Can Spurs’ New Stadium Be Expanded?

By Andre Moura, FootballPredictions.NET, 13:39 28/09/2020

Updated at: 13:39 28/09/2020

Can Spurs’ New Stadium Be Expanded?

North London giants Tottenham Hotspur moved into their new 62,000 capacity Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in April 2019.

The new ground can be expanded in the future with the club already announcing their intention to apply for permission to do so. The capacity has already been increased by 300 seats since being opened, after Spurs submitted planning permission in December 2019.

Any future expansion at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will follow a plethora of planned and previous stadium expansions in the Premier League.

Impressive Potential Capacity at Spurs’ State-of-the-art Home

After 118 years playing at White Hart Lane, Tottenham Hotspur demolished their ground to build a new modern home in its place - the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The ground was completed in time to be opened in April 2019 and has a current capacity of 62,303.

However, this is unlikely to be reached by the attendance figure for a football match due to the need to segregate fans - causing numerous seats to be unavailable to supporters. 

The original capacity when the ground was opened was 62,062 before the Spurs board applied to make a further 300 seats available on matchdays. At present, the record attendance is 61,104 - for the December 2019 meeting with Chelsea - and 60,463 for an NFL fixture.

https://twitter.com/NewSpursStadium/status/1108853042579939330

Having successfully applied for the addition of the near 300 seats, the club’s architects are currently working to identify areas within the stadium where additional seating can be added, with the club confirming that further planning permission will be sought once this process is completed.

The stadium also features 7,500 seats that have been ‘future-proofed’ to be converted to safe-standing areas if legislation surrounding safe-standing changes in the future.

Planned Expansions Increasingly Common in the Premier League

The Lilywhites are the latest in several Premier League clubs to explore the idea of expanding their stadium and increasing their capacity to welcome more supporters at home matches. Birmingham-based Aston Villa have secured planning permission to expand the North Stand at their Villa Park home.

When complete, this expansion will take the capacity at Villa Park up by 8,000 to 50,000 fans. This work has been considered since plans were first discussed during the late 1990s, but the most recent work done on the stadium was the rebuilding of the Trinity Road Stand in 2001.

Brighton and Hove Albion have already completed an expansion of the American Express Community Stadium despite only moving to the ground in 2011. The club gave themselves the ability to do this so quickly by incorporating a future expansion into the design of the stadium.

By filling in all four corners and adding another tier to the East Stand, the capacity was raised from 22,000 to 30,000 within two years. Five-time Premier League champions Chelsea submitted plans in 2015 to expand Stamford Bridge to a capacity of 60,000 but these plans are currently on hold indefinitely.

Fellow London side Crystal Palace is another to currently be in the process of expanding part of their ground. Plans to redevelop the Main Stand at Selhurst Park were announced at the back end of 2017 and the expansion is set to be finished in 2021, taking the capacity to 34,000.

On the west side of the capital, Fulham’s Craven Cottage is also currently undergoing work to increase its capacity. Work to rebuild the ground’s Riverside Stand began in the summer of 2019 and will allow the stand to hold 8,500 fans, compared to 4,500 beforehand. This will take the whole stadium’s capacity up to 29,000.

 

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