Karren Brady has risked the wrath of West Ham fans by bragging about how the club “beat” bitter rivals Spurs to the London Stadium.
Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy and West Ham vice-chair Karren Brady actually used to be good friends.
But their relationship soured when the London rivals did battle over the Olympic Stadium.
The tussle even resulted in court action over an alleged spying scandal where Brady was the target – as reported by BBC Sport at the time.
There is no love lost between West Ham and Tottenham at the best of times.
However, the stadium saga ensured relations in the boardroom turned particularly frosty.
West Ham were awarded the anchor tenancy of the ground, leaving their beloved Upton Park against the wishes of many fans back in 2016.
Since then the London Stadium has earned a reputation as one of the worst grounds in the Premier League.
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Meanwhile Tottenham moved on and built one of the best stadiums in the world right next to their former White Hart Lane home.
West Ham may have one of the biggest stadiums in the country, but it’s not without its problems.
One of the major grievances for Hammers fans about the ground has always been the distances between the upper and lower tiers in places and from the terraces to the pitch.
Is it any wonder given they have gone from Upton Park, where supporters were almost on top of the players on the pitch, to the bowl-shaped former Olympic Stadium.
Brady brags about how West Ham beat Spurs to stadium
Since moving to Stratford, there has been in-fighting, pitch invasions and protests with the stadium the issue at the heart of all the problems.
The biggest shift has been the atmosphere.
It has taken years of adjustment and the atmosphere has suffered.
West Ham are regularly taunted by their opponents – and especially Spurs – ‘you sold your soul for this s—hole’.
After a period of relative serenity, Hammers fans have been particularly vocal about their dislike of the stadium in recent weeks.
But it appears the club’s vice-chair is blissfully unaware.
Because Brady completely misses the point as she brags about how West Ham beat Spurs to the stadium most of their fans can’t stand.
Jack Sullivan, son of West Ham majority owner David Sullivan, has been co-hosting The Boardroom podcast with Sky Sports reporter Mark McAdam.
Their guest this week was Brady and she opened up on the “battle” with Tottenham for the former Olympic Stadium.
But all she has done is prove Spurs dodged a massive bullet and had the right idea all along.
The Baroness proudly trumpets the fact West Ham agreed to keep the Olympic Legacy – the one thing which effectively prevents the London Stadium being a proper bona fide football arena.
And she says the Hammers won the race because Tottenham wanted to knock it down – something most West Ham fans feel their club should have pushed to do.
Brady misses point as Spurs were the real winners
“This was an opportunity of having the Olympic Stadium and so began the journey,” Brady said on The Boardroom, speaking from West Ham’s rented home.
“It began the journey of understanding that we had to tighten costs, grow revenue, build a brand, have a long term strategy, move into the stadium, get into Europe. You know those, those are all the things that we had on our wish list and those are the things we’ve we’ve done and we’ve achieved…
“I always make the decisions I believe are right for the right reasons, and coming here was the right decision for the right reason. I knew there would always be an element of supporters that didn’t want to.
“And people don’t like change. I mean, it’s true, most people want things to stay the same. But actually, without change you can’t evolve and this stadium has given us a platform on which we’ve continued to grow the club. It’s led us to win a European trophy, it’s given the opportunity for 35,000 families to come in here every match day.
“We have the cheapest season tickets despite being in a new stadium in London in the Premier League. We have the cheapest adult season ticket of £345. All of those things are possible because we’re here and all of the good work that we do in the community, the 10s and 10s of millions of pounds we invest locally is all because we are here.
“So l think you have to try and bring people on the journey with you. We tried really very hard. Lots of people are now used to the stadium. You get into new habits, you find new friends, you find new routes to getting here, new places, drinking and everything is calm. And people, I think, are now beginning to realise that it’s not stadiums that create atmospheres, it’s supporters. And they’ve had some brilliant nights here. And long may it continue.”
Tottenham plan was what most West Ham fans really wanted
Opening up on beating Spurs to the stadium, Brady said ‘we won it a few times and then we didn’t win, it was a bit like getting jilted at the altar’.
“We sort of made it all the way to the front and then sort of stood up, but it’s at those times you have to show your real test of character because a lot of people would have given up,” Brady added.
“It was tough, but we battened down the hatches, we carried on with it. We knew it was important, we knew our bid was the best and it was always the best and there were five criteria that they marked it against and we won in all five criteria against all of the other clubs that wanted it and we delivered the legacy.
“The park wouldn’t be as vibrant… so it was a long process. It wasn’t an easy process I mean, Spurs came in I think on the second or third round and were quite quickly dismissed because they didn’t want to keep the legacy. They didn’t want athletics. They wanted to knock it down.
“But we knew that all of the things that had been promised that this stadium would deliver would only be delivered with us here. We knew that we could fill it, that we could generate the revenues it needed to survive, that it had a focus and all of those things we’ve delivered.”