Spurs’ new White Hart Lane stadium will host only one NFL game this year, despite the Premier League club having a 10-year deal with the league to stage two games a season. Signed in 2015, the deal with the NFL brought a £10m contribution towards the stadium and should provide at least £1m 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 in October, when the Oakland Raiders host the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday 14 October, the sixth week of the regular season. Having staged its first NFL game in 2007, 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 Los Angeles Chargers versus the Tennessee Titans. The Jaguars have agreed to play one game in London until 2020.
Despite missing out on two games, White Hart Lane will benefit from hosting two good teams. The Seahawks have reached the playoffs in six of the last seasons, and won the Super Bowl in 2014. The Raiders, meanwhile, have emerged from the doldrums in recent years although they had a disappointing season in 2017.
“The announcement of the first game of the NFL’s 2018 London games to take place at our new home heralds the commencement of our 10-year partnership,” said the Tottenham chairman, Daniel Levy. “This is one of the cornerstones of our vision for creating a world-class sports and leisure destination that will make Tottenham a hive of activity 365 days a year and drive the regeneration of one of the most deprived areas of London”
On why Spurs are only staging one game this year, London mayor Sadiq Khan said it was because the club and the NFL are “perfectionists” and want to get everything right first time around.
The Green Bay Packers, Carolina Panthers, and the Houston Texans are now the only NFL teams not to have played a regular season game in the UK.
(The Guardian)
