The NFL also carefully controls what information is allowed to be passed on by its owners. When influential owners like Jerry Jones of Dallas, the late Art Rooney of Pittsburgh or the Mara's of the New York Giants are making statements saying the league is moving to London full time, you may be certain that the league wanted that message to be delivered. There have been other strong messages delivered by journalists working for - or former employees of - the NFL Network TV and website operations.
Must be something in it when even the dead are supporting the move. Sorry, I know what you mean and couldn't resist it. Good post, though.
It does seem out of character for Levy to go ahead with the dual use stadium when the finances require gambling on the NFL establishing a franchise in London. In fact it is so out of character that I'm convinced that is not a gamble he is making. Either he has an assurance from the NFL or other plans. I very much doubt the NFL would give that assurance, they will make that move if and when it suits them, so the only explanation is that there will be other uses of the stadium. The guaranteed NFL games for a decade will help the financing, but there is no reliance on the franchise.
The retractable pitch and the lower surface is a game changer. It means events can be held without damaging the pitch and therefore that we can hold more and more varied events. The lower surface also means it is possible to install special surfaces or dirt based arenas for events in the summer. We have been linked with the people at AEG enough times to suggest that Levy has had advice on the event market in London, for a flexible venue intermediate in size between Wembley and the O2 Arena. That said I haven't had this advice so can only widely speculate, but I suspect we will see something not in the following list.
1. Concerts.
2. Boxing or other fighting events. The recent Wembley boxing fight was a big success. NWHL will be nicely placed between Wembley and the O2 arena for capacity.
3. Dirt track bike or monster truck events.
4. Show jumping. Unlikely even with the gentrification of Tottenham but I add this to illustrate the possibility of out of the box thinking.
5. Sevens rugby or other day long tournament. Perhaps Twickenham will make this difficult for sevens, but the additional NFL changing rooms does make the stadium a good choice for multi-team events. Both rugby union and rugby league have tried double headers at larger stadia than the clubs own.
One other factor. The overall plan for the North Tottenham development suggests the stadium will be the focus of a sports hub. We have the climbing wall planned so perhaps other extreme sports are envisaged.