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The new stadium and my father’s axe

4 min read
by Will Colwell
Haringey Council’s Planning Sub-Committee has confirmed what we already knew, that the new stadium is officially coming. Will Colwell takes a look at why this is a good thing, and why it isn't the end of our history.

Last month, Tottenham announced that Haringey Council’s Planning Sub-Committee has approved the club’s plans to build a new stadium on the current site of White Hart Lane. Of course, anyone who has walked past the stadium this season and witnessed the huge mound of earth peeking over the construction site walls will be aware that this approval is little more than a formality – the project is already well underway.

This announcement seems like it marks the final legal obstacle. Spurs have finally cut through the last of the red tape and now it’s full steam ahead. No more local resident disputes or mysterious fires breaking out at steel works firms. For those who thought it would be a matter of if, not when, this stadium was built, there is now no doubt.

Daniel Levy, for all his imperfections, will rightly receive a great deal of credit for the way he has overseen this process.

[linequote]If all goes to plan, this stadium should be cause for celebration and excitement, but of course there will linger a certain sadness. It’s goodbye to an old, beautiful friend of 116 year[/linequote]

Fan input appears to have been listened to and valued. You could be forgiven for having doubts that the plans to construct the country’s largest single tier stand would still be in the blueprints at this stage, but they are. Right now, Old Trafford is the only club stadium in the country that has a larger capacity than the planned 61,000 the new ground will have.

Transport will be improved in the area – ending the infamous trek up Tottenham High Road. An outstanding deal for the club has been negotiated with the NFL that will see games held at Spurs on a retractable pitch to ensure the preservation of our playing surface. Of course, most of us don’t really care about the 17,000 single tier Kop end and are much more excited about the Sky Walk™ but it’s a nice touch all the same.

If all goes to plan, this stadium should be cause for celebration and excitement, but of course there will linger a certain sadness. It’s goodbye to an old, beautiful friend of 116 years, and hello to an unstoppable surge of modernity. Already there are morbid countdowns of home league games remaining before the move, and I know of fans in America whose plans to make their first Spurs visit have been brought forward by the knowledge that the opportunity to see White Hart Lane is running out.

Except it’s not really goodbye, is it? White Hart Lane has changed all the time since being built in 1899. Whenever I watch old footage of Spurs games I’m always struck by the fact that the stadium home to the heroes in plain white cotton shirts, marching around in black and white is not the stadium that Harry Kane scores in today. It has the same name, and certain features have been held on to through choice, but it is unmistakably not the same ground.

If you can afford to spare 9 minutes of your day I implore you to watch this:

As it is wonderful in its own right, its focus is on a Tottenham matchday in the 1959/60 season and not a single shot of White Hart Lane inside or out resembles the ground as it is today.

Every goal Jimmy Greaves scored for Spurs was scored on grass that no longer exists. It was scored in a goal that no longer exists and celebrated by thousands of fans in stands that no longer exist. Piece by piece, the stadium has been ripped down and rebuilt in its entirety since 1982.

If you dig up and change the turf, it’s still the same stadium. If you tear down and replace from scratch each stand in order, it’s still the same stadium. If you sell the rights to its name, it’s still the same stadium. Do all these things at once, though, and it’s a new stadium, and a reason for a misplaced misty eyed fondness for something that has supposedly been a staple of Tottenham Hotspur since 1899.

[linequote]The memories that were made in White Hart Lane will never die. Moving to a new stadium is not replacing or selling off our history – it’s making new history[/linequote]

The Highest Bidder Bowl, whenever it does end up opening, will continue to be the world famous home of the Spurs. The seats will be new, and there’ll be an extra 25,000 of them, but these are undoubtedly positive changes and no reason to pine for the lost days of White Hart Lane. It was a special place not for its aesthetic or name but for the club that called it home.

The memories that were made in White Hart Lane will never die. Moving to a new stadium is not replacing or selling off our history – it’s making new history. Progress is entirely necessary, just as it has been every time in the past the decision has been made to tweak, tuck or straight up replace aspects of White Hart Lane. Else it would still hold 5000 spectators on mobile stands at the cost of around 2.3 pence per ticket, as was the case when Spurs first played there in September 1899 to create the first ever piece of history the Lane – a 4-1 home defeat to Notts County.

All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.

Will Colwell

8 Comments

  1. BillyWhites
    05/01/2016 @ 12:07 pm

    Reminds me of the Classic ‘Fools and Horses’ sketch about Triggers Broom….

    • HotspurSam
      05/01/2016 @ 12:28 pm

      Ha ha, beat me to it.

  2. Tom
    05/01/2016 @ 12:12 pm

    Transport improvements? Not sure anything has been said about transport. What have you heard?

  3. HotspurSam
    05/01/2016 @ 12:35 pm

    Not sure about all the legal hurdles being jumped. Still has to go through Boris and his crowd, who although ‘for’ the stadium are dead set agin the demolition of the listed buildings. Also English Heritage or whatever name it is going by now, have stated they would appeal to Sec of State to call in the application if Boris does agree to pass the scheme.

    As Haringey solicitor and Spurs stated at Planning Meeting, if the buildings stay, the stadium planning is revoked and there is no plan B – safety grounds, not even the consented scheme can go ahead.

    • mattspurs
      05/01/2016 @ 12:58 pm

      Sam is right – a couple more hurdles to go

  4. Bazza
    05/01/2016 @ 1:29 pm

    Moving to a new stadium? Not so sure. If you built a new house in your own back garden you would call that redeveloping wouldn’t you? And as you could step off the existing pitch on to the new one you could hardly call it moving.
    No, I’m gonna stick with redeveloping and as far as naming rights go, call it what you want, I’m gonna call it New White Hart Lane.

  5. TommyHarmer
    05/01/2016 @ 4:48 pm

    I’m gonna just go on calling it White Hart Lane ……… I was at that Man City game (we was robbed). You mention the grass being different but, as the film confirms, there was rarely much of it around as the season went on, and the modern day footballer would have found it easier to slide on his arse than on his knees in those days!!

  6. Dean
    20/01/2016 @ 2:47 pm

    Its just like the Ship of Theseus: WHL has been done up and over more than a few times, but it retains its identity because its been replaced bit by bit.

    I’ve never been to the Lane – count me amongst those already planning the trip from Australia for next season though. Whatever happens, I’ll still feel inedibly sad when the last game is played there and actually feel a bit emotional writing about it now.

    White Hart Lane will be the turf and stands and grass to some. To me, its the countless nights staying up until the birds start singing from the age of 10. Its the tea and toast at 2AM. Its the muted celebrations to make sure I don’t wake anybody up. Its Defoe and Keane, King and Dawson, Bale, Modric and VDV – players I never saw live in lilywhite but who have changed me as a person. It doesn’t matter that every other game is played somewhere else, it all comes back to the Lane.

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