Update from anti-Stratford move movement We are N17 on their meeting with Daniel Levy. Key extracts below. All very diplomatic and olive branchy:
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04/02/2011 - Statement & Details of meeting with Daniel Levy (Chairman) and Donna Cullen (Director of Communications)
DL indicated that he believed the views of We Are N17 and our overall goal of ensuring the club will not move to Stratford was detrimental to future of the football club.
We Are N17 believe that a move to Stratford would be detrimental in a different way. Whilst the financial considerations relating to building a new stadium may favour a move, we suggested that this should not be ‘at any cost’. DL and DC agreed and said that they’d stay in Tottenham if it were possible but at this time it is not viable to do so. We suggested that staying in Tottenham would not ‘kill’ the club and that other clubs accept the circumstances of their locality. DC mentioned that THFC would remain a London club and we asked at what point within London do you draw the line and where is too far to move; it was said that we are Tottenham Hotspur, not London Hotspur.
It was agreed that neither party expects the club to have to change its name, regardless of a move.
DL said that he is not interested in selling the club following a move and that he does not believe AEG are interested in buying the club. He also said that he’d be more inclined to sell if the club does not move.
DL promised a full consultation would be conducted with the fans.
DL said that the Northumberland Development Project (NDP) is no longer viable.
It was raised that we believed the club’s communications with fans to be misleading.
The club did not really argue this point and DC said ‘it suited their purpose’ when asked about the content of the statements released thus far.
DL said (despite his recent interview) that there is no other site in mind nor available to move to other that Stratford.
The idea of We Are N17’s involvement in any future ‘breakaway’ club was also mentioned and dismissed.
Full statement can be read here.
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Olympic Stadium/site decision this week apparently. If it's not awarded to us, then what?
For all this talk of Levy being shrewd and a master negotiator you think placing all eggs in one basket is perhaps a tad risky considering he's playing with the future of our club, right? Because his stance is the NDP is not viable and that's that (and we'll be told afterwards why that's the case but confidentiality reasons remain paramount at this time) so we'd have to look elsewhere, outside of N17 no matter what. Which might be as non-viable in cost and effort and time as perhaps re-looking at the NDP whilst awaiting the council to help themselves by helping us. And it still remains cloudy in terms of the apparent urgency to move move move when there's a possibility Stratford might not happen, leaving us where exactly in the long term? Do people who support the move understand this element of the argument because it's the sticking point for me, always has been, and people seem to dismiss it with plenty of 'Levy knows best' types of comments.
So let's hope Levy does know best and is conjuring up a magic trick to make it look impossible to stay where the Hart is so that if the OS is not awarded to us, he then does what he knows he can do to claw back the NDP and be called a genius for doing it - whilst the anti-move crowd are told to calm down because the chairman always had our best intentions at heart, he just can't be displaying them out in the open. Because it's not like you'd show everyone your hand whilst playing a game of poker, no?
Yadda yadda yadda. I live in hope.
Also, Martin Cloake (who addressed a fine letter to the club via his blog) has received a response. Who would think after all these years of my good self addressing the club that if I stopped short of sending dead animal parts in parcels along with the correspondence that I too could have shared something similar. Shame the club failed to consider the efforts of hunting down said animals and...well, let's leave it there.
Martin's original open letter here.
The blog covering off the clubs response to him here.
ta,