I went to the virtual reality tour at Lilywhite House last week. In a nutshell, wow!
First off, I've never been to Lilywhite House before, in it self the offices their are fucking impressive with a mixture of open plan and fancy high tech meeting rooms housing all THFC staff that have nothing to do with kicking a ball or helping those kick a ball. I still have a gripe that one of our famous monuments, the Tottenham clock, is on display in the reception where 99% of match day fans will never ever see it, so personally hoping this is moved into the museum or displayed for all fans, not just for those who have fatter wallets than others.
Once inside the building you are talked through the plans of the Stadium whilst overlooking the construction sight from the top floor offices and also with the help of a giant model. You are then taken into a imax type of Cinema Pod thingy. Which holds about 10 people (I was on my Jack Jones). In here you stand whilst an immersive image/film is screened all the way around you whilst you are taken through a flyby journey from central London (clearly using the London theme to sell it), through the streets and sights of London up to Tottenham and the New Stadium, all played out to dramatic music (sound corny but if you love Spurs you are lapping it up). As you are standing whilst this journey unwinds there are moments that you feel like you are loosing your balance (shit, I think this is more to do with also getting old). Once at the stadium you are then handed a playstation control, as you literally walk through the boxes, lounges, bars and restaurants to be found in the posh seats in the East & West stands (for the record this VR invite is to sell you Executive/Corp seats and nothing else). Fuck me, I have been to many Corp hospitality sports events and nothing I have ever done in any sport (Golf, Cricket, Rugby, Football, Horse Racing, Motor Racing etc) comes close to what is on offer at this stadium. There are a variety of different lounges to cater for all tastes, some formal, most casual. The boxes are bigger than the biggest at Wembley, what was interesting is there are not many of them, only boxes are to be in the West stand and that's it, can't remember exact number but give or take a few something like 15-20. You them go into a different room and you put on some VR goggles and are given another playstation control you use to walk through the stadium both inside and out.
Now none of this is my cup of tea, and I shall only be looking for a standard ST, but without any doubt I will look to use to celebrate a birthday or one off event/occasion with a group of mates/family etc. What a special occasion that would be. The two things that stood out for me is that we have something totally unique and never seen at any football stadium in the world and this is a "Tunnel Club", this is a lounge on the ground floor, they are aiming for a Michelin standard chief for this lounge, there is also a bar and an area that has a glass wall (one way glass) at the end of it. From here those in this lounge get to see the players in the tunnel. The seats to this lounge are behind the dugout, using the same heated riccaro seats used by the first team. This is fucking expensive, 2nd highest in the stadium I think they said?? I must confess however, I was very tempted with the Sky Lounge. This is the 2nd unique bit found, as the name suggests, at the very top of the stadium on both the West and East Stands. It is a narrow space with views across London to the outside and unprecedented views across the pitch on the inside. The seats for this lounge are in the top tier's front 15 or 20 rows on the halfway line. The lounge is casual, and doesn't have a restaurant but will serve finger food (not really sure what that is) and has a number of separate bars along the length with seating etc. The pricing here is between £5500-£6500 per season per person and like all the other lounges only available on a min 3yr commitment but with a variety of packages taking them up to 10yr commitments!!
Whether it is a deliberate sales tactic or not to my amazement huge amounts of these packages have already been sold. All the boxes are sold, the poshest Lounge located on the poshest floor (Director Box level) known as "On Fourth" or "On Four" something like that only has a small small handful left!! The Sky Lounge is probably 75% sold!
My only concerns having seen this are the packages being offered appear to offer access to away allocation. This can only eat into the allocation available to us normal folke. That said, I honestly don't know how many taking up these packages would actual want to travel away anyway. I held a Corp seat at Spurs for about 4yrs (whilst on the waiting list for a normal ST), during this time I went to many away games, my application being accepted every time I applied for any game (inc Woolwich away). I got to know about 10 people in my lounge, all were life long passionate Spurs fans, many did as I did got away tickets easily. In our defence we were all singers (the entire Lounge was to be fair) BUT on away days our tickets would always be the tickets in the upper tier (the more expensive or better view) e.g. Man City and Chelsea & Villa, it meant I think we were amongst other lounge members who also applied and they weren't very vocal, some always fucking off on 80 mins too! I fear that this might eat into our away support even more.
It would appear the biggest challenge will come for those who have watched from the shelf for many years, and I guess the West Stand too who just have a standard ST. I know many who are lower tier today and are only sat there because they can't break the habit of a lifetime from watching Spurs from what was the "proper" shelf years earlier. There are going to be seats available in East and West that are not premium seats but you can rest assured they will be not central as all these are to be premium.
Final word for the view when inside the stadium. It will be amazing. It is close to the pitch, our furthest seat away from the pitch is the equivalent front row upper tier of Wembley (I conveniently have a front row upper tier seat for our CL games and its brilliant). The stands are quite steep and give you a sense of being on top of the pitch, just like now. It is a very odd sensation, but despite it being a new stadium their is no mistaking it feels/looks like White Hart Lane, I can't put my finger on why it just does. Whilst the VR didn't take you onto the single tier stand (or Paxton), this stand is going to be truly epic. The level of organisation and professionalism towards this stadium is impressive, it doesn't feel like Tottenham, for those who have supported the club for years I am sure you know what I mean by that. Until I see what is in store for the 'normal' seats all I can say this "new Tottenham" is giving me optimism that we will not see repeats of West Ham and Woolwich when allocating a new place to sit (the normal West & East ST's will be the most affected).