Tottenham have suffered a major blow in their bid to finance their new stadium following the collapse of negotiations over a naming-rights deal, according to the Times.
The newspaper claim chairman Daniel Levy has been in talks with Mark Tucker, the chairman of HSBC, over a deal in which the bank would have become Spurs’ naming-rights partner at the 61,000-capacity arena that opens next month.
The Times report the two parties were “unable to agree a figure” despite previously securing a shirt sponsor deal when Tucker was chief executive at Asian insurance firm AIA in 2013.
OPINION
No two ways about it. The collapse of negotiations is a major blow to Spurs, who are footing a near-£1billion bill for the new stadium after costs spiralled this year. A multi-million pound naming-rights deals would have gone some way to meeting interest payments, but it is back to square one for Levy, the all-powerful chairman who will no doubt be having a few sleepless nights over the next month. Little wonder Spurs have not signed any new players, given the difficulty in securing what would be a gamechanger in terms of the club’s short and medium term finances. Levy appears to be doing two jobs at once – he remains the club’s chief transfer and contract negotiator despite reportedly offering to step aside in recent times – and the end result is that Tottenham are desperately trying to shave a few million off the prices of potential signings, most notably Jack Grealish, ahead of the transfer window cut-off next Thursday.