What you knew...
..as Spurs at The Legend is no more. It is with deep sadness that I announce the closure of what I hope was your favourite Spurs web site. There are many reasons why I have come to this decision, which has not been easy for me. I know that many of you rely on Spurs at The Legend for a great deal of Spurs related information. I can only apologise to you for not being able to keep this channel of information open any longer. I really wish that I could, but for the reasons outlined elsewhere in this message, I find that I am no longer able to.
Spurs at The Legend was one of the oldest, if not the oldest Spurs web site in existence. Since 1995, I have tried to offer Spurs fans as much information as I can. Now, that is no longer possible.
The closure of Spurs at The Legend made it on to Sky News. Click here to download a 6.5 meg video of Mike Sargent's report from 22 Dec 2000.
In the time that I have been producing Spurs at The Legend, it has been a great honour to serve you all. I have many happy memories, ranging from complimentary messages to meeting all the friends I have made through the site.
WHY?
Naturally, you may be wondering why I have decided to call it a day. So here are a bunch of reasons, all are true, all are part of it, some more so than others.
The thing that finally killed it off was the Football Association's insistence that independent football web sites should remove the fixture lists from their web sites, as the fixtures are copyright of the Football Association. Otherwise, a fee of three hundred pounds would be required to keep the fixtures where they were. This is obviously so blatantly greed-inspired it's not true. Fixtures have been in the public domain for ages, so who do they think we are ripping off? For any excuse to include advertising on independent sites, I have not made enough to cover costs incurred in the first five weeks of Spurs at The Legend, never mind over the last five or six years. Independent web sites promote the game and the club. If anything, sites such as Spurs at The Legend have contributed to football, not taken anything away from it.
Spurs at The Legend was featured in Manchester Utd's matchday programme. Although that was a great honour, I felt very upset at the same time, as Sugar's Spurs have never seen fit to feature Spurs at The Legend or any other independent Spurs web site in their own matchday programme. I found it remarkable that another club was able to do this, but not my own. Thank you Man U, it was appreciated.
For a while now I have found it difficult to keep Spurs at The Legend up to date. Most recently this has been due to pressures of work and studying and taking exams, which I passed, thankfully. Producing the goal videos takes a long time, especially when you get unpredictable technical problems associated with sampling video. You also lose the motivation to sit down and enjoy producing videos for three goals scored away at Bradford, that don't even produce a win in the end.
In the past I have been threatened by Alan Sugar's Spurs for things I have said on the Spurs-list, and have also had a big kick in the teeth with regard to Spurs at The Legend. When Alan Sugar and his people finally leave White Hart Lane, I shall feel more in a position to tell all, as currently I do not wish to lose my season ticket for fear of upsetting Mr Sugar. When Sugar leaves Spurs, be sure to come back here for more details.
Sugar's Spurs told me that they intended prosecuting everyone who runs an independent Spurs web site that contains any form of advertising whatsoever. Sites containing any Spurs imagery are liable to prosecution. If you remember, in late 1999 / early 2000, Sugar's Spurs wanted to trademark and / or copyright the name 'Tottenham'. This naturally ludicrous idea was roundly condemned by everyone, especially those who live and work in Tottenham, and other non-football associations with the word 'Tottenham' in their name. When I asked about other independents who use Spurs imagery, say, the unlicensed street sellers who sell Spurs hats and scarves, I was told that Sugar's Spurs wanted to clean those up as well. Sugar's Spurs wanted to take action against anyone who made any money out of Tottenham. I did not ask if this also meant the publishers of the Spurs fanzines, the local traders in the area, and the public transport services. I'm quite sure that Sugar's Spurs will make a tidy sum if and when they sue every pub in Tottenham High Road for all the beer consumed over the last ten years.
ISP's
Spurs at The Legend used to be hosted by Easynet. This is a dirty word to me. In 1999, they wrote to me stating that as my web site had high bandwidth, they would close me down in a week, unless I rectified the situation. This bandwidth issue was not in the original terms and conditions when I signed up to Easynet. You can see the letter they sent to me here. Countless telephone calls went unanswered, as no one in authority there would speak to me. I continually asked what part of my web site was causing the most bandwidth, so that I could remedy it. Easynet would not tell me, as they said no logs were available. I found this confusing; how could they tell what bandwidth I was pushing out then? They said that their system is able to determine the top five or ten web sites in terms of bandwidth, and a letter is automatically sent out to the owners threatening closure. Finally, someone there told me that the goal videos were causing the bandwidth problem. I took steps to reduce the videos' size by half, and the threat of closure was apparently lifted. Then, they closed my site without first informing me. At this point, (around the time of Ginola's stunning goal in the cup at Barnsley) I was ill at the time, and I had just a week to find a new ISP. Luckily, I found Force9. I am unable to recommend Easynet to anyone.
So, after all that, I give up.
LINKS
There are a great many Spurs web sites that give you all sorts of wonderful Spurs information. My favourites are…
Paul Smith - Paul's match reports graced Spurs at The Legend for a long time. At Spurs Odyssey, they live on.
Bob Excell - Bob's web site gives all of Tottenham's scores going back to their first season, in 1882.
Sean St Leone - Sean the Bastard's very anti-Arsen*l site gives you the low down on why all true Spurs fans hate that other team so much. Warning: contains plenty of offensive language.
Matt Cook - Glory Glory is a fine site, with a lot of very good information, and updated news throughout the day.
THANKS TO…
I would like to thank the following people who have made contributions of varying degrees, all of which are greatly appreciated…
Brian Judson - Brian wrote the match previews for me. This was a wonderful service, containing stacks of info about previous encounters as well as looking forward to the game itself. Brian also wrote many of the match reports while he was still able to attend games.
Paul Smith - Paul wrote many of the match reports that featured on Spurs at The Legend. Thankfully, you can still keep up with Paul's reports, by visiting Spurs Odyssey.
Many others have also contributed in other ways. Please forgive me if I have left you out, and let me know if I ought to include you. Thank you.
Graham Hulyer, Gavin Jones, Dave du Vergier, Ally Cooke, Peter Drabwell, Simon Berest, Elaine Lewis, Bruce Munro, Colin Harris, Fredrik Eriksen, James Lambrianou, Paul Bonham, Paul Nicholas, Dale Cleary, Óskar Jóhannsson, Chris Fincham, Matthew Wong, Geoff Mills, Declan Mulcahy, Johan Ahman, Tony Rubin, Chris Checketts, Paul Warwicker, Gareth Poulter, Glenn-Roger Busch Eidshaug, Peter Corry, Raj Mehra, Tony Lacatena, Dr Ivan (Dr Hotspur) Cohen, Tomas Lundstrom, James Fairbairn, Neil Deamer, Bill Leask, Stuart Costin, Rob Lee, Rikard Samuelsson, Stuart Costin, Stephen Pleasant, Anders Jansson, Lakis Michelis
Finally, thanks to all of you out there, who have made the hard work worth it. I am desperately sorry that I can no longer carry on with Spurs at The Legend. I hope you find what you want elsewhere, and that you always remember the special times you experienced while visiting my personal shrine to all things Spurs.
"And the Spurs go marching on…TOTTENHAM!"
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- Bruce Lewis, December 2000
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