Spurs given permission to stay at Wembley at reduced capacity

There’s good news on the stadium front, sort of. According to the BBC, Tottenham Hotspur have been granted permission by the Premier League to continue playing their home matches at Wembley Stadium until the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is ready to host games. However, that permission comes with a major caveat: they won’t be able to use Wembley’s full capacity and will instead be restricted to 51,000 fans.

Wembley and the Brent Council usually put limits on the number of full-capacity events that the stadium can hold per year in order to reduce the strain on transit, police and security, and local residents of the area. At present, Spurs’ next home game — November 24 vs. Chelsea — will be the last match where Spurs can use the full 90k seating capacity of Wembley Stadium.

The BBC notes that Spurs have the option of presenting a petition to Brent Council to increase the attendance up to 62k with “additional limited exceptions” of 90k, but there are no indications that the club with do this.

While it hasn’t been announced yet, it appears the club is targeting the home match against Manchester United on January 13 as a target for opening their new stadium. The club has promised an update to fans on the progress of the new grounds in December. Mauricio Pochettino and Tottenham staff members recently had dinner with Spurs Chairman Daniel Levy inside the new grounds where they were treated to a display of the lights and sounds of the new facility.