The worst kept secret in football finance for some time has been that Tottenham Hotspur are for sale, with Daniel Levy only going public with the search for fresh investment in April.
From ENIC and Levy’s perspective, they have long been open to negotiations if the price is right, although the mood music in North London has always been that a minority investment is the likeliest option.
Amanda Staveley has been strongly linked with investing in Spurs, with the former Newcastle United supremo having assembled a consortium and raised around £500m for a new football project.
There have been groups and individuals who have had Tottenham in the crosshairs for a full takeover too.
TBR Football understands that MSP Sports Capital, who failed in a bid to buy Everton last year, went as far as to appoint a consultancy firm to carry out research with a view to a full bid.
Others have been linked too – Paris Saint-Germain owners Qatar Sports Investments, Formula One proprietors Liberty Media, and the rapper-turned-investor Jay-Z, to name a handful.
Spurs meanwhile have enlisted the Rothschild bank to smoke out potential new partners in order to, in Levy’s own words, acquire a “significant increase in its equity base.”
Any deal – be that a minority arrangement or full takeover – would not come cheap.
Levy values Spurs at £3.75bn and, given his reputation as a formidable negotiator, he is unlikely to give any would-be investor much breathing space in talks.
Astonishingly, a sale at that price would represent a world-record for a football takeover and a circa 4000% markup on Levy and ENIC’s initial investment.
And, as football finance expert Kieran Maguire told TBR earlier this year, the 62-year-old executive is justified in his appraisal of the club he has supported since he was a boy.
Fans are routinely frustrated at what they perceive to be the club’s commercial orientation under Levy and ENIC, but their growth as a business since the move to the new stadium in 2019 has been stupefying.
Matchday income has trebled at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but it is in the commercial department where the real, transformative gains have been obtained.
Spurs trousered £228m from sponsorship, merchandise sales and events over the course of the last financial year.
What’s more, £55m of that sum came from non-football events at the stadium. And from next year a new license will allow them to double the number of events they hold and, in turn, their revenue.
These aren’t the metrics by which supporters gauge success in football, of course.
Spurs are 7th in the Premier League and on a near two-decade silverware drought, and some bedrock fans are growing impatient with the current owners for what they see as a lack of ambition in N17.
But the reality is that prospective new owners are more likely to look at EBITDA, cost control, and brand profile when they assess an investment opportunity – and Spurs excel in all of these areas.
Now, one of the biggest names in sports business is said to have also recognised Tottenham’s potential.
NFL billionaire in London to ‘potentially purchase’ Tottenham
The NFL enjoy a special relationship with Tottenham.
The biggest sports league in the world invested around £10m in the construction of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and stage the London Games at the 62,850-seater venue annually.
That has been lucrative for Spurs because of the hosting fee they receive, yes, but also because it has helped the club further embed themselves in the United States as a commercial market.
In what Levy has confessed is a dream of his, it has been suggested that the Super Bowl could even one day be staged at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which has become the sport’s spiritual home in Europe.
But the connections the two entities could be about to get much closer.
According to Eric Sollenberger, who goes by PFT Commenter on X, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is in London to explore a possible deal for Spurs.
It is not entirely clear whether Jones’ investment would be on a minority basis, but those consulted by TBR suggest that this is probably the case, if indeed the sources cited are accurate.
And while one tweet in isolation might not inspire huge confidence, Jones has been tentatively linked with Spurs before by the Evening Standard.
Public records confirm that Jones’ private jet is indeed in London too, although the same was also true around the same time last year.
In developments covered extensively by this site, the NFL have launched their first football project via an investment in Liga MX in conjunction with private equity titans Apollo.
Several Premier League clubs also share an ownership structure with an NFL owner.
Here’s the revised table, now including category headers and a blank row before the first data row:
Meanwhile, Amanda Staveley was a guest of Levy’s when the Jacksonville Jaguars faced the Chicago Bears at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in October.
The financier, who has a peerless rolodex of contacts in Middle East finance, is a big fan of the NFL and also understood to have met with officials from the league independently of her interest in Spurs.
Who is Jerry Jones? The man who reportedly wants to buy Spurs
Jones, 82, has been the owner of the United States’ biggest and most successful NFL franchise the Dallas Cowboys since 1989.
Prior to that, the California-born businessman enjoyed a playing career in the sport, turning out at college level for Arkansas Razorbacks.
It is fair to say that Jones is a polarising figure, not least among fans of the Dallas Cowboys themselves, who have not won the Super Bowl for two decades.
There are parallels between the Cowboys’ situation and Manchester United’s, or at least that is what some people have observed.
Would he be a suitable owner or co-owner for Spurs? That really depends on the structure of any potential deal.
His independent wealth is not in question. He is currently worth about £13bn and, as a minority investor, would have the capital and liquidity to potentially take Spurs forward on and off the pitch.
But Jones is known for his hands-on approach. In fact, some commentators have accused him of overstepping boundaries in the past.
Would that approach work alongside Levy, who is the all-seeing eye in N17? It is a question that fans will inevitably ask.