Not many football teams make headlines for performances on and off the pitch, but in recent times, Tottenham Hotspur have been one of those clubs. The North London club are the only unbeaten side in the Premier League this season, with an impressive 2-0 win over the league leaders, Manchester City. Their recent form has seen 888sport place them at 10/1 odds to be outright Premier League winners, behind City, Liverpool and rivals Arsenal. A bigger question at the moment hangs over the Tottenham’s new stadium, which they’ve been after for some time.
Following the success of Team GB at the 2012 London Olympic, the specially built Olympic Stadium at Stratford became available to bidders. A number of teams came forward, including Tottenham and West Ham, with the Hammers eventually being awarded the ground, which they subsequently renamed the London Stadium. Based on their recent performances at home, West Ham may wish they’d never moved ground at all.
After being turned down for the Olympic Stadium, Tottenham have since decided to demolish the existing White hart Lane and rebuild on the existing land, the new stadium is set to cost an estimated £400 million. The Northumberland Development project is the official scheme to replace the existing White Hart Lane as the new home ground for Tottenham Hotspur and they officially broke ground in 2014. It will take the best part of four years to finish all building work with planned opening date being in 2018.
Significant process has been made, as documented on the official Tottenham Twitter account. In the meantime, Tottenham will be playing all of their home Champions League fixtures at Wembley due to UEFA regulations regarding access to the ground and capacity. It is highly likely that Tottenham will also play all of their domestic matches at Wembley throughout the 2017-18 season too. Arsenal, previously played a number of their home games at Wembley throughout 1998-2000 due to UEFA demanding higher advertising hoardings.
Tottenham also plan to rename the existing ‘White Hart Lane station’ to the ‘Tottenham Hotspur Station’ to coincide with the new stadium’s opening in 2018. Tottenham have also paid for a redevelopment of the local area with 579 new homes built in the area plus a 180 bedroom hotel, now the Transport For London are demanding Spurs pay £12 million to rename the train station, especially with the costs of changing all the street signs and maps of the surrounding area.
Spurs fans will eagerly await the official opening of the new stadium and will look forward to seeing the likes of Harry Kane score at the new ground. Once completed, the new ground will also host at least two NFL International Series every year.