It is happening for Tottenham. The Brent Council planning committee has voted for Spurs to play their home games at Wembley, with full capacity. Their application to host 27 matches at the stadium’s full 90,000 capacity was approved.
Brent Council’s planning committee voted in favour of the proposal by a majority of five to one following a heated meeting, lasting three hours and 32 minutes and during which frustrated local residents were allowed to air their views.
Tottenham now have time until March 31 to activate their option of playing at the national stadium, which has already been agreed with the Football Association.
However, the club are not expected to make any decision anytime sooner as they would need to analyse the progress of the construction of their new stadium. The proposal has been made only to play home games of next season and not for the 2018/19 season.
If the construction of the stadium happens to go through any delay, then it would land Tottenham into huge trouble as they would not have any ground to play their home games. Since the new stadium is being built next door to White Hart Lane, the construction requires the demolition of White Hart Lane, thereby prompting Spurs to find an alternate location to host their home games.
Tottenham could possibly stay at White Hart Lane next season and play their home games at Wembley in the 2018-19 season, if the construction of new stadium gets delayed.
Tottenham’s executive director Donna Cullen was quoted by Sky Sports: “Brent is the proud home of Wembley but we would need to make it our proud home here. We would need to create a vibrant home advantage in the stadium. The impact of support is well-acknowledged, hence our application tonight for full capacity.”
Wembley’s current regulations allow Tottenham to play any number of games there, with the upper tier left empty. However, this would mean a restricted capacity of 50,835.
The club were keen to be granted the full 90,000 for all their games and avoid the dampening effect on atmosphere involved in playing in a half-empty stadium.
In a tale of twists and turns, the fans will keep their fingers crossed while the most important transition in the club’s illustrious history continues to happen.
