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Spurs need to move on from Olympic Stadium bid

Thank goodness common sense has seen Spurs fail in their bid for a judicial review into the decision to grant occupancy of the Olympic Stadium to West Ham following next year’s London Olympics.

With plans to rip up the running track and convert it into a football only stadium, Spurs always risked losing out when the decision was made.

One of the pledges made when bidding to host the Olympics was that there would be a track and field legacy for the stadium. Unlike the 2002 Commonwealth Games stadium, which was built with a view to completing it after the Games had concluded and transforming the stadium into one designed solely for football, there was no such plan with the London Olympic Stadium.

Any such work would require dismantling and partially rebuilding the stadium. The result of that would be that despite hosting both a Commonwealth Games and an Olympic Games event in the space of a decade, England would be left with no suitable venue for a major athletics event in the future, something which would be a quite ludicrous situation.

It’s true that athletics is not amongst the most popular sports in the UK. But that doesn’t give football a right to trample all over it and ensure that things remain that way.

What if thousands of youngsters are inspired to get involved, not only in athletics, but in a host of other less high profile sports, directly as a result of the Olympics? What if those who are too young to compete in next year’s Games saw the 2017 World Athletics Championships – an event which London may bid to host – as one which they could work towards competing in? Inspiration generated a prospect of competing in a major championships on home soil.

The original decision to award occupancy to a tenant who would retain the stadium’s ability to host track and field events was the correct one. Daniel Levy and Spurs need to simply accept that.

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