Tottenham Hostspur chairman Levy eyes London NFL franchise
Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy admits he would like a London NFL franchise to use his club's new stadium as their permanent base. With building work well underway on the area around Tottenham's current White Hart Lane home as they prepare the new 61,000-seat stadium, Levy has set his sights on a potentially lucrative relationship with American football. The popularity of the NFL has increased significantly in Europe in recent years and once again this year three regular-season matches will be played in London, with two at Wembley and one at Twickenham. A 10-year partnership is in place which will see two NFL matches a year hosted at Tottenham's new arena once it opens for the start of the 2018-19 English season. And amid growing speculation that the NFL is looking to plant a team in London, Levy believes Tottenham's new state-of-the-art facility would present a ready-made home. "We would welcome very much close co-operation with the NFL and a dedicated team," Levy said in an interview with ESPN. "Obviously a decision is entirely theirs whether they do bring a team to the UK, and where it would be located is something that would be talked about, but yes, we would very much welcome that scenario. "We worked together (on the design) because it needed to be viewed as a combined joint soccer and NFL stadium. "In fact, the way we designed the whole experience is one side of the stadium is a dedicated soccer entrance and the other side is a dedicated NFL entrance. "If it ever got to a stage where the NFL decided it wanted to have a permanent team in London, this stadium could literally be - whatever the team was - their stadium as opposed to an NFL team feeling they're renting Tottenham's stadium."
