Daniel Levy is right to take a forensic approach to Tottenham’s stadium naming rights search. After all, they are selling a piece of the club’s soul. finding the right partner deserves due diligence.
But it’s a fine line between meticulousness and stasis. Six years into their residence at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Spurs have probably crossed that line.
And given that Daniel Levy doesn’t budge from his self-sufficient model, any lost revenue directly impacts the budget available to Johan Lange and Ange Postecoglou, or whoever is in charge next season.
Levy himself has suggested that Spurs are in no hurry to secure a naming rights deal because of the benefits associated with having the club name above the door when Beyonce or the NFL come to town.
There is real value in that, true. The club themselves estimate that 5.9 billion people are interested in events at the stadium, which is about 80 per cent of the world’s population.
That’s the kind of – and Tottenham fans are rightly sick of hearing their club talked about in these clinical terms – ‘brand exposure’ that is arguably worth more than a £20m-a-year naming rights deal.
But if that’s the route ENIC are taking, they need to clarify. At present, fans are in purgatory and stuck with a placeholder name. That matters when this place is supposed to be the beating heart of the club.
For now, they’re stuck with the clunky ‘Tottenham Hotspur Stadium’, ‘New White Hart Lane’, or simply ‘the stadium’.
And, as an aside, the club says it wants to be called ‘Spurs’ by broadcasters and the press for marketing purposes. If that’s the case, they don’t even have their preferred name above the door anyway.
With Spurs a miserable 15th in the Premier League and focusing their energy on the Europa League ahead of tonight’s quarter-final second leg at Eintracht Frankfurt, naming rights aren’t the current priority.
But TBR Football understands that the search is not on ice – more on that later.
And significantly, there is a new CEO in N17. Could Vinai Venkatesham, formerly of Arsenal, light a fire under negotiations with would-be partners?
Could new Spurs CEO breathe life into Tottenham’s stadium naming rights search?
Spurs want at least £200m for the naming rights for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium over the course of a 10-year-plus deal.
And with Vinai Venkatesham starting his new post in the summer, the highly experienced former Arsenal executive will likely count the naming rights search among his responsibilities
Speaking exclusively to TBR Football, University of Liverpool football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire – who is well-connected in the industry – explored whether £200m is still a realistic target for the new CEO.
“In terms of the naming right, my understanding is that a few potential sponsor have had their fingers burnt by Spurs,” said the Price of Football author and podcast host.
“They though they were making progress only for it to be snatched away at the last minute.
“Levy will always try to extract maximum value for Spurs but that can have a reverse impact when the deals ultimately aren’t signed off.”
Football is perhaps better insulated to fluctuations in global markets than most industries, but it does not exist in a vacuum.
And with the United States government behaving unpredictably with its programme of global tariffs, could potential Spurs naming rights partners be dissuaded from investing in North London?
“We are operating in a very uncertain global economic environment,” says Maguire, “and I wonder if some potential naming rights partners might decide to wait and see.
“Until things start to crystalise with the United States government’s policies, they might be reluctant to spend money on something which some people might regard as frivolous, i.e., a naming rights deal.
“I’m not convinced that any potential American partners would want to go ahead with a deal at this moment in time.
“Tariffs wouldn’t be an issue per se as it is money being spent in the UK but it’s more about whether a company itself might be suffering. Many US companies are suffering because they use global supply chains.
“The profits are kept in the US but can be hit by the costs of materials, labour and overheads might increase.
“Equally, American consumers might take a dim view of a US company sponsoring a British sports entity in Spurs given that there is an effort to decouple their respective economies.”
How will Daniel Levy and Vinai Venkatesham cooperate?
Away from naming rights, Venkatesham will also be responsible for co-running a club captured by a sense of drift in recent years. Halting that malaise – both on and off the pitch – is a tall order.
Levy and Venkatesham enjoy a strong professional relationship. The two have cooperated well as members of the European Club Association and at Premier League shareholder meetings.
But there is no doubt who top dog will be given that Levy is simultaneously Tottenham’s most senior executive, an omnipresent at club’s headquarters in Enfield, and a major shareholder.
“There is a meeting of minds here in terms of not treating Spurs as a trophy asset but rather as an independent business in its own right,” says Maguire, assessing how the two men might work together.
“That will tick boxes for Levy. He will have asked if if he likes him, if he trusts him, and if he can do the job. Venkatesham has a similar mindset with the chairman who is already here.
“At the same time, Levy likes to micromanage. Having a chairman who – in reality – probably wants to be the CEO can lead to a conflict of personalities.
“We’ll await the outcome of the relationship with interest.”
What we’re hearing about Tottenham’s naming rights search
TBR Football has been told that Google, Amazon, Uber and FedEx have all held talks with Spurs at some stage in the process, though the status of any of those negotiations is not known.
More recently, the German logistics company DHL – who are already an active player in the naming rights racket – were understood to have been in advanced talks with Tottenham.
However, those negotiations could be contingent on the North London club’s search for a new equity partner. Amanda Staveley and Qatari sovereign wealth are among the parties linked with that deal.
Any new investor would want a say in a commercial contract that will affect Spurs for the next decade, and there would need to be brand alignment between a new-look ownership and a sponsor.
Interestingly, TBR Football has also been told that the status of Sky Sports’ discussion with the NFL regarding their soon-to-expire UK media deal could also move the needle in the naming rights search.
Being able to guarantee coverage of the NFL domestically is a factor for Spurs, who want to their stadium to remain the home of American football in Europe.
That is not as guaranteed as it might have been previously, with Manchester United’s planned 100,000-seater stadium a potential rival, or at least a venue that could take some of their market share.
Who is leading leading talks with potential naming rights partners in North London?
Another detail – we don’t know who is actually leading the search for a naming rights partner.
Levy and Venkatesham will have final sign-off, but Spurs don’t have a chief commercial officer in place following Todd Kline’s departure to Chelsea.
Chief revenue officer Ryan Norys is the most likely candidate. That bodes well for the club as Norys and his commercial team are rated among the very best in the business.
Spurs’ commercial income – a revenue category encompassing sponsorship, retail and events – has almost quadrupled since their last match at White Hart Lane.
If the club is to get back on its feet, the commercial department’s work will be central to that.