Anyone hoping to get a cheapish visit to the new ground might be interested in the pricing of the pre-season against Inter. It's an International Champions Cup match on Sunday August 4th and it's £25 for adults, £15 for concessions and £10 for kids.
News coming in that the stadium has won the staging of the rugby Champions and Challenge Cup finals for the 20-21 season... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/r...elected-stage-European-club-rugby-finals.html Most of the stadiums utilised previously have seen repeat business, so this is a good gig to win. Kerrrrrr-chinnngggggg!
Watched a bit of the rugby Premiership show yesterday, and they had highlights of a Sarries home game. Which was my first opportunity to have a look at their artificial pitch being used in anger. I am even more convinced now that the Sarries may be tempted to use new WHL for their equivalent of Spurs "Cat A" games. Regarding these cup finals, a quick look at past dates suggests that the finals could even be played on grass if desired (as Spurs home seasons will have completed by then) .
There are lots of wealthy Rugby fans. The kick offs are about 5.00 pm which means the stadium can be open for hours before and after. The club intend to extend opening beyond 2 hours before and 2 after and I'd expect it to be open at 12.00 or 1.00 pm and close at 10.00 or 11.00.. The premium restaurants and all the GA bars and food outlets are going to be making way, way in excess of £1m for these events. I can see the restaurants serving pre-match and post-match as well. It could even get close to £2m, which is why the place is at the top of the list for rugby, boxing, NFL, concerts. These are big days out and people want to 'make a day of it'. This is a stadium that can offer that with quality and value for money, which is literally a foreign concept. Previously, I've referred to a meeting from last summer that DL hosted for employees and sponsors. It was very restricted in terms of attendees and was partly to set out how we are going to pay for the stadium. Someone on SSC knew someone there. That person is a Gooner but he said that DL had plans and deals in progress that will blow every other club and stadium out of the water and pay for the place with minimal pain. He said Arsenal were made to look like a bunch of amateurs by comparison. I would expect that the rugby deals were on the table already. RDBD is spot on. Saracens will be using the stadium for Cat. A games. I can see a greater long term tie-in between the 2 clubs, as well as an NFL franchise. It has to come because this hasn't been built on a whim. People criticise the club but in business terms, our owners are shrewd, shrewd operators and will have been using the build time to get all of this lined up. This stadium is our and the area's future. It's a wonderful thing.
I would guess that each event will raise us i.t.r.o £3M. Eventually if we can do say 25 events per year, that is the transfer fee for a very good footballer. The future is bright.
I want to believe this, but badly want to see the "bottom line" projections. Specifically, for every 100 quid more in revenue that new WHL brings in to THFC compared to old WHL *** , how much of it will be used to : 1. pay off the stadium debt load 2. fund the activities of the football club (transfer/wage costs in particular) *** I mean in terms of Spurs supporter bums on seats / catering and non Spurs events (other sports etc) ,and not due to increased revenues (broadcast revenues, sponsorships) due to the performance of the team.
I'm guessing that the club will attempt to pay as much of the stadium costs from non-football income, which is outside FFP usage. That's the hotel, housing, Sainsbury rental, non-football events, etc. This would tie-in with the stated intention to deal with the debt on a long-term basis, like a mortgage. We've got planning applications in to build 1,300 housing units. The ones on the old stadium site are going to be premium units, the ones on The Goods Yard, etc. will be a mix of affordable housing and other categories. I'd reckon that there's £150k profit per unit, across the board. That's the thick end of £200m. Across the 25 years of a mortgage, the supermarket has to be worth another £200m (absolute minimum). If we make £2m per event from 16 non-football usages, that's £32m per season. Across 20 years, they alone would pay the debt, leaving football income untouched, which would include stadium sponsorship. If Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy are the business men that I believe them to be and was outlined in last summer's meeting, we will afford this without pain. This is what I've heard and the club have been saying - transfer budgets won't affected by building the stadium. It could very well be 100% accurate. Let's hope so.
I'm not so sure that's necessarily the case. There are still lots of Spurs fans around who are wetting the bed about how we'll pay for the stadium and expecting us to make the same mistakes that 'they' made on The Emirates. We saw the problems and took measures to avoid repeating them. There's been lots of panic that we haven't jumped at the first offers on sponsorship (we have had some) and didn't have a deal in place before we were in and the sheer magnificence of the place became obvious and the additional events started rolling in. Levy's waiting for a bigger, better offer and I can't see one not coming in once we start hosting NFL games and the High Road West development moves forward. Separating the stadium and football budgets is a smart move on lots of levels. It's possible that TV revenues could start to fall over the period of the debt. Having no reliance upon that and UEFA money to pay off the loans is very sensible.
As much as I moan about Transfers etc...I know for a fact Levy is going to make the Stadium a success. Quite a pioneer actually...I think he has changed the landscape for future Stadiums and the Matchday experience for fans. I can see other clubs doing the same.
He has done his research well. He has looked at the way stadiums are managed in the States and brought on board experts in that field. Others will do exactly the same, but fortunately we are leading the field.
They'd be stupid not to. Hopefully we'll keep progressing and innovating to maintain the advantage, though.
We have the enormous benefit of being in London. This city can support large numbers of events that reqquire a stadium the size of ours. Also, developments like the housing and hotel and skywalk on top of the stadium can become significant money spinners. Other cities just don't have the population and tourist numbers to do it on the same scale. The NFL aren't interested in a stadium in Manchester or Liverpool or Newcastle or Birmingham. United and City could afford to build a stadium like ours but it wouldn't generate the same income, so makes far less financial sense. Arsenal really missed a trick by creating a football stadium that Wenger wanted. We've built something that lots of people want. West Ham sold their soul for something that nobody wants and Chelsea are just boxed in on numerous levels. I think that we've got the London market cornered for some time.
The "bottom line" is still the same though. How much extra, each June after stadium debt load is serviced for that accounting year, is available for player transfer/wage spending ?? It has to be a decent amount, regardless of how Spurs are doing on-pitch, if the club are going to financially overcome the PL Sugga Daddy FCs.
It's worth remembering that over the last 5-10 years, we're estimated to have spent between £300-£400m on progressing the NPD and training ground. That money's been going on land purchases, legal fees, planning work, architecht's fees, etc. etc. We've shown in our recent financials that we've spent £1 billion on development projects but only owe £600m. That would work out at somewhere between £30m and £70m per year. Let's say an average of £50m per year of our income over the last decade has been spent on long term building projects. Once the hotel and housing projects are completed, that leaves us that figure better off each season, even if our income stayed flat, which it obviously won't. Even if we just redirected that money, we'd be close to paying off the debt in 15 years.
All very nice, but it does not produce the "bottom line" number (new WHL alone will add an extra 10/20/30m etc to the club annual transfer/wage budget after the stadium debt burden is serviced, irrespective of performance/sponsor/TV money brought in due to on-pitch stuff) ...
We must have stolen £600m from somewhere and paid it in cash.....it sure as hell isn't in the accounts.
I don't think that number is calculable because of the way ffp works. The capital costs of the stadium can be paid off in many different ways and don't come into the ffp calculations, but the revenue is fully available to spend. So its existence gives ENIC the choice of buying players or paying off the loan. As far as I can see the net revenue from the new stadium exceeds that from WHL by somewhere between £100m and £150m per annum depending on what the net profits from food, drink and other events are. That means we can either pay the loan back in 5 years or spend £150m per year on players or another combination of that. I am expecting a large transfer budget this summer.
