Maybe NFL and Premier League teams can share players as well as a stadium?
Imagine Tom Brady playing up front for Tottenham. Imagine Harry Kane at quarterback for the New England Patriots.
That’s not going to happen, but back-to-back NFL and Premier League games at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium could.
After the first NFL game held at Tottenham’s glitzy new $1.25 billion stadium (the Oakland Raiders beat the Chicago Bears) was a roaring success, the London Evening Standard have the details on Spurs chairman Daniel Levy planning to host both types of football on the same day, one after another.
“The intention with the design was to avoid the overlay that other stadiums have to go through,” Tom Jones, senior principal at design firm Populous. “The brief that we got from Daniel and the club was that they wanted a stadium that was perfect for football.
“But he had a great ambition to get the NFL to Tottenham. There are sliding pitches all over the world, but Tottenham had the ambition to be able to host multiple events. So, they wanted to be able to make it happen quickly. Daniel has a great ambition one day, which we all fear, of hosting a double-header of football in the morning and NFL in the evening.”
Now, this is all about one thing, proving that if the NFL ever has a franchise in London it will be based at Tottenham’s stadium. Spurs will often play on a Saturday, but a lot of their games are moved to Sunday’s so there could be some logistical issues.
Levy wasn’t having any of that.
With Wembley and Twickenham previously hosting NFL games in London, Spurs’ new home was built specifically to host NFL games as well as soccer.
A grass pitch which rolls out to reveal a turf pitch for NFL is one thing, but Spurs also have full-size NFL locker rooms and is ready to host a franchise.
Levy’s dream is to make this stadium a beacon of success for the Tottenham area and if they could have an NFL franchise as well as Spurs in this venue, it would be a huge financial windfall for the club and locals.
At 62,000, it is probably a better size than Wembley (90,000 capacity) to host an NFL team which plays eight home games a season rather than the four per season currently in London.
Spurs have set things up to have back-to-back football on Sunday’s. Let’s see if it happens.
