Opinion: Looking at the importance of the stadium name rights to Tottenham

The footballing world has fallen into unprecedented ground with the repercussions of COVID-19 starting to really affect owners all over the world.

Tottenham have not only suffered on the pitch but also heavily in off field affairs as well. The club recently declared a loss of £63.9 million in their annual financial report.

This, coupled with the fact that it was reported last June in Deloitte’s Annual Review of Football Finance 2020 which takes into account financial figures from 2018/19, that Spurs’ debt had risen to £534 million.

This debt, undoubtedly, has risen with the completion of the new stadium and, with lockdown rules across the UK, the club have been unable to reap the benefits of paying fans.

With all of this being considered, Tottenham will be looking to make some money and fast.

The most obvious way to do this would be to utilise the brand new stadium that has been built. This would come in form of the club selling off the rights for the name of the current Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

As per reports from The Telegraph, Levy recently brought in Todd Kline as chief commercial officer, formerly of the Miami Dolphins, to oversee the renaming of the stadium.

Kline fronted the team that was in charge of the renaming of the Dolphins stadium to the Hard Rock Stadium in 2016 with a deal being struck in the region of £180 million.

This appointment has shown real intent by the club to secure the best deal possible and to see them slowly find their way out of the financial predicament that they currently find themselves in.

Manchester City currently have a deal in place with Etihad Airways reportedly worth €24.44 million per annum and Arsenal have a deal worth €18.58 million a year in place with the Dubai based airline, Emirates (Statista).

This goes to show how sought after the stadium rights are if the reported fees are believed to be true.

Amazon have apparently shown interest in being the company to claim these rights, while Nike have also been reported as an interested party as per reports from the Daily Mail.

The Daily Mail stated that Levy would be looking to secure a deal in the region of £25 million a year over a 10-20 year period.

Amazon and Nike do have a previous standing relationship with the North London club which was forged over the creation of ‘All or Nothing’ the documentary and Spurs’ current kits respectively.

If Levy and co. were to secure a deal along the lines of this it would be a huge financial boost for the club.

This cannot be understated as financial stability could, in the long term, lead to more squad investment which is something that the fans have called out for for many years now.

If the club’s debt was to be eased with a deal, then it could also mean that the owners would not feel the need to sell any current key players. A source told
Football Insider that it was inevitable a key player would be sold in the upcoming summer transfer window.

I believe that, if the club can find suitable investors and strike up a lucrative deal, then it could see a real upturn in Tottenham’s fortunes in contrast to the dark cloud that seems to be looming over the stadium at this moment in time.

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