The increasingly bitter off-field battle between Tottenham Hotspur andWest Ham United to occupy to the Olympic park after the 2012 Games intensified today as both sides submitted their final bids to the body that will decide their fate next week.
As both football clubs lined up experts and celebrity backers to make their case, outraged Team GB athletes said they would launch a high-profile protest against the Spurs bid.
But the Tottenham chairman, Daniel Levy, appealed to fans as Pelé entered the fray, saying only the club's bid, which would remove the track, made financial sense.
Long jumper Greg Rutherford said there would be a huge backlash from athletes if the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), chaired by Lady Ford, decided to plump for Spurs – whose bid also involves an almost complete rebuilding of the area.
"The thought of it angers me. It makes no sense. You can't build a beautiful, inspiring stadium like that and then go and destroy it," Rutherford said.
"There will be outrage from the athletics community. There would be some level of petition. Every athlete in the country, past and present, would sign it."
Spurs, who argue that providing a refurbished 25,000-seat athletics stadium at Crystal Palace alongside a new 60,000 capacity football ground on the Olympic site is the only commercially viable solution, also hit back at claims that taking down the existing structure would be a waste of public money and harm the environment.
Its experts said it would reuse 80% of the existing infrastucture of the £496m stadium. "Football and athletics cannot coexist successfully in the same stadium," Levy said.
"There are examples all over the world of where clubs have removed tracks or moved stadiums simply because of the poor spectator experience and the lack of sustainability in the long term due to decreasing attendances."
Pelé, in an unlikely intervention, said in a letter to the OPLC: "I really don't understand wanting to play with a track around the pitch. The players don't like it and it probably won't last."
The OPLC faces a tough choice between the Spurs bid – which appears more commercially robust and is backed by the O2 operator AEG – and West Ham's joint bid with Newham council, which proposes to retain the track in recognition of the promises made when London won was awarded the Games in 2005 and has strong community elements.
A third option – to go back to the original plan of reducing the capacity to leave a 25,000-seat athletics stadium – remains a fallback option, but would require finding a tenant to begin all over again. West Ham are bottom of the Premier League and have spent much of the season in turmoil, enabling Spurs to question whether they would be able to fill a 60,000-seat stadium with a running track.
Tottenham point to their 34,000-strong season ticket waiting list and AEG's proven track record as evidence of the solidity of their plans.
But most of those involved in winning the Games for London, including Lord Coe, the chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Games, and the former culture secretary Tessa Jowell, have loudly campaigned for the track to be retained under the West Ham plan.
The east London club argue they are the natural tenant, and insist their business case stacks up even if they are relegated.
The Newham mayor, Sir Robin Wales, said today that the West Ham bid, which would also stage Twenty20 cricket matches and concerts, was best for the community and insisted it would work as a multi-purpose stadium.
"We are going to make this a fantastic centre that will be good for the community, good for London and good for the country," he added. "This is a magnificent stadium in a magnificent setting and we have a fantastic bid. West Ham have been very imaginative."
Newham is lending West Ham's bid £40m towards the £100m-plus cost of converting the stadium for post-Games use. "We're making a loan, we get that back. It's costing us nothing – in fact, we make money out of it," Wales said.
In his open letter to fans, some of whom have protested against the idea of moving away from Tottenham, Levy promised them "one of the finest stadiums in the world" if it was chosen. The OPLC board hopes to make a decision by Friday 28 January.
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