Spurs stadium: Clock ticking on naming rights announcement

Tottenham’s new stadium is less than a year from completion. Nothing rams this home like the sight of the South Stand rapidly rising day-by-day, one giant Meccano piece at a time, its steel lattice looking impossibly simple yet finally giving the project a sense of wholeness.

However, one crucial piece of the jigsaw is missing: a name.

More than a year ago, in September 2016, the club went to market for a naming rights partner. Per initial reports, around 300 companies were approached, but little leaked out from the effort beyond one or two images from promotional packs of logos on the stadium (Uber and Fed Ex, if memory serves, but even these could have been done by an amateur Photoshopper).

On the preseason tour to the US, Spurs travelled with a large delegation of club executives, and used its day out at the Nasdaq stock exchange as an extended pitch to companies. It was reported that the head of NFL UK, Alistair Kirkwood, was part of the delegation as the club sought to emphasise the deal with the NFL to heighten appeal to interested US parties.

A consistent theme on naming rights has been that this would be one of the final deals to be put in place. However, as we move well past midpoint of construction, and into what is hopefully the frantic final straight, there’s still no sign of a deal.

In board-to-board minutes published by Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust in July 2015, the club board noted that naming rights was something that would be looked at mid-point.

“Naming Rights was something that would be arrived at mid project similar to with Emirates — existing deals shows it really only becomes a sensible conversation for sponsoring organisations once the construction has started”

In the last set of published minutes from February 2017 (and boy, I’m looking forward to the next set after the dust-ups over Wembley ticketing), the club confirmed that there was as yet no deal, with talk shifting from midpoint to “nearer completion”.

…DL said that, rather like finding a shirt sponsor, it was about finding the right company with the right brand that were the right fit for THFC at the right time. THFC is talking to a number of companies at the moment but there is no timetable to sign a deal as yet
…DC reiterated that it was not unusual for naming rights to be agreed nearer the completion of a build programme.

I was curious about this, so I’ve put together some (rough) data on recent major new stadia, mostly in US, and the amount of time before opening when naming rights deals were announced.

As you can see, typically, naming rights are announced around one year from completion. In certain cases, like the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, names are agreed much earlier; and for a couple of major stadia, naming rights came after the stadium opened.

Compared to other stadia, Spurs are doing their business relatively late — old habits die hard. Given the concerns over timeline and complexity of this project, it’s understandable that a naming rights partners may prefer an announcement to happen when there is more certainty they won’t be associated with delays and cost overruns.

There’s not necessarily any cause for concern: the project funding is otherwise in a good place and there’s no sign of any slowdown. Crucial indicators suggest the project is more or less on schedule — the club have unveiled the sliding pitch, preparation work is underway for the roof installation planned for Feb 2018, and deals have been announced for everything from in-stadium technology to urinals. They’ve even started considering the all-important contemporary art element of the fit-out — you’d like to think hiring a Feltist is one of the very final finishing touches in the planning, or things really have gotten out of hand.

Whether all this means the stadium is actually ready to open in time for next season, only time will tell — it was always going to be incredibly tight, and UEFA and PL rules on stadium usage mean there’s no flexibility if the stadium isn’t ready by September. However, we’re now very much in “the window” for a naming rights announcement — old White Hart Lane is no more, the club are regularly promoting the stadium across channels, and premium ticket sales are well underway.

It’s happening, basically, and you’d think a potential sponsor would want to be a part of it from here.

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