West Ham Win Bidding War With Tottenham For Olympic Stadium

The Olympic Park Legacy Company have decided that West Ham's bid for the Olympic Stadium is superior to the one submitted by Tottenham Hotspur.

Now the OPLC will be required to present their findings at a meeting on Friday before the government and London's mayor Boris Johnson will make their final decision in a few weeks times.

The news comes after months of planning and preparation by both bidding teams, with the first rumours of Tottenham submitting a rival bid to West Ham coming in July 2010. But that was only the start of the controversy.

Tottenham planned to maintain an 80,000 capacity but tear down the existing stadium to build a venue purpose-built for the sole use of football was released in November, which completely opposed West Ham’s proposal to keep the athletics track as part of a mixed-use community-centric stadium.
This led to the West Ham owners David Sullivan and David Gold, along with right-hand woman Karren Brady starting a war of words against the Tottenham hierarchy, before Spurs' own fans began to protest against the proposed move away from N17 during a game against Liverpool.

To combat the planned demolition of the athletics track, Spurs proposed a redevelopment of the decrepit Crystal Palace National Sports Centre as the two were asked for more information about their plans for the stadium by the OPLC in January.