The owners have frequently talked about ambition for West Ham to become a top six side in the future and that starts with closing the gap on Spurs they claim.
In terms of financial power, West Ham lags behind their North London rivals. Tottenham published their accounts for 2016 last month showing an increase in turnover to just under £210m to compared to the Hammers £142m for the same period last season.
Spurs Premier League gate receipts were £22.2m. Like the Hammers White Hart Lane sold out for all Premier League home games but they claim to have a waiting list for season tickets of 63,200 compared to our 55,000 waiting list. They reached the round of 16 of the UEFA Europa League resulting in gate receipts and prize money of £18.7m. Revenue from the domestic cup competitions earned the Club £2.4m. Television and media revenues rose to £94.8m after they finished third in the Premier League.
In reality, their income will continue to outstrip West Ham’s as the Champions League mega money comes through this season and they look odds on favourite’s to qualify again this season and continue on that money trail.
Next season they will play at Wembley and could see regular attendances of over 80,000. In February this year, they had an attendance of 80,465 that watched Tottenham v Gent which is a new UEFA Europa League attendance record, beating the previous high set when Manchester United met Liverpool last season. They have applied to Brent Council to hold Premier League games at the full 90,000 capacity for the next two seasons.
Their new 61,000 capacity £800million stadium should be ready ahead of the 2018-19 season. Although they will need to fund it for many years, it has been purpose built for football, they own it and will, therefore, sell the naming rights for as much as £20m per year and they keep all the catering and pouring income.
Although technically West Ham will one day have the ability to claim a 66,000 capacity rented stadium, the when is less clear due to a requirement for planning permission for extra toilet and catering to cope with 9,000 additional match day fans. The stadium owners and the club are currently at a stalemate over money at the moment and any increase from 57,000 is debatable for next season as it stands. Spurs also plan to sign up an American football franchise for their new stadium.
On the pitch is probably the biggest gap. Despite Spurs being the sixth biggest turnover in the Premier League, they have outperformed their financial might on the pitch last season and again this season.
They have 71 points and are in second place just four points behind league leaders Chelsea while West Ham settles for 13th position on 37 points.
Their chairman rarely talks to the media, is not on twitter and never makes promises or statements he can not realistically deliver. We may not like Levy but it hard not to admire his business acumen and transfer dealings.
They have invested wisely and bought and developed youngsters. Eastender Harry Kane was a youth product of their academy and they signed a young Delli Alli for £5m from MK Dons in 2015 to name just a few.
Pochettino is a well-respected manager. He has a squad of players that routinely outclass their opposition in terms of distance covered on the pitch. With training sessions allegedly higher in intensity than matches and a rigorous preseason training regime, Pochettino ensures that even if his team lose, it would not be due to a lack of effort.His team rarely lose, especially at home. They have an impeccable defence and has conceded the fewest goals in the league.
The core of the Spurs side is refreshingly young with Harry Kane at 23, Dele Alli at 21 and Christian Eriksen at 24, among others. The Argentinian manager seems comfortable to integrate a steady inflow of talent from the youth academy, there is no other manager who would be quite as prepared to risk his reputation for giving youth a chance.
On the flip side, it is true that we have the largest TV screen in Europe at the London Stadium but this is the only thing we could claim to have the upper hand over them over the foreseeable future. It pains me to write all of this and embarrassing that our club boasts the largest TV screen in Europe as a positive.
However, we have closed the gap on the physical distance between the two clubs, West Ham is only 4.5 miles away from White Hart Lane compared to 6.4 miles away from the Boleyn ground. By road, the shortest route is 5.8 miles along the A10 while it would be 10.5 miles by road from the Boleyn ground.
In reality beyond TV screens and physical distance, we will not be catching Spurs anytime soon and not be joining the top six anytime soon either. It is time we just accept that and move on.