LM81 on SSC came through:
How Tottenham's Daniel Levy had the last laugh on West Ham over the Olympic Stadium
Tottenham Hotspur's Stadium TV webcam is the most watched construction site in the world with 1.2million viewers a month and there is at least one man who logs on without fail at 6am every morning.
Chairman Daniel Levy is the station’s most regular viewer, checking that work has started at the crack of dawn each day before making his breakfast or reading the latest headlines on West Ham United’s struggles at their new London Stadium.
Levy is leaving nothing to chance over the rebuilding of White Hart Lane and it is little wonder when the cost of seven tower cranes alone exceeded £6m because a lack of supply meant they had to be bought instead of rented.
The resale value, which Levy is so careful to protect when it comes to Tottenham’s players, has taken a hit by his decision to paint large Spurs badgers on the cranes although the 54-year-old will still probably try to negotiate a profit on them.
On the fourth floor of the old ground’s west stand, Levy may well find it hard not to utter the words ‘I told you so’ when he is joined by West Ham co-chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold, along with vice-chair Karren Brady, in the directors’ lounge for the final derby meeting between the two clubs at either of their traditional homes on Saturday.
Levy was widely derided for, in 2011, proposing that Tottenham would knock down the Olympic Stadium, build a new dedicated football arena on the site and refurbish Crystal Palace as a 25,000-capacity home for athletics. The plan largely clinched the Stratford venue for West Ham.
But five years later, the proposal does not look so crazy even though, despite the 6am starts to check Tottenham’s ‘Stadium TV’, Levy will now be relieved that it never came to fruition.
There was a warning from stadium expert Paul Fletcher that the only way to solve the mounting problems at the London Stadium would be to pull it down and rebuild it following the trouble between West Ham and Chelsea fans.
London mayor Sadiq Khan has ordered an independent inquiry into the conversion bill of the stadium that has risen by another £51million, due in large part to problems regarding the so-called retractable seating that has been installed.
The fact the seats take around 15 days to be manually removed and the same amount of time to be reinstalled means West Ham may not be able to play their first home game of next season until September because of the 2017 World Athletics Championships that take place in August.
Tottenham will not have any such worries when their new White Hart Lane home is complete. While the seats will not need moving, the plan is for a retractable pitch that will potentially allow NFL games to be played on the same weekend as Premier League matches.
As anchor tenants West Ham were only liable for £15m of their conversion costs and are paying £2.5m a year in rent for a stadium that is on course to cost £753m with the rest largely borne by the taxpayer.
In contrast, Deloitte has estimated that the new Tottenham stadium, which is scheduled to open at the start of the 2018-19 season, will be worth £370m in gross value added revenue to London.
While Spurs continue negotiations with a number of companies over a naming rights deal that will be worth upwards of £20m-a-year, West Ham are currently unlikely to find anybody willing to put their name to the London Stadium for around £6m-a-year of which the Hammers would pocket £1m.
Chairman of British Athletics Ed Warner had labelled Tottenham’s plan for Stratford as “woefully inadequate”, while Lord Coe, then chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, threw his support behind West Ham’s bid.
There is a theory inside Spurs that Coe’s stance amounted to an expensive job application for the presidency of the International Association of Athletics Federations.
Vinci, the company responsible for maintaining the London Stadium, have denied suggestions they have already examined the possibility of pulling out of their 25-year contract because of the issues raised since West Ham moved in.
But there have been disagreements over the criticism of the stewarding and West Ham’s apparent reluctance to fund security improvements or the cost of extra policing at games.
The Hammers have provided a handy guide on ‘how not to move into a new stadium’, but Levy will tell you he saw it all coming and his 6am starts ensure nothing escapes his watch on the White Hart Lane rebuild.
