May 2 – Tottenham Hotspur will play just one more game at its current White Hart Lane stadium, against Manchester United on May 14, before bulldozers move in and demolish the structure to make way for the new stadium to take its place.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has confirmed that next season the club will play all its home games at Wembley Stadium but that it will move back to White Hart Lane for the start of the 2018-19 season in August.
The one-season deal to play at Wembley had looked uncertain as stadium deadlines threatened to push back the requirement for Spurs to move out at the end of the current season in order for the completion of the new stadium to take place. The final decision to move was only taken at the end of last week.
“The Lane means a huge amount to each and every one of us and we needed to gain greater certainty on the delivery of the new stadium before we made the final decision to commence with the decommissioning of our iconic, historic home for some 118 years,” said Levy in a statement on the club’s site.
“Wembley will be our home for a season and then we shall return to what will be one of the best stadiums of its kind and the most unique in the world playing host to NFL games too – a stadium that will be key to our future growth and success.”
With Spurs needing Wembley for just one season, West London neighbours Chelsea who themselves will need to move out of their Stamford Bridge stadium to facilitate a rebuild, will be clear to move into Wembley temporarily once construction start some time in 2019.
Chelsea had looked at the possibility of ground sharing at the London Stadium (West Ham’s new home), if the White Hart Lane rebuild overran.
Spurs new stadium will have a capacity of 61,000 and will cost £750 million to build. It will provide 3,500 new jobs for the local area when finished and pump an estimated £293 million into the local economy annually.
Last week the club announced that 1,000 new jobs have so far been delivered across a range of industries involved in the regeneration– including construction, IT, hospitality, retail and sport.
Since 2013 the Club has worked in partnership with Haringey Council and the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure that as many jobs as possible have gone to local residents.
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