The Winner Takes It All?

The fight is on for West Ham or Tottenham to get the Olympic Stadium after the games. The preferred decision will be made this Friday and they are two completely different bids. West Ham will keep the running track, Tottenham will rip it down and start again. After speaking to a few fans from both clubs neither of them want it. So whats the answer then? I don't have one to be honest but what seems to be being forgotten is firstly the feelings of the fans of BOTH clubs but more importantly the impact this will have on teams that are not in the Premiership. Its time to have my say, perhaps give a different perspective on what I see being a total disaster not only for the clubs bidding but for those other clubs around them. Firstly West Ham.

Why on earth they want it is beyond me to be honest. They cannot fill Upton Park but feel that they will double their gate. Will they? No chance. They will have to cut admission prices and spend more money than they have. I'm all for change and such like but this is crass and is being conducted against the wishes of the fans. Does that bother the owners? Nope why should it. They have a dream, which is all well and good but reality must kick in at some point, and realise that this will not only potentially saddle the club with more debt but also alienate their supporters. Is there such a clamour for tickets at West Ham that they need this ground? No is the simple answer as they cant sell out Upton Park now and have had to reduce ticket prices for a few games this season already. I'm sorry but this is wrong and cannot be allowed to happen.

So that leaves us with Tottenham. A team who's history is steeped in North London wanting to throw that all away and move to East London. Apparently they have 35,000 people waiting to buy season tickets. Fair enough expand White Hart Lane then!. How on earth can you have a North London derby if one of you is in East London?. Tottenham's fan base now is more Hertfordshire rather than North London so how is that going to work?. It smacks of utter greed to me and nothing else. All that history, all those years, to be ripped up and moved to East London of all places. Nope this cannot be allowed to happen either.

There is another reason though why this cannot be allowed to happen and those teams and people that don't live in the Premier League haven't even thought about this and that tells me this is all about money and nothing else. There is a team that is ONE stop away on the tube from where these giants of the game wish to move to and no one has even thought about them for one minute. Leyton Orient FC will die if either of these clubs get the stadium. Sound dramatic? It may not happen overnight but IT will happen. Lets look at some issues that will arise shall we.

To fill the stadium West Ham will reduce ticket prices. Where do they think the fans will come from? Yes that's right they will come from the LOCAL area. Kids that would have gone and supported their local club, in this case Leyton Orient, will be attracted by the so called stars of the Premier League and wont want to go their LOCAL club. They will be attracted by cheap tickets and Premier League football. There is nothing wrong with that apart from the fact that the big clubs get bigger and the smaller clubs die. Where are the new players going to be able to go and ply their trade?. Where are the kids going to get a feel for REAL football, not some inflated overpriced footballer who doesn't care about them. This doesn't only affect Leyton Orient it will affect Dagenham and Redbridge as well.

These clubs find it hard enough to survive on the gates they get at the moment without the lure of the big boys trampling all over the little teams. It has to be stopped, for the good health of football in this country. Whether they like it or not the Premier League NEEDS Leagues 1 and 2 and the teams in them. We are the life blood of football in this country. We are the HEART of football. We dont follow the big boys because its fashionable. We go to OUR clubs because they make us feel special. They make us fell part of the club and the community. We may not have the best grounds in the world but we have CHARACTER. Something that these concrete IKEA griounds will never have. We take their players on loan and PLAY them. We let them have game time so as they can get better. We dont want West Ham or Tottenham moving into Stratford. They will kill us stone dead. Fans will not go with their Dads and Grandads to watch us and so over a period of 10 to 15 years there will be no more youngsters being blooded into the ways of a proper football club.

We all know the Premier League would love to have the Championship as a Premier League 2 and make all the other clubs go part-time. We are seen as an inconvenience to them, a blot on their resources. This needs to go to a public vote and its about time the government got out of their shells and did something about this happening. Money shouldn't be the be all and end all of football in this country. Its about whats right and wrong.

In my opinion this is wrong. For West Ham, for Tottenham but more importantly its wrong for Leyton Orient FC and Dagenham and Redbridge FC. Two small local clubs that the big boys think they can walk all over whenever they feel like it. Its time to make a stand people, its time to say NO. After all the winner takes it all don't they?.