Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has rubbished rumours suggesting that Nike could secure the club’s new stadium’s naming rights as he reveals a silver lining to the delays.
The Lilywhites have been forced to continue their temporary residence at Wembley for the majority of this season after seeing their new ground fail to be completed by the initial move in date, with problems pushing the opening back until the latter stages of the campaign.
However, Levy insists that the stadium, which will replace White Hart Lane as their home ground, will not have Nike’s name on it, but that the delays in opening have meant improvements have been carried out which would have been absent had it opened on time.
As quoted in the minutes of a meeting with the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust: “DL (Levy) said none (naming rights) were in place as yet. The Club had never been in talks with Nike. Sponsoring stadiums is not what Nike do as a business
“DL said it couldn’t open because we couldn’t get a safety certificate due to the issues with the critical safety systems.
“During the six months since September, therefore, the Club has taken the opportunity to upgrade some of the areas and to finish off internal cosmetic work they would have been happy to forgo for an early opening, hence all of the workers on site day in, day out across that time frame. One such example being the surrounding podiums which would have been tarmac however given the extra time have now been block paved.”
Opinion
It seems that there are certainly plans to sell off the naming rights to the new ground but the fans in Tottenham will not be visiting the Nike Stadium any time soon. As for the ground itself, the Lilywhite faithful might have had to make do with a good, but not stunning, stadium had it opened on time and the club have made the effort to ensure that the delays which have taken place mean that the ground is as impressive as it possibly can be. Will that make a difference to the supporters? Many will have been fuming to have been waiting so long to get into their new home but at the same time they are likely to be blown away by their new surroundings when they do finally move in. As they say, every cloud has a silver lining and other than the safety of the supporters, the delays look to have brought an extra level of detail to a ground which will be bouncing when it finally does open. As for the name, that remains to be seen – but for the Tottenham fans, they just need to know it as home.