The new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is going to be a lot more than just a replacement for White Hart Lane. The new grounds will also serve as a centerpiece of a recreational district in a London neighborhood that is a prime candidate for gentrification.
The new Tottenham stadium will also become the NFL’s new home to games played in London. Perhaps it will even be home to a NFL franchise in the capital of Great Britain?
That would be one major long term goal. One major short term goal, however, is the concept of Barclay’s Premier League football and National Football League competition taking place on the same day.
Mark Waller, the NFL’s executive vice president of international, thinks it could happen.
Waller told ESPN’s Ashley Fox: “One of the idle thoughts we have at the moment is would you really be able to play an NFL game and an EPL [English Premier League] game on the same day as a double header?”
“It wouldn’t be absolutely out of the question. I don’t think you’d want to do it on a regular basis, but on a unique feature, that might be a really interesting idea.”
Tottenham Hotspur Chairman Daniel Levy added: “I don’t think it’s something we’d want to try our first game, but that is certainly realistic. How exciting the idea of having the two biggest leagues in the world from a television perspective — fantastic! — play on the same day.”
A video clip, published on Spurs TV, features and NFL Executive Vice President Mark Waller discussing the stadium scheme’s two field plans. The new 61,000 seat venue will be the first stadium with two retractable fields- a football pitch, and a NFL gridiron. The Arizona Cardinals built the first stadium with this type of technology; but their venue in Glendale only retracts one field.
It will also have the largest stand, and the largest video screens in the United Kingdom. The NFL has been playing games in London for eight years already, but under the new agreement, would play additional contests in the U.K.
Take a look at these diagrams Tweeted out by Spurs Official account:
Tottenham reveal new designs for £400million stadium… including three tunnels,… http://t.co/Qfi7fNVt65 #COYS pic.twitter.com/AS4dWItN2B
— Tottenham Hotspur News (@_THFC_) September 23, 2015
Take a look at the latest developments from our new stadium site and White Hart Lane, in pictures… #COYS pic.twitter.com/Ru8NIMm3Jn
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) July 29, 2016
There will be a set minimum number of games to be played at the new Tottenham venue over a period of ten years. The NFL is very aggressive about pushing its product in London, and it’s starting to pay off as interest in the city is growing.
In another video posted on Spurs TV, Levy spoke with BBC Presenter and Spurs fan Nihal Arthanayake about the Tottenham Hotspur vision for the new stadium scheme. It’s a scheme, not just a plan, because the ambition here is to revitalize the entire neighborhood of Tottenham. Harnessing the power of the world’s two most popular and lucrative sports leagues is a brilliant way to do it.
The Premier League is #1 globally in viewership and consumers identifying themselves as fans among all leagues in all sports. The NFL is right up there with it. These two sports leagues are far and away the most popular in the entire world. The very ambitious plan being conceived in Tottenham is of course the first time that anyone has seriously considered uniting the Premier League and the NFL in such a capacity. It will very compelling to see how all this unfolds. The new Tottenham stadium is scheduled to open in August of 2018.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.