Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium redevelopment is a significant step closer after the club agreed a £350 million funding package with three investment banks.
HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch will provide almost half of the money required to complete the £750 million rebuilding of White Hart Lane. The rest of the funding will come from advanced ticket sales, a ten-year ground rental arrangement with the NFL and a possible naming-rights deal.
Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium redevelopment is a significant step closer after the club agreed a £350 million funding package with three investment banks.
HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch will provide almost half of the money required to complete the £750 million rebuilding of White Hart Lane. The rest of the funding will come from advanced ticket sales, a ten-year ground rental arrangement with the NFL and a possible naming-rights deal.
Spurs are confident of securing a substantially more lucrative namng rights deal than the £2.8m a year contract Arsenal agreed with Emirates in 2004. Levy is targeting a £20m a year deal for twenty years. However, West Ham have not managed to conclude a naming rights deal for the London Stadium.
Spurs also expect a big increase in matchday revenue at the new stadium as capacity increases from 36,000 to 61,000. There are 63,200 people on the waiting list for season tickets. The most expensive season tickets will cost £8,000.
Confirmation of the commercial loans is a big boost for Tottenham as they prepare to announce their departure at the end of the season from their home of 118 years. The plan is to spend a year at Wembley before returning to a rebuilt ground on an adjacent site in north London for the start of the 2018-19 season.
As he announced Tottenham’s results for the year ending June 2016 yesterday, which included record revenue of almost £210 million (up seven per cent) and record post-tax profits of £33 million, the chairman, Daniel Levy, said that the move to Wembley would not be finalised until there was greater clarity on the delivery of the new stadium, but the club are confident about the original timetable.
The delay in confirming that White Hart Lane will definitely close this season is understood to stem from concern at the spiralling cost of the project, which has increased from a projected £450 million to between £750-800 million, but the private funding has been secured regardless. It is understood that the three banks will each provide loans at a fixed rate over an initial five-year period, after which the plan is to re-finance them.
Premier League gate receipts were £22.2m (2015: £22.3m). The club reached the round of 16 of the UEFA Europa League (2015: round of 32) resulting in gate receipts and prize money of £18.7m (2015: £7.1m). Revenue from the domestic cup competitions earned the club £2.4m (2015: £4.4m).
Television and media revenues rose to £94.8m (2015: £90.5m), as the club had its best season in the Premier League, finishing third (2015: fifth). Sponsorship and corporate hospitality revenue was steady at £48.8m (2015: £48.9m).
Merchandising revenue was £12.0m (2015: £12.3m). This represents a like-for-like increase of 8 per cent as early kit launch sales were recognised in 2014/15 figures.