Tottenham consider playing home matches at various stadiums for a season to allow rebuilding of White Hart Lane
Wembley and the Olympic Stadium are also being considered as temporary homes in order to build White Hart Lane into a 56,000-seat stadium
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Your support makes all the difference.Tottenham are currently considering radical plans to play their home matches at various different grounds, including Wembley, for an entire season in order to build a new stadium at White Hart Lane.
Spurs are looking for a new home with both the national stadium and the Olympic Stadium on their radar, although the home of the MK Dons, stadiummk, is also said to be a viable option.
The north London club are hopeful on securing a new 56,000-seat stadium before the start of the 2017-18 season, and while they would prefer to remain at their White Hart Lane home, the Evening Standard has confirmed that they are considering a temporary move to a new location.
The initial view was that Tottenham would target a single stadium for their home fixtures during the 2016-17 campaign but it is understood they could opt for different grounds depending on the nature of their opponents.
Tottenham would seek to stage high-profile matches against the Premier League’s top clubs, such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United, at Wembley or the Olympic Stadium. Games against teams with lesser appeal might take place at a smaller venue, with the home of League One club MK Dons thought to be in the running. The capacity of stadiummk will be increased to 32,000 in time for next year’s Rugby Union World Cup.
The prospect of Spurs playing home fixtures at the Olympic Stadium is particularly intriguing. The club fought a bitter battle with West Ham for the right to take over the arena after the 2012 Games. West Ham were finally made “anchor tenants” in March last year after the Government agreed to put in an extra £25million towards the costs of making the venue more suitable for football.
To secure a deal to play home games there, Spurs would need to enter negotiations with West Ham and the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), who have agreed to lease the stadium to the Hammers from the 2016/17 campaign. West Ham will pay a £2m year rent and take all receipts from tickets and merchandise at the 54,000-seat ground, though they will share catering and hospitality revenues with LLDC.
Any agreement to use Wembley Stadium, which holds 90,000, would involve talks with the Football Association. Arsenal used the national stadium for their home Champions League fixtures in 1998, with reports at the time indicating they earned more than £1m for each of the three games.
Although they are planning for the future, Tottenham continue to wait for the go-ahead on their proposed new £400m stadium. The necessary funds to finance for the project are believed to be in place but the club still need to be granted a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) by Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, in order to move forward. They hope for a favourable outcome later this month.
This would enable them to resolve a dispute with Archway Sheet Metal, a local family-run business whose premises are close to White Hart Lane, and would give the club control of the land they need. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy says that, if the club are granted the CPO, they anticipate going out to tender for construction late this year.
Spurs would also need a naming-rights deal that would see the ground re-badged. Owner ENIC has poured an extra £40m into the coffers by way of an unsecured loan.
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