What a night! Tottenham Hotspur christened their new stadium in north London with a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, courtesy of goals from Son Heung-Min and Christian Eriksen. But the match itself was practically the nightcap — Spurs also pulled out the stops in a pre-match opening ceremony that introduced the stadium, celebrated the heritage of the club, and looked to the future now that Spurs have finally returned home.
There was an inspirational video narrated by Kenneth Branagh and featuring interviews with Tottenham MP David Lammy and Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, a youth choir from the Gladesmore Community School, and performances from X-Factor star Lanye Matthews and Welsh tenor Wynne Jones. And a marching band, because marching bands rule.
Sky Sports broadcast the opening ceremony on television (before cutting to the Manchester City vs. Cardiff match, lol) and USA audiences got to watch the ceremony AND the match on NBC, but if you were in a part of the world that didn’t show it, or if you simply missed it before the match, Tottenham put the full pre-match festivities up on YouTube.
This is a long video that features ALL of the pre-match stuff including player warm-ups, interviews, and a whole lot of the live stream cameras showing people walking in and finding their seats. But if you wanna just watch the good stuff, skip the video ahead to 1:34:00.
Hint: stay for the fireworks.