NFL had significant input into Tottenham’s new stadium

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has said the NFL has been involved in “every aspect” of the club’s new stadium.

The 61,000-seater stadium, due to be completed for the start of the 2018-19 season, will host a minimum of two NFL matches per year for 10 years under a deal announced last year.

The ground, designed by Populous, will sit next to Spurs’ current stadium White Hart Lane, and will feature facilities for both sports. It will include a retractable grass football pitch with an artificial NFL surface underneath, and two sets of changing rooms.

NFL officials have visited the site twice in the past week, and Levy said they were having a significant input into the construction process.

“We’re going into detail about all the areas we are sharing. They are very involved in absolute detail of every aspect of this stadium” he told Spurs TV.

“It’s very important that they buy into the construction process.”

“They’re really engaged, and now we have regular weekly meetings.”

While NFL will only be a small part of Tottenham’s commercial activities for now, it is clear the club are buying into the sport’s future in Europe. Should a franchise come to London, as many predict it will in the early 2020s, Tottenham look to be positioning themselves to be a major player in that process. 

This is the first time a football stadium has been built in the UK with specific features to accomodate another sport. While adapating stadia for a myriad of uses is common, building specific NFL friendly features in a football stadium is a milestone in British sports.