LONDON (CelebrityAccess) — The Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has issued an apology and an offer of refunds to their fans after the opening of their new £850m stadium was delayed by defects in critical safety systems.
“Yesterday the club received a report from [contractor] Mace which highlighted the extent of the issues with critical safety systems. As a result, a decision was taken to defer the opening of the stadium and to move two further games to Wembley,” the team said in a statement.
“Delays are common, certainly for builds of this size and complexity, however, we are hugely frustrated that this has occurred with these systems at such a late stage. Whilst we would have been able to mitigate other areas, we simply cannot compromise safety.”
The delayed opening for the new stadium has impacted several of the football club’s upcoming matches, including Sept. 15th vs. Liverpool, and the Cardiff game on October 6th and a game vs Fulham on August 18th has been shifted to the O2 Stadium.
The delay is also impacting the NFL. The Seattle Seahawks were slated to play the Oakland Raiders on October 14th, but that has now been moved to the National Stadium.
Details about the potential relocation of other matches, including Champions League and any Carabao Cup matches are still up in the air.
The 62,062-capacity stadium, one of the largest in the premier league, had been due to open for its first public event on August 28th.
