Article by Matt Tumminia @MeCrazyMattClick here to listen to the e-Spurs Podcast!
Unless you have been living in a cave for the past 72 hours, the news that we will likely be playing the 2017-18 season away from White Hart Lane due to a legal battle between Archway Steel and Tottenham Hotspur can, in a word, be described as “Spursy”. Just when we feel like things are about to move forward with the new stadium and can begin to look towards a time where we will not be hindered by the small size of the Lane and compete financially with the other top clubs in England, we get brought back down to earth with the speed and quickness of a Chuck Norris-style roundhouse kick. Needless to say, this hurts. The light at the end of that tunnel which has been promised to us for more than a decade now seems further and further away with each passing week.
Only earlier this year, we thought we were finally given a pass to the promised land of financially competitiveness and turn our focus to what really matters in sport, results on the pitch, but that false dawn has again faded away to an even darker patch of night where we are left in a state of confusion and chaos. A perpetual dawn, if you will, one that will never lead to the sun finding its way over the horizon to shatter our blackest fears of being left behind in today’s modern football landscape.
Situations such as these cut deeper than issues on the pitch or with the players for we feel more powerless with no true enemy to direct our concerns, only questions from the lack of transparency of the conundrum where both sides play the role of hero and villain. Our concerns then turn to misdirected anger for fans to attack each other and hurl abuse via social media which compound matters and makes us supporters of Tottenham seem like simple minded Neanderthals who turn on each other instead of understanding the situation and banding together with our grief. It is a shame to see supporters attack each other over bits and pieces of news, which may or may not be true. Again, the lack of transparency is not helping matters but even if there was a full disclosure of all the facts and problems, many would still choose to sit on one side and fire verbal salvos at the other.
The truth of the matter is that this is business between two sides where neither side will concede any ground. Both camps have firmly dug their heels into the battleground and have no intention of making any concessions or negotiating outside of court. A war of attrition, if you will, but not on the pitch, instead this war will be fought by high-priced lawyers and legal advisers, consultants and judges inside a courtroom where injunctions and depositions will be thrown around like a beach ball at an outdoor festival. A bleak future for a group of loyal supporters who have been bled for every dime by the club, abused and assaulted by rival fan groups, lost cherished and idolised players every summer and yet still come back for more torture with a smile on their face. One begins to think it cannot possible get any worse, but as fate would have it, the club is presented with a few options of where we may be forced to play our football in 2017-18 and every single one of them has more negatives than positives.
-Wembley? No thanks. A stadium where our songs and chants can fall upon the upper tiers of empty seats to reverberate into hushed noise? Not to mention that the stadium also doubles as a concert venue, which could put whatever “home” matches we had in jeopardy. The FA does not allow for a club to have home matches in more than one stadium and it seems highly unlikely that they would cut us any breaks seeing how they are never just towards Tottenham (*cough* FA Cup ticket allocation *cough*). Besides, why would we want to play on a pitch where two of our most painful losses occurred: the 2010 FA Cup Semifinal defeat to a relegated Portsmouth squad devoid of real quality, and the 2012 FA Cup Semifinal thrashing at the hands of hated local rival, Chelsea. I’d rather them play on the moon than here, thank you very much.
-Stadium.mk? Nothing like a 50 mile drive to watch your “local” team play, huh? Yes, it may be a modernised stadium full of amenities and it has a wonderfully sculpted pitch with a capacity close to White Hart Lane but is anyone really going to make that commute every weekend or for midweek matches? If the answer to this question is yes, you are either local to the Stadium.mk or you are drunk.
-The Olympic Stadium? Share a ground with Wet Spam, mingle with them in their RV’s and campers while trying to understand the insults that they don’t speak, rather they regurgitate on an every week basis instead of twice a calendar year? A non-starter. Let’s not even entertain the thought.
-Upton Park? Our evil neighbours will be moving out and the stadium is due for demolition to make way for apartments but the owner may be willing to entertain a year lease for big money. In London but on the other side which on weekends, could take anywhere from 3hrs to 3 days. Not to mention we would never be able to get the stench out of that park from its previous tenants. Again, thanks but no thanks.
-The Emirates? Ok, this is about as controversial an option as one can present but just hear me out. It is local and Spurs and Arsenal do play their home matches on separate weekends to extreme levels of congestion in North London. It is a very good playing surface and seats 60,000. All positives so far but here are the two best reasons we should honestly give this option consideration: we can make it “our” home by actually singing and creating an atmosphere during the entire match, not simply when the home team scores a goal, and we can actually sell out the place. No more plastic bags over seats or huge chunks of empty spaces clearly visible, and noted by the commentators, during the television broadcast. Those two final reasons should sway even the most loyal Tottenham supporter who hates everything even closely related to our Woolwich neighbours.
So what do you think? Where should Tottenham call home for the 2017-18 season if in fact we cannot work out this issue and move into our new stadium?
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