Tottenham Hotspur have not ruled out staying at their White Hart Lane stadium next season despite being given permission last week to play across London at Wembley next season.
The Premier League club are building a 61,000-seat stadium adjacent to White Hart Lane, their home since 1899, which is scheduled to be demolished at the end of the current season.
Tottenham hope to move into the new arena for the 2018-19 season, after a year of playing at Wembley’s 90,000-seater stadium, but chairman Daniel Levy said on Wednesday that they could remain at their existing home longer than planned.
“Whilst everyone is eager to know if this is our last season at the Lane, we shall only make the decision to decommission our historic White Hart Lane when we have greater certainty on the delivery of the new stadium,” Levy told the club’s website.
Spurs, who played Champions League and Europa League ties at Wembley this term, have been given approval by Brent Council’s planning committee to play 27 games at the national stadium next season. They have a March 31 deadline to take up the offer.
Work on Tottenham’s new 800 million pounds ($994.16 million)stadium is progressing well but the north London club are anxious to avoid having to play ‘away’ from home on the other side of London for more than one season.
In a statement showing record revenues of 209 million pounds in the year to June 2016, Spurs said the delivery timetable for the stadium and associated public sector infrastructure works were “paramount” before any decommissioning of White Hart Lane.