Writer: BelgianSpur
Well, here it is. We’ve got a shiny, spectacular new stadium, and by all accounts, it’s a magnificent piece of engineering and everything a fan could hope for. It has undoubtedly improved the match experience of Spurs fans and visitors, raised the profile of the club, and created new revenue streams.
The purpose of this article isn’t to slate the new stadium in any way, or question whether building it was worth it. It will definitely generate more money for the club, which is a good thing.
However, with all of this being said, one of the basic reasons why the new stadium was built, was to help the team financially compete with top 6 rivals, eventually matching their revenue levels, or even overtaking them in time. The increased revenues would be used on attracting, and retaining, better players – or at least, it’s what fans were told.
Cynics such as myself have always been cautious in believing this plan, as we recognised the possibility of a scenario where the club would indeed get richer, but without necessarily changing the way we spend.
However, another portion of Spurs fans were convinced that the club’s management would finally alter their stance to “very prudent” spending, once the revenues got bigger.
Well, Daniel Levy has just shed light on the matter in a recent interview with The Financial Times.
Levy has recently successfully convinced lenders to restructure the terms of our stadium loan. This was achieved thanks to the positive results on the pitch (and the increased revenues that our recent CL qualifications, and last year’s CL run, have generated). The obvious benefit is reducing our interest payments, thereby making the club that much more profitable.
With this sudden upturn in profits, the newspaper asked Levy if this was finally the moment that fans had been waiting for, when the club would start to spend more aggressively to compete with the top teams. Here was Levy’s answer:
“I understand, as I am a fan, clearly you want to win on the pitch. But we have been trying to look at this slightly differently, in that we want to make sure we ensure an infrastructure here to stand the test of time. We could have easily spent more money on players. Who knows if that would have bought us more success or not…The right approach is to build from the bottom up. There is no quick fix to becoming a much more significant global club.”
Asked if the deal would free up more money for player transfers or new deals for current stars — some of whom have held off on contract renewals unless they are offered significant pay rises — Mr Levy insisted the refinancing “will have no bearing on how we run the club…and no bearing on those types of short-term movements (like transfers).”
The article goes on to point out that:
- · “The message won over US private investors for the bond issue but may be seen as provocative by fans who want a spending spree to reinforce a team that has fallen agonisingly short of the sport’s top prizes in recent seasons.”
- · “Under head coach Mauricio Pochettino, Tottenham has qualified four times in a row for the Champions League, Europe’s most prestigious club tournament that distributes roughly €2bn among participating teams. That success is particularly striking because the English club’s wage bill has been the lowest among the Big Six. Academic research has shown the best predictor of a team’s league position is how much it spends on player salaries.”
For all of those fans hoping that the new stadium would be a turning point in our history, is this not a harsh reality check provided by Daniel Levy, and a stark and unfortunate reminder of how business, not football, will always come first under ENIC’s ownership?
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