Source: Daily_Mail
West Ham's plans for Olympic Stadium would turn it into graveyard says Harry Redknapp
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has criticised West Ham's plans to retain an athletics track if they move to the Olympic Stadium, saying the venue would become a 'desolate graveyard'.[LNB]Redknapp's current club are competing with the Hammers, who he managed from 1994 until 2001, for the right to move into the stadium in Stratford, east London, after the 2012 Games.[LNB]While Spurs propose to transform the stadium into a football-only venue and redevelop the Crystal Palace athletics stadium, West Ham intend to retain the running track so that the stadium can be a multi-use site.[LNB] Power struggle: West Ham and Tottenham are both set on a switch to the venue in Stratford [LNB]Redknapp believes the Hammers' proposal would 'kill' the atmosphere at the stadium.[LNB]'Try to mix football and athletics and you end up with a great big bowl of nothing,' Redknapp said in his column in The Sun.[LNB]'The windblown no man's land between a pitch and the stands can kill football.' [LNB]He added: 'We keep hearing about the Olympic legacy and the need to have a world-class athletics stadium after the 2012 Games in London. But my big fear is that if West Ham move into a stadium in Stratford with a whacking great running track around the pitch, the only legacy for them will be a nightmare.[LNB] The future? Spurs' legacy as north London club would end with a move east[LNB]'And what if West Ham are relegated this season and then find themselves in a 60,000-capacity stadium in a Championship match.[LNB]'Can you imagine? Half the seats would be empty and it would become a desolate graveyard for a once-great club.[LNB]'Look around the world - most foreign clubs with any sense are abandoning the combination stadium idea. Lots of German clubs experimented with it in the past and now they are being dug up and relaid with turf.'Stuttgart is one example where the club is moving to a whole new stadium to get back to the traditional layout of a football ground. 'Upton Park was and still is one of the great grounds for atmosphere. These days it doesn't happen so often but on the big nights, especially for cup games, the place can rock. In the old days, you would actually see the fans swaying as they sang 'Bubbles' in the old Chicken Run.[LNB] Desolate graveyard? If West Ham are relegated their players could be faced with swathes of empty seats[LNB]'The only other place in football that could compare to it was Liverpool, when the fans sang 'You'll Never Walk Alone' on the Kop. 'In contrast, Chelsea used to have a dog track around their pitch at Stamford Bridge and the place really struggled for atmosphere. It was so wide open and any atmosphere evaporated quickly.'Chelsea now have a tight, compact, steep-sided ground and the atmosphere is much better. White Hart Lane too is now totally closed in and the noise is terrific - among the best in the country. 'Even if Spurs do win the race against West Ham to make it their new home, by the time all the development is finished I might not be at the club anyway. [LNB]'It's just that in my heart I dread to think what could eventually happen to West Ham if they moved to the main Olympic Stadium and do not heed the warnings. I hate going to grounds where there is a running track to get past before you see Subbuteo-sized footballers through your opera-style binoculars.' [LNB]The president of the International Association of Athletics Federations Lamine Diack has warned that Britain's sporting reputation will be 'dead' if the Spurs proposal is accepted and the athletics track is removed.[LNB]No time to take chances: Redknapp has seen a number of clubs try and fail to make dual-use stadiums work[LNB]The Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) will today receive final submissions from Tottenham and West Ham, who would keep the athletics track, ahead of a likely decision next week.[LNB]Meanwhile, Tottenham director Sir Keith Mills has stressed their bid for the Olympics Stadium would not leave London without an athletics track, following the criticism from Diack.[LNB]However, Mills is not convinced a multi-purpose athletics and football stadium would be the right option from a financial point of view.[LNB]Speaking to BBC Radio Four's Today programme, Mills - who is also the deputy chairman of LOCOG - said: 'Lamine Diack quite rightly wants to see the Olympic legacy left in London and both of the bids on the table provide an athletics legacy.[LNB]'The issue here, and the one the OPLC will be looking at in the next 10 days, is what's going to provide the best long-term legacy for London and for the country.[LNB]'And that's all about which of the two bids is going to be economically viable in the long term.[LNB]'It's a difficult decision and we looked at during the bid whether an 80,000 seater stadium would work for a Premier League football club and determined that wouldn't work.[LNB]'I could roll off a list of a dozen stadiums that have athletics tracks and that historically have had a list of football teams, but the football teams have all moved away because they don't work in multi-purpose built stadiums.[LNB]'At the end of the day this is an economic argument. Someone has to pay for the next several decades for the stadium, and if West ham have found a way to work that economically, the OPLC will look on that favourably.[LNB]'But I find that difficult to see.' Lord Coe warned over plan to rip up track at the Olympic StadiumSpurs v West Ham: the key points in battle to take over the Olympic StadiumWest Ham ponder moves for Blackburn bad boy Diouf, Keane and BaAll the latest Tottenham news, features and opinionAll the latest West Ham news, features and opinion[LNB] Explore more:People: Keith Mills, Harry Redknapp Places: Liverpool, London, Olympic Stadium
