Spurs chairman Daniel Levy: New stadium can make club one of biggest in world
Club's chairman speaks ahead of the launch of its new £1bn stadium in north London
Chairman Daniel Levy believes he has built a stadium that can make Tottenham one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Spurs open their new 62,062-seater home, part of a project Levy confirmed will cost around £1billion, against Crystal Palace on Wednesday as an 18-year dream finally comes to fruition.
There have been several stumbling blocks along the way, not least the frustrating delays this season which put back their moving in date from August to April.
But Levy, who is Jewish, is hoping Spurs can now concentrate on winning trophies in their new home.
“I would say that the last 18 years, this club has definitely gone forward and clearly like any business, any club, you have your ups and downs,” he said.
“But I think we’ve created the infrastructure here to become one of the biggest clubs in the world.
“When I took over the club, Tottenham was not a club that was a regular European challenger. Clearly, we are now and my dream is obviously to win, we want to win.
“And winning is both on the pitch and off the pitch, so we are going to keep going until we get both right.”
Levy has had to balance the rising costs of the stadium with building a team to challenge at the top end of the Premier League, and going through two transfer windows without making any signings has seen him come under heavy fire from supporters.
But he will win back favour for his delivery of the new arena, which has been described by the architect firm Populus as the best of 1,300 stadiums they have helped design around the world.
Boss Mauricio Pochettino has often told how Levy had suffered sleepless nights in his quest to deliver the best.
Levy added: “First of all, I have a very thick skin so I ignore all the criticism, partly because sometimes when you’re on the inside, maybe you know the other side … I’m always there to protect the club.
“As a human being, I’m a perfectionist which is a problem perhaps for some of the people who have to work for me because perfection is very hard to come by.
“I’ve always been a person who wants to strive and do better so whatever we do is never good enough.
“I’m often criticised for not saying thank you to a number of people so I will say thank you to everyone who has worked on this project.
“I’m going to take a week off once this is open and then I’m back for the next journey.
“I want to feel that we as a club really do leave something special for the local community, we really want to regenerate this area and I am determined to see it through.”
The new stadium, built on the site of the old White Hart Lane, is the flagship development in the proposed redevelopment of the Tottenham area.
Along with a hotel, there will be 258 residential properties built along with schools, a gym and a supermarket, with over 2,500 jobs being created.
Levy’s pursuit of perfection has seen costs spiral from a starting £750million, but given the facilities inside the stadium, which will attract spending on both matchdays and non-matchdays, they will soon start making money back.
“The true cost of the stadium we don’t really know at this time as we continue making various improvements but it is of that order (£1billion),” Levy said.
“It was all financed privately by the club and by a combination of club revenues and supporting banks.
“In terms of the payback, it’s over the long term. This stadium will be here for way past the lives of any of us and we see increased revenue streams not just from the core football club, but also the other activities that will be taking place on non-matchday.”
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