Spurs stadium plans reveal possible NFL-sized locker room

Earlier today we wrote that Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly in negotiations with the National Football League to host American football games in Tottenham's new stadium, which is due to open in the fall of 2018. While Wembley stadium has hosted NFL games in the past, most of England's soccer-specific stadiums are not equipped to handle teams of 50+ professional American football players, their gear, and their support staff. Tottenham's new stadium may be planned with that eventuality.

These images are cropped from the PDF of the new stadium's ground level, which is accessible to the public via the Haringey Council website. Let's take a closer look at the blueprints:

This image is cropped from the "south" half (directional orientation is not clearly marked on the plans) of the stadium's ground floor. Here we see proposals for soccer-specific home and away changing areas, the manager's office, physiotherapy rooms, and a "mascots room" (which I assume is for the cute children who walk on the pitch before each match and is not Chirpy's private dressing room). The dressing rooms have room for "25 positions" which is enough for a match-day squad of professional footballers. All of this is standard for any soccer-specific stadium, and completely expected.

But what's this on the "north" half of the stadium?! There's another changing room, but it's more than three times the size of the home and away changing rooms on the south side. What kind of club would need that much space to change into its uniforms? Well, an NFL team certainly would. Plus there's a separate area for "team staff," and a "taping rehab physio" room. Taping isn't really part of soccer's lexicon, nor is it a thing that needs its own space if you're a soccer club, but it's a pretty big deal if you're an NFL team.

Pretty convincing, eh? But here's the caveat: there's only one of these changing rooms in the stadium, and last I checked NFL teams require two of them. So who knows: maybe there's creative ways that the north end (or other areas of the stadium) can be divided to host another team. Or, this is only the ground floor -- perhaps there's another large changing area on a different level of the stadium. Or maybe this isn't an NFL changing room at all; maybe it's for something else entirely. This does show strong anecdotal evidence that, if nothing else, the new White Hart Lane is being designed so that different sports with larger teams, be it American football, rugby, etc., can be accommodated.

Finally, check out this little gem from the plans:

Once she's finally given the opportunity to be head official for a match at New White Hart Lane, Sian Massey's got her own changing area. Excellent work, Tottenham planning committee.