Tottenham consider sharing new ground with American Football team

Spurs are interested in a potentially lucrative tie-up with the NFL

Tottenham Hotspur are in talks with the NFL to host American football at their new stadium.

Wembley already stages three games a year and Spurs are also interested in a potentially lucrative tie-up with the NFL. The Premier League club hopes to kick off the 2018-19 season in a new £400m, 61,000-seat ground at White Hart Lane.

Designs produced by experienced stadium architects Populous, revealed in the Evening Standard, show a changing room in the East Stand which is significantly greater in size than either of those in the West Stand. The West Stand plans refer specifically to home and away changing rooms suitable for football.

NFL experts confirmed the East Stand zone would suit an NFL side. A typical “locker room” area must accommodate 53 players and 15-20 coaches – far more than is necessary for a football team. There must also be extensive space to house playing equipment, and provision for medical treatment as well as physiotherapy – which is factored into Tottenham’s drawings.

The plans contain a space for “taping, rehab, physio”. Taping is the practice of securing NFL players’ knees or ankles before or during games but the phrase is used far more in American sports than on this side of the Atlantic.

Tottenham are also considering the possibility of the new White Hart Lane having a retractable artificial pitch for the American football matches or other sporting or stadium events – but the football team would play on a normal grass pitch. “The club has always seen the new stadium as being at the heart of the regeneration of the area and it is important, therefore, to look at how we future-proof the design, as well as increasing the functionality of the stadium, whilst being conscious of community uses,” a Tottenham spokesman told The Independent. “At this stage it is about looking at options but nothing more.”

Wembley has hosted 11 NFL matches since 2007 and there will be three more games there in October and November, with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions competing.

Two years ago, Jacksonville Jaguars reached an agreement to play a home game at Wembley every year from 2013 to 2016. The Football Association is thought to collect about £3m per game – so the incentive for Tottenham is clear.

The NFL believes Wembley is not ideal in terms of the experience it offers American football fans and would prefer a ground more suited to them. Spurs’ stadium could provide the solution and talks have taken place between the club and the sport’s governing body.

London is favourite to become the first city outside the United States to have an NFL team and the new ground would increase Spurs’ chances of being the base for a franchise. The rough-and-tumble nature of NFL is enough to make a football groundsman wince – hence the plans for an artificial pitch – but the financial benefits of helping to service the cost of a new stadium are clear.