Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in London, England. It is owned and operated by the Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, replacing the club's previous ground, White Hart Lane. With a seating capacity of 62,850, it is the third largest football stadium in England and the largest club ground in London. It is also used for NFL International Series games. It features the world's first dividing, retractable synthetic turf pitch used for NFL games, concerts and other events.
The construction of the stadium was initiated as the centrepiece of the Northumberland Development Project, intended to be the catalyst for a 20-year regeneration plan for Tottenham. The project covers the site of the now demolished ground White Hart Lane and areas adjacent to it. It was conceived in 2007 and announced in 2008, but revised several times, and construction of the stadium, beset by disputes and delays, did not commence until 2015. The stadium opened on 3 April 2019 with a ceremony before the first Premier League game held there.
The name "Tottenham Hotspur Stadium" was meant to be temporary, the intention being to sell the naming rights to a sponsor, but it has still not been renamed. The stadium is sometimes referred to as New White Hart Lane by fans and some in the media.
History
Early grounds
Tottenham Hotspur was formed in 1882, and early matches of the club were played on public land at Tottenham Marshes. As their matches became more popular with the public and the number of spectators increased, the club decided to move to an enclosed ground allowing it to charge an entrance fee and control the crowd. In 1888, the club rented a pitch at Asplins Farm, next to the railway line at Northumberland Park. However, the ground soon became overcrowded, and in 1899 the club moved to a piece of land owned by the brewery company Charringtons to the east of Tottenham High Road behind the White Hart pub. This became the White Hart Lane ground.
The club acquired the freehold of the ground, as well as additional land at the northern (Paxton Road) end, in 1905. Starting in 1909, a new stadium with stands designed by Archibald Leitch was built over a period of two and a half decades. The stadium had a capacity of nearly 80,000 by 1934. Over the years, the stadium underwent a number of changes and seating replaced the standing areas, which reduced the capacity to about 50,000 in 1979. Significant standing areas, however, still existed, including the long stretch of raised standing terrace favoured by fans on the East Stand known as The Shelf.
Beginning in the early 1980s, the White Hart Lane ground was redeveloped, and in order to comply with the recommendation of the Taylor Report of 1989, it was turned into an all-seater stadium. The capacity of the stadium was reduced to around 36,000 by the time the refurbishment was completed in 1998. The capacity was, by then, lower than the grounds of other major English clubs, with many of these clubs also planning to expand further. As revenues from gate receipts in that period formed a substantial part of the club's income (before it became dominated by TV broadcast rights deals), Tottenham began to explore ways of increasing the stadium capacity to allow it to more effectively compete financially with rival clubs.
A number of schemes were considered over the years; these included rebuilding the East Stand as a three-tier structure, and moving to different stadiums and locations such as Picketts Lock and the Olympic Stadium at Stratford, London. None of these plans came to fruition,West Ham chosen as preferred Olympic Stadium tenant BBC Sport online Retrieved 12 February 2011 except for a proposal to redevelop the existing site that would become the Northumberland Development Project.
Planning The club first announced in 2007 that redevelopment of the current site was one of the options under consideration. In April 2008, the club revealed that it was considering the acquisition of the Wingate Trading Estate immediately adjacent to the north of White Hart Lane for building the stadium. In October 2008, the Northumberland Development Project, which included the construction of a stadium, as well as a club museum, homes, shops and other facilities, was announced. The early plan was for Tottenham to move into the new stadium, while it was partially built, at the beginning of the 2012–13 season, with the stadium completed by the end of the following season. However, the project was delayed, with the plan undergoing a number of revisions and the completion date pushed back several times. The club also did not fully commit itself to building the stadium in Tottenham until January 2012, after it had lost its bid for the Olympic Stadium to West Ham United.
The first plan of the project, with a 58,000-capacity stadium, was released in April 2009 for public consultation. In October 2009, the planning application for a 56,000-seat stadium, designed by KSS Design Group, and other buildings was then submitted. The proposal, which included the demolition of eight locally listed buildings and two nationally listed buildings, was criticised by conservation groups including English Heritage, as well as the Government's advisory body on architecture, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. In response to the objections, a revised plan, that retained some of the listed buildings, was resubmitted in May 2010. This plan was accepted by Haringey Council on 30 September 2010, and later by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, as well as the government. However, only part of this plan, the construction of Lilywhite House, was implemented.
In August 2011, a major riot erupted in a deprived area of Tottenham. Haringey Council, keen to keep the economically important club within the community, issued planning permission for the project on 20 September 2011, and a week later removed the demand for community infrastructure payments usually required for such a project. In a joint statement with Haringey Council in January 2012, Tottenham announced that it would stay in North Tottenham and work with the council to rejuvenate the area. In this scheme, the Northumberland Development Project would serve as the catalyst for a 20-year regeneration program planned by the Haringey Council. In March 2012, Haringey Council approved of plans to hand over council-owned land in the redevelopment area, including part of Wingate Trading Estate, as well as Paxton Road and Bill Nicholson Way, to Spurs. It also agreed on a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) to buy the remaining properties on Paxton Road that had yet to be sold. After a long delay, the Secretary of State for the Department for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, confirmed the CPO on 11 July 2014. The owner of the remaining business with two plots on the development site, Archway Sheet Metal Works, then attempted but failed to have the CPO decision quashed in the High Court. On 31 March 2015, the remaining plots on Paxton Road were acquired, allowing the development to proceed.
It was first revealed in October 2013 that the club was considering a new plan for a multi-use stadium that can also host American football games. On 8 July 2015, the club announced that it had reached an agreement with the NFL to hold a minimum of two NFL games a year in a 10-year partnership from 2019. The same day a new design team was also announced, alongside a revised project plan, with Populous led by Christopher Lee responsible for the stadium design. In December 2015, Haringey Council approved the revised plans, including the demolition of locally listed buildings. The Mayor of London also gave formal approval to the plans in February 2016.
Construction
Building work on the Northumberland Development Project started in September 2012, however, construction of the stadium itself did not commence until 2015 due to the CPO dispute. The stadium was constructed in two main phases so that White Hart Lane could still be used in the 2016–17 season while construction was still in progress. The first phase involved the building of the northern section of the stadium (including the North, West and East Stands), while the South Stand construction started in the second phase after White Hart Lane had been demolished. A large part of the land north of the existing stadium had been cleared by 2014 while the CPO dispute was ongoing. After the dispute was resolved, preliminary work on the basement began in the summer of 2015, with concrete and ground works for the foundation by Morrisroe starting in autumn 2015, based on earlier approved and amended plans.
The new plan for the project was given final approval in February 2016, which allowed the construction of the main structure of the new stadium itself to start soon after. In order to facilitate the construction of the northern section of the stadium while matches of the final season were still being played at The Lane, the northeast corner of White Hart Lane was demolished in the summer of 2016 after the 2015–16 season had finished. From the basement to level 6, the construction of this section is in reinforced concrete. Three further levels above are constructed in steel frame. There are only six cores in reinforced concrete for vertical circulation of spectators instead of the eight expected of a stadium of this size as they needed to be constructed within the first phase of the stadium construction. The South Stand constructed in the second phase has open staircases to the concourses.
The demolition of most of the remaining White Hart Lane ground began the day after the last home match of the 2016–17 season was played, and the demolition was completed with all visible remnants of White Hart Lane removed by early August 2017. Piling work for Phase 2 of the stadium construction started in June 2017. While the northern section constructed in the first phase is a largely concrete structure, the entire single-tier south stand has a steel frame to allow for a speedier construction. The two steel "trees" that support the South Stand were erected in December 2017. The compression ring that holds the cable net roof structure was completed in February 2018, and the roof structure raised in March 2018.
Parts of the old White Hart Lane have been incorporated into the new stadium – crushed aggregate of the concrete foundation of White Hart Lane was mixed in with new concrete to create the floor of the concourse of the new stadium, and bricks from the East Stand were used for the Shelf Bar. A number of heritage plaques are placed around the stadium marking points of the old stadium, such as its centre. The pitch was laid in early October 2018. The exterior of the stadium is finished with 35,000 decorative tiles, 4,801 perforated metal panels and 2,505 glass panels. The external cladding of the stadium was completed with the last few metal panels of the 'veil' installed in March 2019.
Opening
Four test events were initially planned at the stadium in August and early September 2018; the first two were intended only for club staff and officials, and the following two open to the public with increasing levels of attendance necessary for the issuing of safety certificate. However, issues with the critical safety systems due to faulty electrical wiring delayed the completion of the stadium, and these two games were postponed to March 2019. A fan familiarisation event was held instead at the stadium in December 2018. The first match, an under-18s fixture between Tottenham and Southampton held on 24 March, was attended by 28,987 fans and won by Tottenham 3–1, with the first ever goal at the stadium scored by J'Neil Bennett. The second, a Legends match against Inter Milan on 30 March, was attended by 41,244, but resulted in a 4–5 loss to the Inter Forever team.