Tottenham Hotspur have today confirmed that the planned commencement of Premier League football in their new stadium, a home game to Liverpool on 15 September, has been delayed, as well as the Cardiff City home game on 6 October.
Spurs have also confirmed in a statement that the NFL game scheduled for 14 October has been delayed, following urgent meetings with the Mace, the building contractor, regarding issues with critical safety systems.
Statement in full:
Following the release of the Premier League fixtures for the 2018/19 season, we announced that, barring any significant issues with the final stages of stadium completion, our match against Liverpool on 15 September would be the first match in our new stadium. Recent testing and commissioning has now shown issues with the critical safety systems.
Urgent follow-up meetings with Mace and the trade contractors are now taking place. We are reviewing the situation and planned timetable to rectify and re-test, after which we shall be in a better position to outline a revised timetable.
The delays created by these difficulties mean that we can no longer hold the necessary Test Events on 27 August and 1 September. These will need to be rescheduled to take place ahead of any first official match at the new stadium in order to achieve the safety licence.
In the meantime, therefore, our upcoming Premier League matches against Liverpool (15 September) and Cardiff City (6 October) will be switched to Wembley, as will the NFL match scheduled for 14 October.
Chairman, Daniel Levy, said: “We know this will be disappointing for all our season tickets holders, premium members and our fans worldwide. We appreciate the support our partner the NFL has shown since the extent of this issue became evident today. At the start of the project we asked for your support during what we knew would be a complex and challenging build and now we ask for your continued patience and forbearance.”
Mark Waller, NFL Executive Vice-President, International, said: “Everyone has been so excited about the prospect of playing in the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and I know all at the Club are very disappointed, but determined to clear this final hurdle. We totally understand the issue. We shall continue to work with them towards making our future games at Spurs a huge success. The new stadium will be an amazing venue for the NFL and we are very excited about our long-term partnership with Tottenham Hotspur.”
Both domestic and European cup game venues will be determined following discussions with the relevant organising bodies.
We shall provide a further update in due course, along with ticketing details.
