After over 100 years of faithful service, White Hart Lane is closing it’s doors.
The home of Tottenham football since 1899, White Hart Lane hosts it’s final match Sunday against Manchester United. After the match and a farewell ceremony, workers will immediately begin gutting the stadium. On Monday, keys will be handed over to construction crews to tear the stadium down.
When it is finished, Tottenham’s new stadium, which is currently unnamed, will be a game-changer for the club. Spurs are one of the lowest-performing clubs in terms of game-day revenue, and a new venue will galvanize those numbers. Tottenham have been hovering near the top of the Premier League table for several years now, but that hasn’t exactly translated to commercial success. Clubs like Liverpool (£56.8m in 2016) and Manchester United (£102.8m) depend upon solid match-day revenue, but for years Tottenham (£40.8m) has fallen short.
The new stadium will seat over 60,000 fans, making it the largest club stadium in London. That helps the club afford higher wages, another crucial step in becoming not just an English contender, but one that can compete in Europe, as well.
Delays pushed back the start of construction, which is now on track to be ready by August 2018. Spurs will play their home matches next season at Wembley Stadium, which can hold up to 90,000 supporters at full capacity.
Offering a world-class stadium experience doesn’t come cheap. The new venue is estimated to cost over £800 million, or over one billion dollars. £10 million comes from the NFL, who have a 10-year agreement to play overseas games at the new stadium. The new stadium will have dedicated facilities for visiting NFL teams, and a synthetic field is installed under the grass surface for NFL and other non-soccer sporting events.
If you can’t wait for regular updates on the new stadium, Tottenham has set up cameras so you can live stream the progress. Five cameras around the edges of construction are capturing all the action, and the club website is providing regular time lapses of the entire process.