‘Tottenham to agree 20-year naming rights bill worth £500m’
Tottenham will pour the funds from a new naming rights deal for their stadium into the wage bill.
Spurs moved to their new stadium in 2019 after 117 years at White Hart Lane.
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was a temporary name put in place until a naming rights deal was agreed, but six years on, no deal has yet been struck.
Sources told Football Insider exclusively in February that Tottenham had missed out on £75million in revenue thanks to their failure to agree a deal.
However, The Telegraph reports that Spurs’ flurry of transfer activity, including the signing of Mohammed Kudus from West Ham and a failed move for Nottingham Forest ace Morgan Gibbs-White, may have been prompted by the club finally reaching an agreement over a new sponsor for their stadium.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, finance expert Stefan Borson said that if a deal had been reached, the funds would go straight into Spurs’ wage bill.
Despite being one of the Premier League‘s best-run clubs from a financial perspective, Tottenham spend comparatively less than their rivals on players’ salaries [The Sun].
Tottenham naming rights deal ‘important’
Borson told Football Insider that whilst a naming rights deal would not be “transformational”, the boost to profits would still be a plus for the club.
He said: “Well, I think the only problem that they found on the naming rights deals is a problem that’s common around Europe, which is that naming rights deals, compared to America, have always been at a very considerable discount to what the American stadiums are getting.
“And so I doubt it’s been a case of they’ve had no offers. It’s a fabulous stadium in central London, and it gets a lot of coverage for not just football, but for the NFL and also for gigs and other events.
“So I don’t think it’s been difficult to find a sponsor. I think it’s been difficult to find a sponsor at the level that Daniel Levy and the rest of the Tottenham board felt represented good value for the asset, especially because firstly, it’s a virgin naming rights, the first naming rights deal for the stadium, and secondly, it’s probably going to be a 20 year deal.
“The nature of these sorts of naming rights are that they’re very long term. So it’s got to be right from day one. The impact is purely financial, I mean, there will be a package that will go with the naming rights sponsor, effectively a box or some perimeter advertising or whatever else. You know, they’ll have an inventory that they will get as part of the naming rights deal.
“But the reality is it’s £25m+ per season for the next X number of years to have the branding on the side of the stadium. And the difference it will make to their spending is that they will be in funds in profit terms, for the best part of that £25m.
“So, you know, it’s probably 5% of their turnover, but it’s quite a big part of their profit, that sponsorship property is a very obviously a high margin i.e. has very little cost associated with it and therefore is an important element of the profit and loss of a football club and so it will have an impact.
“I don’t think that it will have a transformational impact, you’ve already got a situation where Spurs probably need to be spending around about the same amount of money that they would get for that naming rights deal on increasing their wage bill.
“Their wage bill is probably £25m too low at a minimum. And so that money is just gonna go straight into increased investment and getting them competitive back in the Premier League. They are Champions League this season, you can’t forget that they’re there, having finished 17th.”
Tottenham lay groundwork for Son Heung-min departure
Whilst a new stadium naming rights may not be transformational for the club, the departure of one of their best ever players certainly will be.
Mick Brown told Football Insider that Tottenham are now preparing for Son Heung-min’s departure this summer.The North London club are prepared to accept offers from Saudi Pro League and MLS clubs for their South Korean legend.