Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy hopes to host NFL games in the club’s new 61,000-seater stadium when it opens in 2018 and said it is “realistic” that a Premier League game and an NFL game could take place at the ground on the same day.
One potential problem for the idea is that football is played on grass and American football often on a synthetic surface, but Mark Waller, the NFL’s executive vice president of international, thinks that can be overcome due to the new stadium design having a ‘retracting pitch’.
Levy added: “I don’t think it’s something we’d want to try our first game, but that is certainly realistic. How exciting the idea of having the two biggest leagues in the world from a television perspective — fantastic! — play on the same day.”
The idea is something Levy is taking seriously and he believes he is tenacious enough to make the ambitious project happen.
“I have lived and breathed this project from Day One,” Levy said. “It is absolutely my ambition to make this work. When I first started talking about it internally at the club, again, I think people around me thought I was mad as well. I guess it’s my tenacity to get it done because there were many times with the NFL where there wasn’t going to be an arrangement. We just kept going back and saying, ‘What about this? What about that?’
“When we first went to them, we went to them with the idea of a joint stadium in some shape or form without going through all the details at that stage.
“As we sat down and we went through all the operations, we worked out, ‘What does the NFL need? What does football need?’ Basically we had a checklist of all the various things we wanted to achieve, and then at the end of the day it was the best solution.
“It’s not an easy solution, and we’ve had lots of technologies involved with the design and the various prototypes because not only do we have to get the surface right for the NFL but it also has to be right for football.”
Levy has previously said the NFL is involved in “every aspect” of the club’s new stadium.
Tottenham will play their Champions League home games at Wembley this season and can use the national stadium as a temporary home next campaign.
(ESPN)
