A company working on Tottenham’s new stadium have advertised for electricians to start immediately on a ‘three-month contract’ leading many to speculate that Spurs’ new ground may be delayed even further.
The ad was discovered and posted on Reddit by an eagle-eyed user and suggests that the bad news for Spurs fans isn’t likely to get any better anytime soon.
According to Construction Enquirer Spurs are now paying workers on the new stadium more per week than they spend on players.
“The Enquirer understands that yesterday saw a record workforce of 3,800 operatives clock-in on the project which saw its planned opening delayed this week,” they wrote. CE also revealed that electricians were being paid £400-a-day in June. One expert close to the project added, “You’ve got 3,800 operatives down there in two shifts and whatever overtime they want.
“There’s 600 electricians on site and thousands of other trades.
“Being conservative that’s going to rack-up at an average of at least £1,000 a week per head in labour costs.” That’s £3.8m-a-week. Spurs players pick up a total of around £2.4m-a-week.
The stadium was supposed to be ready for Spurs to play all their home games at their new ground, apart from the match against Fulham which would take place at Wembley.
But they have now announced that their games against Liverpool (15 September) and Cardiff City (6 October) will also take place at England’s national stadium.
Their game against City, which has been moved to Sunday 28 October for TV, cannot be played at Wembley as they are hosting an NFL game on that date and Pep Guardiola has already hinted that he is opposed to switching it to a City home game as it would leave him with only one home game in their final five matches of the season.
“We want to help the Premier League,” he told reporters at his press conference this week.
“This can happen because they build an amazing stadium for Tottenham Hotspur, sometimes there are delays.
“We are going to adapt if we can adapt but of course we are going to think of ourselves as well.
“I don’t know. I can only say, when that happens, of the last five games four are away.”
What all this does is further highlight what a remarkable job Arsenal did to construct Ashburton Grove on time and budget.
Spurs’ project was estimated to cost around £400m but that has now rocketed to £850m with the figure not expected to stop there. In April, the Guardian reported it could surpass the £1bn mark before it’s complete.
It’s no surprise Spurs were the only Premier League club to buy nobody in the summer window.
To contrast, the Grove cost £390m.
Some Spurs fans (and media) will point to the ‘accelerated’ and ‘ambitious’ schedule Spurs attempted to open their stadium this season, however, they actually began work on it in 2012 after announcing plans for it in 2008 and submitting planning applications in 2009. It was then revised in 2010 before building started in September 2012.
Construction on Arsenal’s stadium started in February 2004 after purchasing the land in 2000. The ground opened, on schedule and budget, on 22 July 2006.