Tottenham Chair Daniel Levy "hopes to host NFL games" in the club's new 61,000-seat stadium when it opens in '18 and said that it is "realistic" that a Premier League game and an NFL game "could take place at the ground on the same day," according to ESPN.com. One potential problem for the idea is that "football is played on grass and American football often on a synthetic surface," but NFL Int'l Exec VP Mark Waller "thinks that can be overcome." Waller said, "One of the idle thoughts we have at the moment is would you really be able to play an NFL game and an EPL game on the same day as a double header? It wouldn't be absolutely out of the question. I don't think you'd want to do it on a regular basis, but on a unique feature, that might be a really interesting idea." Levy said, "I don't think it's something we'd want to try our first game, but that is certainly realistic." The idea is something Levy is "taking seriously and he believes he is tenacious enough to make the ambitious project happen." Levy: "I have lived and breathed this project from Day One. It is absolutely my ambition to make this work" (ESPN.com, 9/6).
NFL IN MIND: ESPN.com's Ashley Fox reported Levy was "a little bit mad" in '12 when he suggested the NFL and his club agree to hold NFL games in his club's new stadium, but "the NFL listened." Levy proposed "equipping the stadium with a retractable pitch," which would make it possible to "hold two games in the same stadium on the same day." Over time, Levy also agreed to "configure the stadium so the sight lines would be as good" for NFL games as they would be for EPL games and to build a dedicated NFL-sized locker room and NFL-sized medical and media facilities. Levy said, "We worked together because it needed to be viewed as a combined joint soccer and NFL stadium. In fact, the way we designed the whole experience is one side of the stadium is a dedicated soccer entrance and the other side is a dedicated NFL entrance" (ESPN.com, 9/7).
