There's a strange story doing the rounds that the delays in the stadium redevelopment are down to an attempt to incorporate facilities to stage American Football at the new ground. The Fail seem to have picked up on some speculation from a few blogs and architect's sites, some of which are allegedly from those involved in the bidding. All seems like guesswork to me, but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Levy was looking at another way to increase the club's income. It would be a pretty unusual way of doing it, but the NFL seem to be pushing for a way of selling their sport over here, so it might make some sense. There was talk on here of a sliding pitch being used, amongst other modern developments, and that's been touted as one of the ways that the ground could become multi-purpose. Several other sides have used that technology, but the local transport infrastructure would still be a massive problem, in my opinion.
When this came up the other day somebody mentioned there would be a second, artificial, pitch under the turf so we could let the bunch playing rugby league badly use that whilst keeping the turf for ourselves? I remember the pitch was ruined when the London Monarchs used WHL, causing various drainage problems.
"the local transport infrastructure would still be a massive problem, in my opinion" The key point IMHO has always been to prevent Seven Sisters being used as the tube / rail interchange being used by the majority of travellers, and force Tottenham Hale to Northumberland Park as the route. One way of doing that would be for shuttle trains on the Enfield line to do Enfield / Edmonton Green / WHL / Hackney Downs / Liverpool St runs, and the normal train services not to stop at WHL the hour before KO / after FT (so Seven Sisters / Bruce Grove / Silver St etc) . WHL station does have space on both sides to expand the platforms to be close to twice as deep.
Smart idea if that's the case, still not keen unless we're getting to participate in the hiring of the cheerleaders and fans get to vote.
"Liverpool Street to White Hart Lane. We've all made that mistake once" On the normal services, not the best of trips. A shuttle service could help though. Seven Sisters to WHL is the problem, not the other parts of the journey.
If it is guesswork, it's strange that they have plucked 65k out of the air, considering that is one of the areas we had to reduce to 58k based on transport concerns. Perhaps with a guaranteed NFL involvement the whole area of transport would get more of a review, and not just a "make-do" solution. I know there is a lot of regeneration in the area at the moment, but there needs to be a lot of investment to make it tourist friendly. This would be a fantastic move though imo, because there would be scope to build hotels, bars and restaurants would flourish and get by on more than just our home games and would give the area a second economic driver. If it ****s over the FA in the process then all the better. -edit- I guess this means it's back to the drawing board though in terms of stadium design, meaning we won't be in for the 2016 season and will struggle to keep up with Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, City and UTD who all make more match day revenue than us. Andros for 100m anyone?
Even now, I have yet to see anything in the public domain about how an extra 20,000 odd supporters are going to be handled by the current transport infrastructure in a 60-90 min period before KO / after FT. One thing the club does have is the demographics from the mythical ST waiting list. That means if all these people take a ticket, the club knows which travel routes are going to be used by how many.
RDBD Have you looked at the plans for the developement? They showed the changes to busses, train time tables etc. Google northumberland deverlopement and there is lots of information on this particular project, and others in the local area. Taken from the site: "Multiple Transport Options The transport infrastructure here is already in place, with four stations and up to 144 buses an hour serving the stadium area. Together with planned and proposed service improvements and new investment to be made by the Club, they deliver enough capacity for the increased number of supporters visiting the new stadium. • There has already been a significant shift in travel patterns to the stadium. In 2003, over 60% of fans came by car. For weekend fixtures that figure has reduced to 43% and we plan to bring that down to just 24%. • This will be actively promoted as a ‘Public Transport Destination’, just like Wembley Stadium, with real-time travel information points, clear signage and regular transport updates on the website, in programmes, and directly to fans. • The upgrading works on the Victoria Line will deliver brand new, faster and higher capacity trains from later this year, ending the disruption that supporters have often faced and delivering major service improvements. • Seven Sisters station provides the key link between the Tottenham area and the rest of the Tube and National Rail network, with greater use also made of Tottenham Hale station and new queue management systems in place at both stations. • Better use will be made of White Hart Lane and Northumberland Park stations. The Club will work with the new Train Operating Company to further improve match-day services and make more use of the 8-car service capacity with new queue management systems also in place assisted by Club stewards. • The Club will seek to minimise the need for bus diversions on match-days so they are back operating in the High Road as soon as possible after the final whistle. There will also be increased the use of the high frequency W3 and 341 services connecting to the Piccadilly Line, as an alternative to the buses to Seven Sisters. • An expanded match-day controlled parking zone will minimise the transport impacts on local residents and business and will further discourage car use, subject to the approval of Haringey and Enfield Councils as well as the local residents themselves. • Supporters will be encouraged to arrive early and stay late to take advantage of the new facilities in and around the redeveloped stadium and to enjoy a new post-match events programme, taking pressure off all transport services."
Nothing immediately to hand about new train timetables on the Enfield to Liverpool St line. The Seven Sisters tube/rail interchange is a terrible bottleneck, with little scope for improvement.
I enjoy the walk from the Seven Sisters to the Lane, that's part of the Match day experience. I generally stop, eat liver bacon and onions at one of the cafe's on the way up and have a couple of beers. On the way back there's a fantastic little Ethiopian restaurant on one of the estates about 150 m from the tube station. Best Injura in London.
The plans are supposed to feature a removable pitch, like the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen that Schalke use. It was the ground where England lost to Portugal in 2006. The stick it outside when games aren't being played, which means that the surface gets lots of air and light and the arena can still be used for other events. Ice hockey, American football, biathlons, speedway, stock car races, operas and concerts have all been held there and it's only been open for a little over a decade. I doubt that such versatility and money making possibilities have passed our board by. The budget for that project was €191m. One part of the Wikipedia entry that stuck out for me was this: "These catering areas are connected to a 5 km long beer-line, supplying them with roughly 52,000 litres of beer per match day." Don't think that the no-drinks-in-sight-of-the-pitch rules apply out there.
"The plans are supposed to feature a removable pitch" The stuff discussed the other day was for some weird rotating/underground storage. There does not appear to be space in the NPD to have a fully retractable pitch for new WHL.
"One part of the Wikipedia entry that stuck out for me was this: "These catering areas are connected to a 5 km long beer-line, supplying them with roughly 52,000 litres of beer per match day." Don't think that the no-drinks-in-sight-of-the-pitch rules apply out there. " That'll be OK for me then, what about everybody else?
I'll believe it when I see it. Knowing nothing (which never stops me), the first oddity is that the NFL at this point, having learned their lesson, plays almost exclusively on grass. (Save a million on the surface, then watch an extra player, worth five million/year, go down with a knee injury). The second point is, is this a couple game a year deal like we've been having, or a regular gig, and, if the latter, is there really an audience for it? The third is that quite aside from whether the transport is doable, it's certainly not optimal. If I were the NFL, I'd rule out places too inconvenient from central London like White Hart Lane. It would be great if this became an important source of financing, but I'm very skeptical.
There is also a rumour of either a new franchise being created or an existing team relocating permanently to play in london. If so, and they can get them into WHL without ruining the pitch (eg, swap it as has been said) then it would be a fantastic move.
