Tottenham's new White Hart Lane stadium will host "only one NFL game this year," despite the club having a 10-year deal with the league to stage two games a season, according to the PA. Signed in '15, the deal with the NFL brought a £10M contribution toward the stadium and "should provide at least" £1M ($1.35M) a year in shared ticket revenues from this season. The new White Hart Lane, which is under construction, will stage the first of three NFL games in London this year, when the Oakland Raiders host the Seattle Seahawks on Oct. 14. Having staged its first NFL game in '07, Wembley gets its 19th and 20th games over the following two weekends. Which "game comes first has not yet been decided" but the fixtures are the Jacksonville Jaguars against the Philadelphia Eagles and the L.A. Chargers versus the Tennessee Titans. On why Tottenham is only staging one game this year, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that it was because the club and the NFL are "perfectionists" and "want to get everything right" the "first time around" (PA, 1/11). NFL UK Managing Dir Alistair Kirkwood addressed White Hard Lane hosting one game instead of two this year, telling SBD Global via email, "We will play the game not played this year at some point during the contract length. So it's not a reduction in number of contractual games" (Tyler Everett, SBD Global).
MORE THAN A STADIUM: In London, Amitai Winehouse reported Tottenham Chair Daniel Levy showed Khan around the new stadium on Thursday. Khan said, "I'm delighted Tottenham Hotspur's fantastic new stadium is joining the lineup of world-class sports arenas in our great city. Spurs' new ground will stage one game in its first year of opening and in 2019 we look forward to going back to staging at least four NFL games in London." Levy said, "Our vision was always to deliver far more than a stadium -- we have looked to create a new sport and leisure destination for London and to start real place change in Tottenham -- an area about which we are passionate" (DAILY MAIL, 1/11).
