Spurs Face Stadium Dilemma - 11/11/2007

A key element in the quest by Spurs to restore its top club status is the search for a new stadium. Chairman Daniel Levy has asked architects to draw up plans for a new 50,000 seater stadium at White Hart Lane, extending it to the Tottenham High Road. The club are also considering three sites in the boroughs of Enfield and Haringey. Each option has significant obstacles. Spurs have bought all but three properties around their stadium, but the key challenge is to improve transport links. The nearest tube station, Seven Sisters, is too far from the stadium. Transport for London are unwilling to pay for the £80m cost of extending the Victoria Line to Northumberland Park which is 500 yards from the ground. Rebuilding White Hart Lane would also require playing at another stadium for two years. Wembley has been ruled out because it has a licence for about 35 events a year and playing at Upton Park would not go down well.

Spurs are aware that Arsenal's proximity to a train station and Central London makes it easier for them to attract a corporate audience. This has led Spurs to consider sites near Tottenham Hale tube station and Edmonton in the Lee Valley. In both cases the club would need to buy land which, as Arsenal found, can stir up local opposition. The cost of a new ground could be around £300m, most of which would have to be borrowed. Arsenal were fortunate that Highbury was worth about £100m as a residential development, but White Hart Lane would probably fetch half that, because it is in a less desirable area. Ironically, thirty years ago Spurs considered a groundshare with Arsenal at a new stadium at Alexandra Palace. The challenge for the largest shareholder in Spurs, Enic, is that few people will be willing to buy the club while these uncertainties exist.