back many many years, Arsenal bribed their way into staying in the top flight, and have remained there ever since. As a Spurs fan, I feel I ought never to allow anyone to forget that. They have a history of cheating, deception and dishonesty, and it continues to this day in the way that they play and conduct themselves. Spurs are bidding to take over the new Olympic stadium when the games are finished. This has created a furore in the press for a few reasons. Firstly, West Ham have also put in a bid and it is much closer to their current ground than ours. Secondly, our bid includes the fact that we will rip up the athletics track and bring the seats closer to the action. This goes against the promise made when the bid to host the games was made. Thirdly, the majority of Spurs fans would like to stay where they are and redevelop what we have already. There are already plans in place, but we see it as vital to our identity to remain in the current place. I agree with the third point, and I would have for us to become the Stratford Spurs. I', not sure they would feel like my team anymore. However, there are some tremendous steaming great contradictions being spouted in the press that annoy me...none more so that that idiot Sebastian Coe. He is complaining that we promised to keep the Athletics track...but why did we promise this before we secured any such agreement with a tenant or a purchaser? British Athletics turned down the chance to buy it or lease it, because they couldn't afford it, so why build a stadium when they cant fill either Gateshead or Crystal Palace anyway? He is worried about the legacy that we could leave for future athletes should the evil empire from White Hart Lane take away the athletics track, ignoring a few simple things. Firstly, Spurs have offered to redevelop and improve the current facility at Crystal Palace as part of the deal, so no facilities would be lost. In fact, the capacity of Crystal Palace would be increased to 40000 rather than the proposed 25000 at the Olympic venue when the temporary sections are removed. Yes...that was in the original bid as well...we can build an 80000 seat venue, and remove 55000 seats afterwards...so much for the legacy. We must also look at the ex Conservative MPs idea of a legacy, considering that his party, with his blessing is reducing the Schools Sports Partnership scheme by 80% and thus directly affecting every single part of the country and their ability to participate in Athletics. If he was that bothered by it, he would be lobbying his own government in the press everyday. If we want to buck the trend of producing huge white elephant stadiums after the Olympic Games, then the Spurs bid actually gives us the opportunity to do so....I just hope that no one reads my extremely persuasive argument.
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