https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/daniel-levy-new-tottenham-stadium-club-new-dawn-a4316696.html
The moment that caused the biggest concern came when the alarm bells stopped ringing. Beset by increasing costs and lengthening delays, Tottenham’s £1billion stadium suffered a fresh setback when the fire warning system suffered two critical faults: the software needed to be completely rewritten on a programme already so advanced that the existing workforce had no idea how to install it.
This was September 2018, a month after the original target date for Spurs to return home. Group operations and finance director Matthew Collecott claimed it was the “worst day of the whole project".
Chairman Daniel Levy received daily messages at around 5am as those tasked with the responsibility provided updates of how many sprinklers and smoke systems had been installed in pursuit of the safety certificate needed to open and yet then, as today, he remains more circumspect about the issue which contributed significantly to a prolonged stay across town at Wembley.
“It would have been disappointing if we hadn’t got in last season and we were disappointed not to get in the previous summer, but I think it was just a timing issue," he told Standard Sport. “The biggest issue was could we get all the financing together?
“Football clubs have the impression they are these huge businesses. The reality is we create a lot of noise globally but turnover-wise, we are relatively small.
“To take on a capital project of this nature, that’s why so few stadiums ever get built, certainly ones of this scale. It was the enormity of the challenge and I think when we started we didn’t realise what we were taking on."
That process, outlined in a new book Destination Tottenham released on Sunday, began in 2001 when Levy became chairman and affirmed a need to redevelop White Hart Lane. Two years later, the club began negotiating deals to acquire the land — a process he believes totalled around 80 different property transactions, including one incident in which a warehouse under Tottenham’s ownership was broken into and turned into a drugs factory.
“We discovered it had been bolted shut from the inside and when we finally got in we found three acres of cannabis growing in there," explains Levy. “We obviously had to call the police. The next thing we knew we were victims of a revenge attack when the water pipes on the properties we owned down the High Road were cut, which flooded them all."
A perceived lack of support from Haringey Council prompted Spurs to submit what they described as a ‘Plan B’ application for the Olympic Stadium, an offer subsequently withdrawn when the rioting in Tottenham during 2011 sharpened minds.
After the dispute with Archway Sheet Metal Works was settled in March 2015, the club’s plans could finally kick into gear with renowned architects Populous, but the Brexit referendum a year later complicated things further.
“We never got a fixed-price contract because it wasn’t possible," said Levy. “Brexit hurt us as well because a lot of the stuff for the fit-out, a lot of that was imported, so the cost went up [at least] 15 per cent. The veil around the stadium is a £32m aluminium contract to a German company. Brexit happened and that added 20 per cent onto it.
“But this wasn’t just an import or south of England programme. Most of the metal and concrete was from yards in Sunderland and areas like that. All the steel relating to the pitch was from up north. At one point, we had over 4,000 people working on site 24/7. The logistics of running a project of this scale on a fairly tight site was a massive challenge."
As it was, Spurs eventually moved back in for their last five Premier League home fixtures of last season and the climax of a Champions League run which took them all the way to the final.
It is the dawn of a new era but also in some senses the end of the beginning. Levy wrestled with the decision to replace Mauricio Pochettino with Jose Mourinho last month as the club now look to add the one missing piece from years of exponential progress on and off the field: silverware.
To do so, Spurs must avoid the same financial constraints which hamstrung north London rivals Arsenal as they repaid costs from their Emirates Stadium build more than a decade ago.
Tottenham have guarded against that by refinancing more than £600m of loans which were originally due to be paid back by April 2022, instead converting around £525m into bonds which will mature over a 30-year period.
Levy insists that nothing much has changed in terms of Tottenham’s position in the marketplace, especially with a fixed sum ringfenced for transfers each season as part of the refinancing agreements.
*********************CONTINUED IN COMMENTS*************************
Levy Interview
posted on 19/12/19
comment by Tottenham Chronic (U3423)
posted 16 minutes ago
comment by Bales (U22081)
posted 16 hours, 45 minutes ago
Lets also not forget that Redknapp would've sold Modric to Chelsea had he not been blocked by the board
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ssssshhhhhh... facts like these are glossed over on the anti-levy train
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I hadn't heard that but maybe he wanted to as he was desperate for funds to sign more players rather than injured freebies like Saha and Nelsen?
posted on 19/12/19
comment by Spurtle (U1608)
posted 44 minutes ago
comment by Tottenham Chronic (U3423)
posted 16 minutes ago
comment by Bales (U22081)
posted 16 hours, 45 minutes ago
Lets also not forget that Redknapp would've sold Modric to Chelsea had he not been blocked by the board
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ssssshhhhhh... facts like these are glossed over on the anti-levy train
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I hadn't heard that but maybe he wanted to as he was desperate for funds to sign more players rather than injured freebies like Saha and Nelsen?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
so he wanted to sell one of our best players to buy a player who almost certainly wouldn't have been as good as luka modric?
posted on 19/12/19
comment by Tottenham Chronic (U3423)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by Spurtle (U1608)
posted 44 minutes ago
comment by Tottenham Chronic (U3423)
posted 16 minutes ago
comment by Bales (U22081)
posted 16 hours, 45 minutes ago
Lets also not forget that Redknapp would've sold Modric to Chelsea had he not been blocked by the board
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ssssshhhhhh... facts like these are glossed over on the anti-levy train
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I hadn't heard that but maybe he wanted to as he was desperate for funds to sign more players rather than injured freebies like Saha and Nelsen?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
so he wanted to sell one of our best players to buy a player who almost certainly wouldn't have been as good as luka modric?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
c'mon mate, your Levy brown nosing campaign blinds you just as much as the levy out campaigners are blinded
Modric wanted to leave and was threatening to not play / train
posted on 19/12/19
comment by Tottenham Chronic (U3423)
posted 1 hour, 20 minutes ago
comment by Bales (U22081)
posted 16 hours, 45 minutes ago
Lets also not forget that Redknapp would've sold Modric to Chelsea had he not been blocked by the board
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ssssshhhhhh... facts like these are glossed over on the anti-levy train
----------------------------------------------------------------------
But Modric ended up getting sold anyway.
Yes its better he went to Madrid but whether he went Chelsea or not wouldn't have made a difference to the manager.
Still ended up with the player gone.
Sem - there's nothing "blind" about what i've said against Levy. What has been said which is outrageous?
posted on 19/12/19
Redknapp never wanted to sell Modric to Chelsea per say.
I remember him saying something along the lines of he’s going then let him go so he could get a few players in with the money to improve the overall team.
Obviously doesn’t quite fit the narrative being pushed though
posted on 19/12/19
comment by Boss By Hugo (U18550)
posted 53 seconds ago
comment by Tottenham Chronic (U3423)
posted 1 hour, 20 minutes ago
comment by Bales (U22081)
posted 16 hours, 45 minutes ago
Lets also not forget that Redknapp would've sold Modric to Chelsea had he not been blocked by the board
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ssssshhhhhh... facts like these are glossed over on the anti-levy train
----------------------------------------------------------------------
But Modric ended up getting sold anyway.
Yes its better he went to Madrid but whether he went Chelsea or not wouldn't have made a difference to the manager.
Still ended up with the player gone.
Sem - there's nothing "blind" about what i've said against Levy. What has been said which is outrageous?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Modric stayed for another season and got sold outside the league. cant remember the price but think Chelsea were gonna pay 40m.. am sure madrid must have paid around that too
posted on 19/12/19
comment by Boss By Hugo (U18550)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Tottenham Chronic (U3423)
posted 1 hour, 20 minutes ago
comment by Bales (U22081)
posted 16 hours, 45 minutes ago
Lets also not forget that Redknapp would've sold Modric to Chelsea had he not been blocked by the board
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ssssshhhhhh... facts like these are glossed over on the anti-levy train
----------------------------------------------------------------------
But Modric ended up getting sold anyway.
Yes its better he went to Madrid but whether he went Chelsea or not wouldn't have made a difference to the manager.
Still ended up with the player gone.
Sem - there's nothing "blind" about what i've said against Levy. What has been said which is outrageous?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
there's nothing directed at you in my post mate
posted on 19/12/19
comment by Tottenham Chronic (U3423)
posted 35 seconds ago
comment by Boss By Hugo (U18550)
posted 53 seconds ago
comment by Tottenham Chronic (U3423)
posted 1 hour, 20 minutes ago
comment by Bales (U22081)
posted 16 hours, 45 minutes ago
Lets also not forget that Redknapp would've sold Modric to Chelsea had he not been blocked by the board
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ssssshhhhhh... facts like these are glossed over on the anti-levy train
----------------------------------------------------------------------
But Modric ended up getting sold anyway.
Yes its better he went to Madrid but whether he went Chelsea or not wouldn't have made a difference to the manager.
Still ended up with the player gone.
Sem - there's nothing "blind" about what i've said against Levy. What has been said which is outrageous?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Modric stayed for another season and got sold outside the league. cant remember the price but think Chelsea were gonna pay 40m.. am sure madrid must have paid around that too
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Real got him for £30m
that was the trade off, we sold him abroad for £10m less than to a direct rival
great decision in my opinion
posted on 19/12/19
comment by MKspur (U9129)
posted 18 minutes ago
Redknapp never wanted to sell Modric to Chelsea per say.
I remember him saying something along the lines of he’s going then let him go so he could get a few players in with the money to improve the overall team.
Obviously doesn’t quite fit the narrative being pushed though
----------------------------------------------------------------------
On top of this that summer we signed Parker £5m and got Adebayour on loan with a fee of £3m.
We then went on and made £38m on player sales.
posted on 19/12/19
I think it's fair to question the dubiousness of what our managers were supposed to have wanted compared with what they really wanted, when you know how Levy is. It's like some people still don't understand or aren't willing to accept just how much of a say Levy has in transfers and budget restrictions, even now. It obviously affects the manager's outlook on targets they want to bring in, which is backed up by what AVB and Poch have said.