Tottenham to move into new stadium in early April
LONDON: Tottenham will finally move into their new stadium next month following seven postponements.
Spurs were due to open their 62,062-seat stadium in August but construction delays caused a series of announcements starting last June that kept pushing back the opening and caused 14 of 19 home English Premier League matches this season to be played at Wembley, the home of England’s national team.
The north London club said on Friday the new facility will open with a Premier League game against Crystal Palace or Brighton in early April.
The opponents depend on the outcome of Brighton’s English FA Cup quarter-final against Millwall on March 17.
Should Brighton win, a previously postponed game against Crystal Palace would be the opener on April 3. If Brighton lose, they would play Spurs in the first game on April 6 or 7.
The club will stage two test events needed to obtain a safety certificate: a youth-team game on March 24 with a crowd of 30,000 and a legends game on March 30 with the crowd increased to 45,000.
Tottenham started playing at White Hart Lane in 1899, and the stadium had a capacity of 36,284 in 2015-2016.
A corner was torn down during their final season, reducing capacity to about 32,000 and allowing construction of the new venue to start.
Spurs originally planned to play at 90,000-capacity Wembley only for 2017-2018 and move into the new stadium for the start of 2018-2019.
The new stadium will have the second-highest capacity in the Premier League behind 74,994 for Manchester United’s Old Trafford.