New name as Spurs leave Lane

Chairman Levy confirms naming rights plan

Last updated: 30th October 2008

New name as Spurs leave Lane

Levy: Stadium plans

It's a new stadium, so it won't be called White Hart Lane any more. If you want progress, things have to change.

Daniel Levy
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Tottenham have confirmed that they plan to sell naming rights to their proposed new 60,000-capacity stadium.

The Premier League outfit revealed on Thursday that the decision has been taken to leave their White Hart Lane home for a new purpose-built arena adjacent to the current site.

Chairman Daniel Levy admitted that they would be forced to follow the lead of North London rivals Arsenal, who moved from their Highbury home to Emirates Stadium in 2006.

While the realisation of Spurs' ambitious plans remains very much on the horizon, Levy was eager to stress that there would be no impact on the club's transfer expenditure.

Progress

He told Sky Sports News: "I think, unfortunately, it is a function of modern-day finance for stadiums that there will have to be a naming rights deal on the stadium.

"It's a new stadium, so it won't be called White Hart Lane any more. If you want progress, things have to change.

"We're a big club, but if we want to be up there as one of the biggest clubs in Europe we have to have a bigger stadium. We've got a waiting list of 22,000 people for season tickets, we can't satisfy the demand for the next generation of fans. They can't even get the tickets, so we have to solve the stadium issue.

"It's something we've been working on for a number of years. It's a very complicated project and we're going to consult with the local community but we're confident they'll be very pleased with our plans when they become public in the next few weeks.

"We're not going to do anything to jeopardise the club, so when we're ready to push the button we'll make sure that it is sensibly financed."

Limited

Levy admitted that Spurs were unlikely to be major players in the January transfer window, with new manager Harry Redknapp happy with the squad he has inherited from Juande Ramos.

He added: "When Harry took the job we had a conversation about the current squad and the belief is we've already got the top talent here and there may be one or two small changes but Harry is very happy with the squad.

"There may be some limited funds available but the main transfers always take place in the summer.

"The stadium project has no impact whatsoever on our transfer policy."