NOVEMBER | COLUMN
Can NFL help recoup a
£1bn investment?
Andy Rice, COO, Major Events International (MEI)
ponders recouping this mindboggling investment
O
n the surface, the
investment of a £1bn on a
new stadium could have
been better timed. Tottenham
Hotspur’s main source of
income: TV rights - a combined
figure of approximately £210m
per year (assuming Champions
League football) is undoubtedly
on the decline.
As traditional advertising
revenues continue to shrink, Sky
and the multiplicity of overseas
channels that have cut deals
with Mr. Scudamore (the timing
of whose retirement now seems
impeccable) and his band of
rights agents in the past, cannot
possibly continue to justify the
eye-watering billions that have
been spent on TV rights.
And so the paradigm shift
begins.
On the other hand, perhaps
Mr. Levy has been exceptionally
smart as, as traditional revenue
streams shrink, so new ones
need to be created to feed the
voracious financial appetites
of the world’s most gifted
footballers - and their ever-
greedy agents.
Jon Babbs, is the stadium
director at the New White Hart
Lane (how long before a major
60
naming rights deal is signed to
provide a chunk of the pay-back?
Perhaps The Weetabix Stadium,
as this was recently revealed
to be the team’s favoured
pre match breakfast!). At the
recent Sports Ground Safety
Association (SGSA) conference
he gave some indications where
the rest of the money is coming
from to improve the bottom
line of Spurs Inc. Assuming the
squad is retained, as the main
assets of the club are those
running around after the ball.
The state-of-the-art stadium
is only the beautifully crafted
centre piece of the overall
development. On the footballing
side, the site will soon host a
new performance centre and a
medical centre. These will help
Mauricio and his team continue
to generate Champions League
income (TV rights, sponsorship
and additional match day
revenue income combining
to generate almost £100m
per year), but the bottom line
will really be boosted with the
opening of the new hotel plus
the residential and commercial
developments that will become
part of the complex.
The new White Hart Lane
has a capacity of 62,214 and is
sold out every other week. The
stadium will undoubtedly also
be buzzing on European nights
- when the 42,000 season ticket
holders are expected to re-buy
their seats! Saracens are set
to make White Hart Lane the
base for their annual ‘Big Game’
Gallagher Premiership Rugby
showpiece and the impressive
South Stand (the largest single
terrace in Europe with a capacity
of 17,500) will be bouncing to the
rhythm of Rock and Hip Hop
from the summer of 2020. Along
with ticketing revenue, all grist
to the mill of food & bev and
merchandise revenues.
Speaking of which, Spurs
have been super-smart to
team up with the Beavertown
micro brewery, combining the
economic benefits of home-
brew with the longest bar in
Europe (65 metres!), 15 second
self-filling pints and a cashless
environment- to ensure that at
least 50,000 pints of beer are
consumed by the faithful at any
home game. To credit Spurs,
prices have not been inflated and
the ‘Burger and Pint’ deal for £5
has forced local pubs to reduce
their pricing to compete.
Perhaps the most innovative
partnership secured by Levy
and his board is the 10-year deal
with the NFL, which begins with
a minimum of 2 NFL games per
season and may develop over
the decade to the re-homing of
a full franchise. Everything in
the stadium whiffs of the NFL:
the dedicated changing rooms
to house the army which makes
up each team; the design of the
new hotel (which will have NFL
size corridors and beds) and,
of course, the ‘pitch below the
pitch’- the innovative design
which allows the soccer pitch
to be divided into three (along
the length of the pitch) for the
outside two edges to disappear
under the East and West stands,
and for the middle section to
disappear under the North
Stand, and the fan zone outside
of the stadium- to reveal the
markings of a 5G NFL grid.
There can be little doubt that
the cost of this magnificent
engineering would not have
been on the basis of simply
twenty games and the odd
concert- we can look forward to
much more Grid Iron in North
London in the near future.
One of the more adventurous
money-spinning additions soon
to arrive at WHL is an O2-esque
roof walk- going one step further
on the adrenaline rankings
by finishing the tour with an
abseil down from the roof. For
Tottenham Hotspurs, the sky
really is the limit for revenue
generating opportunities.
The challenges of running a
football stadium, and lessons
learnt from other UK events in
near past will be discussed at the
UK Sports and Venues Summit
at The London Stadium on 21
November.