West Ham
West Ham United have beaten Tottenham Hotspur to London's Olympic Stadium, according to the BBC.
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| Olympic Stadium |
After a bitter battle between the two London clubs, the East Londoners are set to be announced as the Olympic Park Legacy Committee's preferred tenant.
Neither club has much in reality to celebrate. While Tottenham will now retreat from their audacious cross-city foray to their original plan to rebuild their White Hart Lane home, the club remains marooned in a grubby neighbourhood with poor accessibility.
Hammers fans on the other hand will benefit from 25,000 more seats than at present and Stratford's modern transport hub but will have to bring their binoculars to spy the action across an eight-lane running track, whatever the optimistic artists' impressions show.
Athletics and football do not make happy bedfellows and the marriage may end in divorce, but at least the stadium decision, set to be rubber-stamped by the government, respects geography, history and the civic pride of hosting the Olympic Games, of which track events are the blue riband.
(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile