Today saw Tottenham Hotspur football club announce that the opening of their new stadium at White Hart Lane is delayed yet again! In announcing that their November fixtures will be staged at Wembley Stadium, instead of at the new 62,000 capacity venue, the club confirmed that their new home, originally scheduled to host Liverpool in league action on Sept 15, won’t be ready until December.
According to NBC Sports: “Whispers and rumors continue to suggest that Spurs may not be able to move into their new home until January 2019 at the earliest.”
The club confirmed that the league clash with defending champions Manchester City, which they had hoped to play at their new home, will now be played on Oct. 29 at the national stadium. The contest had to be moved back a day due to the NFL clash between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Jacksonville Jaguars being staged at the venue.
Spurs also stated that all three of their home UEFA Champions League group stage games (Barcelona, Oct. 3), (PSV Eindhoven, Nov. 6) and (Inter Milan, Nov. 28), will all be moved to Wembley now.
“We should like to apologise to both our and Manchester City fans for this fixture having to be moved to a weekday evening and any inconvenience caused,” reads a THFC statement, attributed to Chairman Daniel Levy.
“Despite the possibility that our new stadium could be ready to host this match, this would not be known until much closer to the date of the game. We have therefore agreed with the Premier League that, in the interests of clarity and certainty, we shall confirm this game as taking place at this time at Wembley Stadium so that fans of both teams can now make travel arrangements accordingly.”
Levy continued:
“The consequences of not being able to open our new stadium on 15 September against Liverpool have been immense.”
“Building a venue of this scale that is open to the general public is a huge undertaking. We are creating, in Tottenham, a unique world class stadium with pioneering technology and engineering.”
“Amongst the consequences of the delay have been substantial additional costs, not least of which the need for alternative venue hire, along with the inconvenience for our fans and those of our opposition.”
“I want to apologise once again and thank you all for your support, many of you have taken the time to write to us and commend what we are doing for the Club. When you face times like this in an organisation it’s teamwork and pulling together that gets you through.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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