Tottenham Hotspur confirm date of first test event at new stadium

Tottenham Hotspur’s incredible new stadium is ready for action. Well, it’s not ready for the playing kind of action, but it is ready for the test event kind of action...which means the football can’t be too far behind!

The club announced today that they will host a fan familiarization test event on Sunday December 16th. This event will give 6,000 fans the chance to explore the new stadium for the first time.

Spurs official website has more information on the event.

Club to hold familiarisation event for 6,000 fans on Sunday 16 December, 11am-3pm. One Hotspur Season Ticket Holders invited to enter a ballot for a ticket to this special event. Tickets priced at a nominal £1 to facilitate testing of new ticketing systems. Fans will get the chance to explore both podium areas – Park Lane Square and Paxton Terrace – with full access to the South Stand, including The Market Place – along with the new Spurs Shop at the Tottenham Experience and the new Paxton House Ticket Office.

We have been hearing about this test event for a while, so it’s good to see it finally happening. Hopefully none of the testing part of the evening unearths any red flags that would delay the stadium even further. If all goes well, the stadium should still be on course to host its first Tottenham match sometime in the early part of 2019.

Mauricio Pochettino told the press today that he was quite happy that the test event was finally happening.

That sounds like a Poch who is eager to trade Wembley in for a new, permanent home. Spurs have a contingency plan in place that would allow them to play the rest of their season at Wembley if any more issues arose with the new ground, but at the moment that doesn’t seem like it will be necessary.

The new stadium was supposed to open for the Liverpool match in September, but it has subsequently been delayed a few times due to construction issues and problems with the safety systems.

Local government rules require three test events to be staged, with increasing attendance size, before safety certificates are granted to host full-capacity Premier League matches.

Expect another update from the club about the new stadium’s progress sometime in December.

The Manchester United match on January 13th has been speculated about as a possible first game at the new stadium, but that may come a bit too early in the new year, depending on how the test events go.

There aren’t any marquee home matches scheduled for February, but the club could opt to have the Newcastle or Leicester games be the first to be played back in North London. We’ll have to wait and see.