Dare Skywalk offers a cockerel's-eye view of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Football

Published: 07 Jan. 2023, 16:21 Updated: 09 Jan. 2023, 09:16

Dare Skywalk offers a cockerel's-eye view of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

The iconic Tottenham Hotspur cockerel is visible on the roof of the stadium in north London on Dec. 5. [JIM BULLEY]

LONDON — Running a sports stadium is an expensive and difficult business, requiring thousands of employees and round-the-clock work, even if there’s only a game on every week or two.

To keep the lines on, stadium managers have had to get creative, finding innovative ways to get paying customers through the door even when there isn’t anything sporty to see. Stadium tours are the most obvious option, but some clubs have found more innovative ways to pull in the punters.

At Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London, the Dare Skywalk offers fans, tourists and visiting journalists with a concerning fear of heights the chance to strap on a harness and climb up to the roof to get a bird’s eye — or in this case a cockerel’s eye — view of the stadium and surrounding area.

The tour, which can be found on the Tottenham Hotspur website with prices starting at £28, starts with the donning of the obligatory full-body flight suit and harness fitting. Once suitably equipped, a quick climb up a few flights of satisfactorily industrial-looking metal stairs takes you to the edge of the roof and the real adventure.

The entrance to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium store and stadium tour. [JINSIL YU]

Climb is perhaps a generous term for what is essentially a very steep slope, although it is exposed to the open air and offers astounding views of London on the final stretch to the roof proper. There is a ritualistic clipping and unclipping of the harness to rails on the wall at every stage of the journey, ensuring that you continue to hug the stadium even with the steep drop on one side.

Up on the roof, a series of metal gantries take you to a viewing area offering a panoramic view, stretching from Alexandra Palace in the west to West Ham to the east and taking in all of central London between.

The highlight of the tour is the chance to follow a glass walkway out around Tottenham’s iconic golden cockerel, with the stadium’s pitch visible through the glass, 46.8 meters below your feet.

The cockerel, which you get close enough to touch, is a scaled up version of the one that used to stand at White Hart Lane, enlarged to fit the larger Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The new bird was made from a cast of the old one, including the infamous fist-sized dent from when former star midfielder Paul Gascoigne shot it with an air rifle.

A view of London from the roof of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Dec. 5. [JINSIL YU]

After the cockerel there’s a chance to look at the view before descending back the way you came, although thrill seekers can buy tickets to the Dare Skywalk Edge, allowing them to hang off the edge before a controlled descent straight down the front of the stadium to the ground.

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium also offers tours, both guided and independent, with visitors able to look behind the scenes at everything from the player’s changing rooms to the high-end boxes where the richest fans eat caviar, drink champagne and presumably occasionally watch the football.

The Son Heung-min section in the Tottenham Hotspur store [JINSIL YU]

The final stop for anybody looking to pump some money into the Tottenham Hotspur machine ought to be the store, where staff say the Son Heung-min kit is consistently the best-selling item.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]