As one of the biggest growing teams in English football, Tottenham Hotspur are looking to capitalise on years of being dubbed a potential team. The North London giants have built an impressive playing staff, and have hired a continental big-name manager to match their grandiose new stadium. One thing that lets Spurs down, though, is the commercial side of things: compared to their domestic rivals, Spurs lag behind massively. The new stadium could change that, but so could another change: the arrival of Todd Kline as Chief Commercial Officer.
This is one of the most important roles in modern football, and the arrival of Kline is expected to shake-up how Spurs market themselves as a club. The aim is to have the American bring in the reputational boon they need, starting with the arrival of stadium naming rights that could be worth many millions to the club. Given the clubs increasing debt pile, the need for smarter sources of revenue generation has become absolutely apparent. Therefore, we should expect some big changes to come at Spurs in the near future – starting with the name of their new 62,850 seat stadium.
Club chairman Daniel Levy has reportedly charged Kline with finding a deal that can provide a minimum of £25m/year in revenue from the naming rights alone. That would make it among the most lucrative naming rights in the world of sport, and would become a landmark moment – and proof that Kline has the nous to make the deals that Spurs need to go to the next level.
Can Spurs catch up with their domestic opposition?
The main problem for Spurs is that many of their competitors are well ahead of them financially. The likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, and the two Manchester giants can comfortably outspend the club. With UEFA Champions League revenue, they can probably beat Arsenal in the long-term given their North London rivals downturn in the post-Arsene Wenger era. However, can they make up the gap on the other teams?
Though funds area often in high supply in the English game, Spurs are not unique in having access to large spending power. The rest of the league also has access to these funds, making it hard for Spurs to really outspend anyone. In truth, they are also in a position where, with the huge cost of the stadium and other associated debts, that the club cannot really afford to spend big on signings as well.
Given the importance of having a winning team on the park to sponsorship deals, there is a balance to be found. Can Kline bring in the sponsorship boost needed without Spurs building a team that has the capacity to really compete for trophies domestically and abroad?
These are the challenges that the clubs new CCO is going to face, and each challenge offers unprecedented difficulty in moving forward. For Kline, then, the new task is simple: make the club bigger and wealthier than ever before. No pressure, then.
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