Sports Minutes: The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a blueprint for sporting venues in Singapore?

Zia-ul Raushan (0:00)

We talked about how important this stadium is to the community, right? And you talked about White Hart Lane, and that was quite special. Why was there this big push to build this brand new, beautiful facility?

Alex Scotcher (0:09)

Well, I think it's some incredible forethought around how we deliver those better experiences and the commercialization and diversification of revenue streams that all fall back into trying to make a winning football team, men's and women's. So, that's the founding principle behind buying this venue and behind the stadium and everything that goes on here is 365 days a year. So, yeah, it's been a kind of a founding pillar of our ability to move forward and compete at the highest level.

And obviously, you've seen the trajectory we're now on as a football club.

It's all underpinned by what we do here and how we commercialize an incredible venue. I think the experiences and the authentic experiences that people had at White Hart Lane, they'd still replicate it here, but we've been able to elevate in certain areas and accommodate in different areas and make sure that those experiences still remain first class, whether that be through the right technology, the ability to get served food and beverage in a fast fashion and choice, and all those things that new audiences and old fans as well, would like to see more of. And that's what we've been able to fulfill. And as you can look around here, as we sit here, it still feels brand new. So the standards to be set here, the worst set six years ago, have been very much held on to. And you'll see it's absolutely sickulous and the programming is growing and booming. So it still feels brand new to us and to the community and the jobs that it creates in the community as well. So all of those key pieces have come together for pretty sound reasons to why this building and why here.

Zia-ul Raushan (1:43)

Alex, I have to ask you this. No one likes change, right? Coming from the old into the new stadium. Singapore, they hold on to the old national stadium when the Singapore Sports Hub, now known as the Kalung, was built.

When you think about selling it to the fans, is there a customer experience team, for example, like Changi Airport, which is world-renowned as the best airport? I know they have a customer experience team that thinks about the experience. Is that the same for you guys?

Alex Scotcher (2:04)

Well, this building is built for the fans. And so the level of advisory, guidance and consultation was enormous before this building was even built. And that continues year on year, almost on a weekly basis with that level of consultation with our fans and our fan groups. And we're here to listen and respond accordingly. So the simple answer to that question is absolutely. I think, you know, you say no one likes change, but I think, you know, you really kind of audit our fan groups or the other groups of visitors and experiences that people have here. I think this has been a really great change. And it enables us to do and grow and do more for those fans.

So, high levels of consultation, we listen very hard and we do our very best to respond.

Zia-ul Raushan (2:46)

Traditionally, football stadiums tend to be for football, but back home, Singapore, the khalang is used not just for the national team games, but also for concerts. It's the same in this stadium as well, right? Jay-Z was on that pitch behind you a couple of days ago.

Was that part of the thought process making it more than just a football venue?

Alex Scotcher (3:04)

Yeah, and that was built, you know, very from the very early stages into the whole design. We're the only custom-made NFL stadium outside of the US. So there's forethought planning, strategic thinking that's gone into building this incredible venue for 62,500 fans on a match day with that ability to pivot that stadium into different functionality, whether that's day to day, so for conferences and events. And we do host some really big conferences and events here. But obviously, the Skywalk that you just referenced off the top, F1 Drive underneath the venue, so go-karting and much, much more, all the way through to major global touring artists.

All of that was in the provision before we even built, and now it's our job to keep maximising that and delivering that and making sure those fan and audience experiences remain at the absolute pinnacle. So yeah, a strategic roadmap executed, and then we've got to work really, really hard to keep that going.