There is good news and bad news if you are a Tottenham Hotspur fan who wants to see the club in the pre-season.
The good news is that Tottenham’s season has ended, with the club announcing a new practice match against the recently relegated Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday 5 September. The match against Watford joins three other previously announced friendships all held at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which follows the scheme as follows:
- vs. Ipswich Town, this Saturday, 10am ET / 3pm BST
- vs. Reading, Fri. August 28 10 am ET / 3 pm BST
- vs. Birmingham City, Sat. August 29 10 am ET / 3 pm BST
- in Watford, Sat. September 5 10 am ET / 3 pm BST
The club also announced yesterday that preseason matches will all be streamed on the club’s new N17 Live streaming platform. Streaming access will be free for season ticket holders and One Hotspur members, and other fans can purchase a stream for all matches for £ 20, or £ 10 for individual matches.
That sounds great, and it’s fantastic that Spurs are finally implementing a streaming service, something that has been around for far too long. However, now comes the bad news. Buried in the small print is this:
* Spurs TV streaming service available in Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Japan, Malta, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom. Information about broadcasters showing the matches in other areas will be confirmed over time.
Think which leading country with a lot of Tottenham Hotspur fans is not on that list? OK, yes, China. But also the United States. Crapsticks.
UPDATE: Keen-eyed Carty-free reader Clark (clark p on the site) emailed me a while ago to let me know he discovered that, in fact, all of Tottenham’s preseason games will be streamed in the United States on Bleacher Report Live. This includes tomorrow’s practice match against Ipswich Town. Thanks, Clark!
I’m not sure how I missed this, but last autumn Tottenham signed a deal with Turner Sports, B / R’s parent company, to stream Spurs TV content on the B / R Live platform. This apparently extends to pre-season matches streamed on N17 Live, and is therefore USA specifically excluded from the list of countries that can access NC17 Live content.
It’s a paid platform, as you probably remember watching Champions League matches on B / R the past few years. However, you can get a one month entry for $ 9.99 and cancel after the last pre-season game ends. $ 10 is even cheaper than the £ 20 that Tottenham charge non-season ticket holders to stream the matches, and even the £ 10 they charge for one a la carte match.
So listen for American ingenuity! And let’s go Tottenham Hotspur!
