Finance expert reveals why Levy may have miscalculated on stadium naming rights
Football finance expert, Kieran Maguire has revealed that it could be difficult for Daniel Levy to get a lucrative naming rights deal for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as the Spurs chairman may have left it too late.
It was reported last week that finding a new naming-rights partner for the stadium is one of the club’s priorities at the moment and that the appointment of Todd Kline as the club’s chief commercial officer was intended to speed things up.
Reports suggested that Levy was looking for a deal worth around £25m-a-year, with brands like Amazon and Nike thought to be front-runners.
However, Maguire claimed that Tottenham’s struggles off the field are likely to impact how much brands are willing to pay for the naming rights and that the long delay in finding a partner might also put some companies off.
He told Football Insider: “They are attractive because they’re in London, because they’re in the Champions League on a regular basis, have high-profile players and presently a high-profile manager as well.
“But they’re also 9th in the Premier League. So this could all evaporate very, very quickly.
“I think they’d do extremely well to get £25m-a-year because you’re taking over an existing stadium. If the stadium is named when it’s first built it then becomes associated with the stadium. I always remember Bolton’s stadium as ‘The Reebok’, for example.
“If the stadium is going to be two or three years old and then becomes the Amazon Stadium, is Amazon getting £25m of value for it?
“Are people going to refer to it as the Amazon Stadium or is it going to carry on being the Tottenham Stadium? Trying to get maximum market value out of that will be a challenge.
Maguire also suggested that the financial impact of the pandemic might adversely affect Tottenham’s ability to attract big names like Nike.
He added: “Nike’s sales are down this year because people aren’t playing competitive sport. A lot of things have stopped in terms of merchandise-based products.
“It will take a while for the likes of Nike to crank up their business again, so spending money on something which could be hit or miss might be challenging.
“I think Spurs might need to temper their expectations with this one.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Champions League football is now more important than ever for Spurs, not only because it would make us more attractive for potential naming-rights partners but also because of the substantial interest payments that the club have to make due to their expenditure on the stadium.
We do not seem to be in a position to be able to afford two successive years without Champions League revenue at a time when match day revenue has already stopped. This is what I believe Mourinho will be in major trouble if we do not qualify for the Champions League through the Europa League route.
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