The businesses making Tottenham Hotspur's new £1bn stadium the envy of its Premier League rivals
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Tottenham Hotspur hosts their first Premier League game on Wednesday April 3 against Crystal Palace Credit: Tottenham Hotspur FC/Tottenham Hotspur FC
27 March 2019 • 4:48pm
As Tottenham Hotspur fans stream into the gleaming new stadium for the first time next week, few will spare a thought for the suppliers helping to make it a venue envied by the club's Premier League rivals.
Fran Jones, Tottenham's head of partnerships, says: “We have been able to learn from the mistakes of other venue holders to try to deliver something better than what there has been before."
We take a look at some of the businesses Jones says will make the stadium a “truly multipurpose venue”.
SCX
“We never say no,” says Danny Pickard, the lead engineer of SCX, which was picked to design and build Spurs' playing surface.
A retractable pitch is central to Tottenham chief executive Daniel Levy’s £1bn dream to build a ground that can be used for all manner of events. There are a handful of retractable pitches around the world, but this one is the first “dividing, retractable pitch”.
In just 25 minutes it folds into thirds and tucks under the towering south stand, the UK’s largest single-tier structure.
The Sheffield-based firm, which designed the centre court roof at Wimbledon and is completing a similar job for number one court, was given the demanding remit as the Spurs’ south stand has no view-obstructing pillars. This means there are columns underneath, meaning the pitch needed to divide to fit neatly out of sight. It can be stored for up 10 days within seeing any sunlight.
Three 3,000 tonne, 120 metre-long trays carry the turf. Getting each part to join together was “probably the hardest part of the job”, Pickard explains. Starting in 2015 at Tottenham’s training ground, SCX tested a system where rubber sits on top of the frame but under the turf. “It is two pieces of rubber that basically kiss,” says Pickard, creating a seamless connection.
The trays that hold the stadium's turf in storage in Doncaster before being taken to London
SCX does not reveal what it charged for the pitch, but insist it is not to blame for the delay in the stadium's opening as it was ready to go in May 2018.
Given the technology is “a relatively small percentage of the capital cost”, according to Pickard, and that this type of retractable pitch transforms a ground into a multi-purpose arena, there’s only one other question: “Why wouldn’t you want to do this?” he asks.
Beavertown and Heineken
Despite being a long-suffering lifelong Wolverhampton Wanderers fan, Beavertown boss Logan Plant was unable turn down the opportunity to put a microbrewery in Spurs' new home.
Based in Tottenham Hale, Beavertown made 13 million pints last year and aims to double that in 2019. One million of those pints will be brewed on the Spurs’ site.
Like many other hipster brewers, Beavertown was accused of “craftwashing” last year when it struck a deal with Heineken. The Dutch giant has handed over £40m to help build yet another site - “Beaverworld” in Enfield.
Heineken may well be Spurs’ official beer supplier, but Plant insists they “didn’t have a clue” Beavertown was in talks with Spurs to build a microbrewery in the ground. Beavertown’s Neck Oil and a collaboration beer with the club will be available alongside Heineken and Amstel on the concourses - and the 65-metre bar running the entire length of the goal line which is the longest in Europe.
Heineken may want to watch its back. Despite being tiny in comparison, a third of the beer sales at last Saturday's test event - a junior game between Spurs and Southampton - were Beavertown brands.
A Beavertown bar in Tottenham's new stadium
Hewlett-Packard Enterprises (HPE)
The ground promises to be “the most technologically advanced stadium ever built”.
But getting either a mobile or WiFi connection at a major sporting or live events can be a nightmare. The ability to get a mobile signal will be the first question many fans will ask.
HPE has installed 1,674 WiFi access points, with picocells (mini base stations) installed under every one of the ground's 62,062 seats. The outcome? "100pc coverage for fans", according to HPE.
A further 700 Bluetooth beacons will also be installed. These will allow attendees to navigate around the stadium using the club's custom app, helping them find their nearest bars or toilet.
SGL
As any budding gardener will tell you, getting grass to grow isn’t always easy. And when there are 22 players chewing it up every other Saturday, a little extra help getting the grass to grow back is required.
SGL stadium lighting has 275 projects worldwide across eight sports - and yes, one of their clients is Arsenal.
But Tottenham appear to have got one-up on up on their north London rivals. Six mobile integrated lights will throw high intensity beams in a world-first way of keeping the pitch in top-notch condition.
Spurs head of playing surfaces and estates, Darren Baldwin, says: “This technology will be a trendsetter for pitch care in stadia across the world.”
Fans arrive at Tottenham's new stadium for an under-18s match last weekend
Compass
The giant global foodservice company has left it to subsidiary Levy, a specialist in catering for the masses at sports events, to run the 65 concessions dotted around the ground.
Jonathan Davies, managing director of Levy UK, says the company has processes in place to address the “pinch points” such as half-time or before kick-off.
Getting through customers more quickly is key. “Contactless payment - that speeds that up dramatically,” he says.
Meanwhile, there's “bottom’s up” beer technology. Glasses are filled from the bottom with drink pumped upwards through their base. This means a pint will take just six to eight seconds to fill.
When it comes to food, a classic meat and potato pie has been developed specially for Spurs. And given the popularity of chicken outlets near to the ground (and the fact that a cockerel is club’s emblem), Levy has developed its own in-house chicken shop.
CleanEvent Services
Tottenham may well plan to phase out single-use plastics - plastic straws will be banned - but there will still be plenty of rubbish to clean up afterwards.
CleanEvent landed the bumper cleaning and housekeeping contract for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This included sweeping up more than 400kg of confetti from the Olympic stadium.
The company employs about 500 staff and also has contracts with Liverpool and Fulham, as well as Aintree and Cheltenham racecourses and the Silverstone motor racing track.
With all this experience been behind the CleanEvent, business development director Julian Kelly says Spurs' approach to contracting has been "very refreshing".
Contractors of all shapes and sizes remain under pressure in the wake of a number of high-profile failures.
But Tottenham has been "revolutionary in dealing with us in the supply chain". This has included a pledge by the club to commit to a contract that will allow CleanEvent staff to be paid the London Living Wage.
