Two of Tottenham’s most valuable commercial properties are up for sale.
Spurs have been looking for a naming rights deal for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the best part of the decade since they left White Hart Lane.
Tottenham have sported the logo of AIA, the multinational insurance and finance firm, on the front of their shirts for all that time, but that will soon change.
This week, the North Londoners announced that AIA would be continuing their relationship with the club but as training wear sponsor, not front-of-shirt.
That’s still a significant deal. As Brand Finance valuations director Hugo Hensley told TBR Football earlier this year: “It’s got huge exposure, but it’s very personal. You get behind the scenes, watch the team hang out in the facility, pitch-side interviews – it’s valuable, complex engagement.”
So, from the expiry of the current AIA deal at the end of the 2026-27 campaign, Spurs will be generating significantly less revenue from the company than the current £40m-a-year deal.
The departure of Daniel Levy appears to have breathed fresh life into the club commercially, however, and chief revenue officer Ryan Norys will be confident of securing a front-of-shirt pact on improved terms.
In reality, the ‘£40m’ figure we see quoted in headlines probably doesn’t tell the full story in any case. There will be escalators in the contract that ensure it keeps pace with inflation, plus performance-related bonuses and other clauses that make putting a precise, rounded value on the deal nigh on impossible.
And while the Levy era was riotously successful in commercial terms (combined commercial and matchday income has almost quadrupled to £361m since the last season at White Hart Lane), ENIC believe there is more value to be extracted from sponsorship.
“They could go down the same route as Man City, whereby they have naming rights and front-of-shirt under the same deal,” says Liverpool University football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to TBR Football.
“By scaling back the AIA deal, they may be trying to size up another company for that kind of deal.
“I remember being in a meeting with someone from Spurs pre-Covid and they were very bullish that a deal was about to be finalised. I assume that Levy had the final say and, in the end, didn’t want it.
“It may be that AIA have said they aren’t interested at the quoted prices for a combined stadium and front-of-shirt deal, and this might clear the decks for a new sponsor that unites those two.
“The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium sounds too clunky. If they don’t strike relatively soon, the opportunity to strike a name that will actually stick in the public consciousness will evaporate.
“It will have to be a very long deal. Spurs are too big a club to go for a short-term deal. If they go for that, they’ll be looking for at least £50m per year, which is going to be £500m over 10 years.”
As TBR Football has previously exclusively reported, Spurs have held talks with DHL and Allianz about a potential naming rights arrangement. Elsewhere, Google and Amazon have been linked.
Spurs are also planning to unite an overall naming rights deal under four stand-specific deals in an initiative christened ‘The Collective’.
Sports Illustrated have already claimed one spot with their 12-year deal for the East Stand. The value of that agreement isn’t yet known.
AIA’s continuation as training wear partner means that, whoever claims Tottenham’s front-of-shirt rights, it almost certainly won’t be a financial services or insurance brand.
As sponsorship dealmaker Richard Busby told TBR Football last week: “A cardinal rule of sponsorship is sell the top of the pyramid first and then primary sponsors afterwards.
“The problem will come if they are negotiating with primary sponsors in the consumer, tech or high net worth areas [sectors targeted in The Collective’ as that will make it very difficult to get a stadium naming rights deal from any of those sectors. Naming rights and primary sponsors will all expect category exclusivity.”