When Tottenham moved into their new stadium in 2019, it was anticipated that it wouldn't be long before the ‘Tottenham Hotspur Stadium‘ would be given a new name as part of a brand deal with a big company.
It's a model that has worked wonders for other clubs and has become the norm in English football – think the Emirates Stadium and the Etihad Stadium, to name a few.
However, six years after moving in, the stadium is still simply known as the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and while a lot of fans are quite happy with that, it isn't doing the club any favours in terms of spending power in the transfer market.
Why doesn't the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have a sponsorship deal?
There are two key reasons why Tottenham haven't secured a naming rights deal for the stadium as of yet. Firstly, Daniel Levy is widely known for his strong negotiation tactics. He won't accept anything less than his asking figure, and that is believed to be £200m over ten years.
Considering Arsenal's deal with Emirates for the naming rights to their stadium is only worth £4m a year and Man City's deal with Etihad is worth £15m a year, Levy could perhaps be pricing himself out of a deal, and not for the first time in his career.
Levy's argument will be that the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium offers potential sponsors more exposure than the aforementioned stadiums due to its ties with the NFL. However, is that really worth £5m more each year than sponsoring Man City – a club that regularly goes deep in the Champions League?
The second reason why no agreement has been found is that Levy is reportedly quite happy with having Tottenham's name on the stadium name when big events such as concerts and NFL matches come to town.
He believes that this ‘brand exposure' is arguably worth more than any sponsorship deal.
FGG says – No end in sight unless Levy lowers his demands
The global tariffs recently rolled out by the US Government likely mean that any major investment from American companies is off the table for now, particularly at £20m a year. Given the NFL is the ace in Levy's pack, he was probably banking on a deal with a US company, too, so we can expect no new name for the stadium any time soon.
That is, unless, of course, he lowers his demands. But when has he ever done that?