Tottenham’s new stadium now projected to cost £1bn

If new cost projections put forth by the Daily Mail are accurate, Tottenham Hotspur are expected to have the most expensive stadium in England when it is completed next summer. The Mail report that costs for Spurs’ new home in North London have now more than doubled from its original estimation in 2010, and will now cost Tottenham about £1bn.

This is even higher than the £800m that we last wrote about last March. Spurs had obliquely blamed Brexit for the increase in project costs back then, but according to the Mail, this time the price tag is due to the project’s complexity.

Levy has confided to sources close to the build that the skyrocketing cost of Tottenham's new home, due to open ahead of next season, is in part due to the complexity of the project.

The designs for the 61,000-capacity stadium incorporate facilities for NFL, including two sliding pitches and additional large changing rooms fit for NFL use.

— Daily Mail

I’m a little skeptical of this, since the retracting pitch and the NFL-specific parts of the stadium have been public knowledge for a couple of years now.It doesn’t really explain an additional cost increase of about £200m. Also, its the Daily Mail so we should probably maintain a baseline of “this could very well be fake news.”

The answer could be as simple as this: stadiums are expensive, plans change, and major constructions like this one are usually subject to price increases and time delays as the project continues. Still, [Extremely Doctor Evil Voice] A BILLION POUNDS is a lot of money.

The article claims that Tottenham Chairman Daniel Levy is hoping to offset a lot of the costs for the stadium by getting upfront money from things like stadium naming rights, sponsorships, and the NFL, with the club saying that it has 'received expressions of interest from credible counterparties” in that regard. The rest of the bill will be financed by bank loans.

I don’t think we have enough idea how much a project like this will affect the club as a whole. Arsenal went through a few “austerity years” after the completion of the Emirates, but if there are similar plans for Spurs to withhold spending from the football side of the club, there aren’t any indications at the moment. Levy has said before that the stadium financing is separate and will not affect the football operations of the club.

The stadium construction continues and is starting to look like a proper stadium now. You can view the most recent photos from the stadium construction on Tottenham’s website.