Two of London's biggest football clubs, Chelsea and Tottenham, "are both in the process of submitting plans for new stadiums which will allow them to compete with the world's top earning teams," according to Vaishali Bhardwaj of the London EVENING STANDARD. Tottenham has already begun work on its new 61,000-seater capacity stadium, "which will be the biggest club stadium in London when it's completed in 2018, but face an anxious wait from Haringey Council" about its plans to create wider pavements along the High Road to deal with crowd control. Chelsea has also "revealed plans to construct a 60,000 all-seater stadium, although work on the arena is not due to begin until the end of the season at the earliest." Tottenham aims to move into its new arena ahead of the '18-19 season, but will have to play its matches "the season before at a different venue." This could see the club use Wembley Stadium or Stadium MK, home of Milton Keynes Dons, as its "temporary base" for the '17-18 campaign. The club "submitted revised plans for the Northumberland Development Project, which houses Lilywhite House -- Tottenham's new staff HQ, Tottenham University Technical College and the capital's largest Sainsbury's, to Haringey Council." The scheme "also includes the Tottenham experience, a hotel, an extreme sports building, a public square roughly the size of Trafalgar Square and new homes." The work will see Chelsea, like Tottenham, leave its home to play matches elsewhere for three seasons beginning in '17 and ending in '20. Chelsea has not yet started any construction work as it first has "to obtain planning permission and consent of Chelsea Pitch Owners." The Blues "are considering playing at Wembley Stadium, but will face competition from Spurs to do that" -- although Chelsea is thought to be favorites to secure any such deal (EVENING STANDARD, 11/18).
