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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
ALEX YOUNG

New Tottenham stadium guide: Confirmed opening date and latest pictures, video, capacity, cost

Tottenham will soon move back to N17 with their first game at their new stadium finally confirmed for April 3.

Spurs will hold two test events at the new 62,062-seater venue; an Under-18 fixture at home to Southampton on Sunday March 24 and a club legends match on Saturday March 30.

Following Brighton's win over Millwall in the FA Cup quarter-finals, Spurs will play their first official game when Crystal Palace come to town in early April.

Here's everything you need to know about Tottenham's new stadium...

First steps

In November 2007, Tottenham announced plans to expand White Hart Lane to a 52,000-seater capacity with Emirates Stadium mastermind Tony Winterbottom the man in charge.

These plans would see Spurs vacate White Hart Lane for two years, with Wembley Stadium or even a ground share with West Ham at Upton Park suggested.

However, less than a year later, in October 2008, the initial plans for what would become the new stadium currently being built were announced, as part of The Northumberland Project.

Photo: Tottenham Hotspur FC

What is the Northumberland Project?

Tottenham have always been focused on also improving the area around their new stadium, rather than just build a new home.

The Northumberland Project would include a new stadium, originally planned to be 56,250-seater, club shop and museum.

Originally 285 flats were planned but that figure was increased to 579, plus a 180-room hotel, and a sixth-form college—first University Technical College of Tottenham and then the London Academy of Excellence Tottenham - and other amenities.

How much has it cost?

The building costs were estimated at £300m in 2007, rising to £400m in 2009 and then £450m.

The most recent figures estimate the build has cost Spurs upwards of £850m, possibly reaching £1billion.

A key reason behind the rising costs has been blamed on Brexit and subsequent higher costs of importing and the worsening of exchange rates.

Photo: Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images

When did building work start?

Planning permission was submitted in 2009 but ground was not broken until 2015. A number of hurdles and stumbling blocks had to be overcome before the go-ahead was approved.

Most notably, severe rioting started in the surrounding Tottenham area in 2011. The club, with the approval of Haringey Council, subsequently agreed to put the costs of community infrastructure payments, an estimated £8.5million, instead towards regeneration.

New plans were submitted in 2013 which included a vast overhaul of the design and the inclusion, among other aspects, of a retractable pitch to host NFL games.

The capacity was then increased to 61,000 along with the inclusion of England’s largest single-tier stand, more commonly known as a kop, for 17,500 people.

The revised plans were approved in February 2016 by the then-Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. The opening date was delayed until the start of the 2018-19 season.

What is the capacity?

Originally proposed at under 58,000, that figure was upped to over 61,559 during the early stages of construction.

The final capacity was confirmed as 62,062 in March 2018.

Photo: Tottenham Hotspur FC

How does that compare?

At the time of writing, Tottenham’s new stadium will be the second-biggest football club ground in England, behind Manchester United’s Old Trafford which holds 74,994.

However, West Ham are in discussions to hold 66,000 people at the London Stadium in the near future. The Hammers were currently capped at 60,000.

Opening date

The stadium was long proposed to open in time for the start of the 2018-19 Premier League season but on August 13, 2018, it was postponed by six weeks due to issues with the "critical safety systems".

New Tottenham stadium opening date delayed

A few weeks later the move was again delayed, with all of Tottenham’s Champions League group games moved to Wembley along with their Premier League commitments for another six weeks.

Just shy of two months later and Spurs announced that they will continue to host their ‘home’ games at Wembley for the remainder of 2018 with a new update promised before the turn of the year.

Speaking in November ahead of their London derby with Chelsea, Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino said the club hope to have moved in by "January or February" only for, a couple of weeks later, Daniel Levy to confirm the home fixture against Manchester United on January 13 will be at Wembley.

Levy met contractors on January 7 looking for an update on a possible move-in date, with the club confirming a month later that "remedial works on the safety systems ... are near completion" in another small step towards an opening.

Footage from inside the new Tottenham stadium

The north London derby on March 2 was moved to Wembley with Tottenham understood to be increasingly optimistic that the 1-1 draw with the Gunners was their final domestic fixture at the national stadium this year. And so it turned out to be.

Following victory away in Dortmund four days later, Pochettino said he expected to play the home leg of Tottenham's Champions League quarter-final in their new home. On March 8, it was announced the first fixture will be either April 3 against Crystal Palace or 6/7 April against Brighton.

Brighton's win over Millwall on March 17 confirmed Palace would be the first visitors.

Photo: Tottenham Hotspur FC

Have fans already had a look?

Tottenham fans given first tour of new stadium
Photo: ashcporter on Twitter

Tottenham gave 6,000 fans tours of the South Stand and podium areas during a four-hour event on December 16.

It was the first test event involving fans, coming a day after Spurs hosted Burnley at Wembley in the Premier League.

The new stadium needs to pass two official test events to get the safety licence required to open, though the fan tours are not understood to count towards that quota.

Of the news, Pochettino said: "It makes me feel very, very happy. It makes me feel we are close to compete there. It’s an important thing for the fans to show our new home and it makes me very, very happy."

Photo: ashcporter on Twitter

In early February 2019, Tottenham fans have been given another glimpse inside their new home with a sneak peek at the Sky Lounge.

Nigel Lowe tweeted a photo of the ongoing construction, writing: "Walkway to the sky bar [at Spurs' new stadium]. Intense sense of height on there with glass side balustrade, will be even better with a full stand underneath."

(Twitter/nigellowe70)

Season ticket prices

Adult season ticket prices range from £795 to £2,200. For those under 18, tickets are priced between £397.50 to £562.50.

A full breakdown of the prices can be found here.

Will the stadium be the best in the world?

It will certainly be up there. Pochettino recently declared it as such, telling Sport Magazine: "We have amazing facilities at the training ground, we are building a massive stadium—it will be one of the best in the world."

One of the chief engineers working on the project, Nick Cooper, told BBC Sport it will be "the greatest that’s ever been built".

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy hopes as much, telling supporters in 2015: "It will be our new home for generations to come and we want it to be exceptional."

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