Tottenham Hotspur have made significant strides to paying up for their new stadium after having announced a £400m deal with three American.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and HSBC have provided the funding to the north London club in a five-year arrangement to support the construction of the 61,500 seater stadium. Spurs have already spent £340m “on the acquisition of land, the planning process (including a compulsory purchase order and legal challenges) and build costs to date” as per the club’s website but this is unlikely to have an impact on their players’ status, finance director Matthew Collecott has revealed.
He told Bloomberg news agency: “This is not going to touch the football, these are very separate budgets. We are delighted to have three of the most prestigious and globally recognised banks supporting us.” Spurs have recently extended the contract of several of their key players including Harry Kane and Hugo Lloris, and the club are looking forward to another competitive season in the Premier League, be it rather in the Wembley stadium, where they had an awful record last term.
Spurs played their Europeans games away from home in order to facilitate the construction of new stadium in close quarter-finals, and this seemingly had an impact on their campaign as they were knocked out of the Champions League in the group stage. A third place finish did earn them a Europa League spot, but it came to no avail as they faced a surprise defeat to Belgian club Genk in the last 32.
The club are also looking into a naming rights deal when they switch to the new Stadium in 2018/19, and there is every prospect that they will cross the £400m package accrued by Manchester City for their partnership with Middle East airline Etihad Airways.
