Sunday, March 6, 2011

Crest

Since the 1901 FA Cup final the Tottenham Hotspur crest has featured a gamecock. Harry Hotspur (from whom the club is said to take its name) was famed for his riding spurs and his fighting cocks were fitted with spurs which can be seen in the crests.In 1909 a former player named William James Scott made a bronze cast of a cockerel standing on a football to be placed on top of the West Stand and since then the cockerel and ball have been the major part of the club's identity.

Between 1956 and 2006 Spurs used a coat of arms featuring a number of landmarks and associations linked to local area. The lions flanking the shield came from the Northumberland family's arms. They owned large areas of Tottenham and Sir Henry Percy (Harry Hotspur) was a family member. The castle alludes to Bruce Castle located 400 yards from the ground and which now houses a museum. The trees are those of Seven Sisters which were planted at Page Green by the Seven Sisters of Tottenham and after whom a railway/tube station and main road are named. The arms featured the Latin motto "Audere Est Facere".

In 1983, to overcome unauthorised "pirate" merchandising, the club's badge was altered by adding the two red heraldic lions and the motto scroll. This device appeared on most Spurs' playing kits for the next 23 years.

To rebrand and modernise the club's image, in 2006 both this club badge and the coat of arms gave way to a professionally designed logo/emblem.This revamp features a leaner/fitter cockerel and an old-time football together with the club name. The club claims that the rebranding kept much of the original meaning of the name, and emphasised its originality.

stadium

Tottenham Marshes

Tottenham played their first matches at Tottenham Marshes on the available public pitches and remained there for six years. It was at this ground that Spurs first played arch rivals Arsenal (then known as Royal Arsenal). Spurs were winning 2–1 until the match got called off due to poor light after the away team arrived late.There were occasions on which fights would break out on the marshes, in dispute of the teams that were allowed to use the best pitches. Crowds were increasing and a new site was needed to accommodate these supporters.
Northumberland Park

In 1898 the club moved from the marshes to Northumberland Park and charged an admission fee of 3d. They only remained at this ground for a year as in April 1899 14,000 fans turned up to watch Spurs play Woolwich Arsenal. The ground was no longer able to cope with the larger crowds and Tottenham Hotspur were forced to move to a new larger site. They moved 100 yards down the road to their current ground.
White Hart Lane

White Hart Lane was originally a disused nursery owned by the brewery Charringtons and located behind a public house. The landlord realised the increased revenues he could enjoy if Tottenham played their matches behind his pub and the club moved in. They brought with them the stand they used at Northumberland Park which gave shelter to 2,500 fans. Notts County were the first visitors to 'the Lane' in a friendly watched by 5,000 people and bringing in £115 in receipts, Spurs won 4–1. QPR became the first competitive visitors to the ground and 11,000 people saw them lose 1–0 to Tottenham.

In 1905 Tottenham raised enough money to buy the freehold to the land and became the permanent owners of the ground. As the club grew new stands were added. A new main stand was added in 1909, the East stand was also covered this year and extended further two years later. The profits from the 1921 FA Cup win were used to build a covered terrace at the Paxton Road end and the Park Lane end was built at a cost of over £3,000 some two years later. This increased the ground's capacity to around 58,000 with room for 40,000 under cover. The East Stand development was finishing in 1934 which increased the capacity to around 80,000 spectators and cost £60,000. The pitch was renovated in 1952 which uncovered a number of items from the old nursery on the site and one year later the first floodlights were introduced. These lights were upgraded in 1957 which required the cockerel to be moved from the West Stand to the East and then in 1961 floodlight pylons were installed.

The West Stand was replaced by an expensive (and far behind schedule) new structure and the stadium started its long modernisation process. Various developments and upgrades were implemented over the years and in 1992 the lower terraces of the south and east stand were converted to seating and the whole of the North stand followed to become all-seater the following season. The South Stand re-development was completed in March 1995 and included the first giant Sony Jumbotron TV screen for live game coverage and away match screenings. The capacity of the stadium increased to just over 33,000. In 1997/98 season the Paxton Road stand had a new upper tier added which included the second Jumbotron screen and increased capacity to 36,240 and was funded by a rights issue in 1996.

Minor amendments to the seating configuration were made in 2006 bringing the current capacity of the stadium to 36,310.
Stadium plans
Northumberland Development Project

The club stated in 2007 that it would announce it was considering options for increasing stadium capacity involving redevelopment of the current site or a move to a new site. Tottenham Hotspur advised in its 2007/8 Interim Financial Statement that the preferred option would be announced in the first half of 2008, but delayed this decision until the autumn.In October 2008, the club announced that, if approved, it was planning to build the new stadium just to the north of the existing stadium at White Hart Lane, with the southern half of the new stadium's pitch located on the northwest corner of the Lane. The unique design of the build would allow the new stadium to be built adjacent to White Hart Lane as the old facility continues to be used for the team. During the summer after two thirds of the new stadium was complete, the northern and western stands would be demolished and a new pitch laid. The rest of the stadium would be built in the years to follow. Club chairman Daniel Levy announced in November 2009 that the new stadium will not adopt the White Hart Lane name, but will instead be named after a sponsor.

The club first submitted a planning application in October 2009, however following adverse reaction the application was withdrawn in favour of a substantially revised planning application in May 2010. Planning permission from Haringey Council to build a larger stadium and other associated developments utilising both the current White Hart Lane site and adjacent land which the club had purchased was evntually obtained in September 2010.The Mayor of London gave his approval to the plans to redevelop the stadium on 25 November 2010. As an intervention by the UK Government was now considered unlikely, the Club decision to proceed or not is still awaited.
Olympic Stadium

Back in 2006 the club had also considered a move to a new site. One possibility for the club was the use the Olympic Stadium after the London 2012 Olympics. As this would have involved a move out of the Tottenham area and because the stadium was required to retain a running track, in October 2006 the plan was reported to have been dropped.However, on 1 October 2010 Chairman Daniel Levy advised that the club had registered an interest in bidding for the stadium in conjunction with AEG (Europe) to keep its options open whilst there remained uncertainties about the success of the Northumberland Development Project.

On 12 November 2010 the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) announced that the Tottenham Hotspur / AEG consortium had been shortlisted as one of the two preferred bidders to take over the Olympic Stadium after the 2012 Olympics.The OPLC announced on 11 February 2011 that West Ham had been selected as the preferred bidder for the Olympic Stadium, subject to final govenmental ratification.

Tottenham Hotspur




Tottenham Hotspur Football Club (locally /ˈtɒʔnəm/), commonly referred to as Spurs, are an English Premier League association football club based in Tottenham, North London. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane.

Tottenham Hotspur were the first club in the 20th century to achieve the League and FA Cup Double, winning both competitions in the 1960–61 season. In 1963 they became the first British club to win a major European trophy—the European Cup Winners' Cup. In the 1970s, they won the League Cup on two occasions and were the inaugural winners of the UEFA Cup in 1972 (becoming the first British club to win two different major European trophies). In the 1980s Spurs won several trophies: the FA Cup twice, FA Community Shield and the UFEA Cup in 1984. In the 1990s, they won the FA Cup and the League Cup. In 2008 they won the League Cup once more, meaning that they have won a trophy in each of the last six decades—an achievement only matched by Manchester United.

The club's Latin motto is Audere est Facere (lit: "To Dare Is to Do"), and its emblem is a gamecock standing upon a football. The club has a long-standing rivalry with near neighbours Arsenal, and matches between the two teams are known as the North London derby.