Beware Tottenham Hotspur, the NFL Only Cares About Itself

Tottenham Hotspur announced today that there are plans in the works to host two regular season NFL games per year in the new stadium. On the surface, this sounds like a good deal for Spurs, especially when you factor in that there will be a second pitch used for NFL games that will be retractable and stored under the main grass pitch that Spurs will use. But beware because the NFL only does what is good for the NFL and will stop at nothing to keep its power.

I live in the United States and have seen the monolith that is the NFL in action up close. Ever since the late 1980’s when American football overwhelmingly became the most popular sport in America and overtook baseball, the NFL has been on a power trip. They are desperate to keep that power and will do anything to retain it.

Even with its widespread popularity in the United States, cracks are starting to form and even some diehard fans are starting to see through the façade that the NFL is trying to maintain. The recent scandals involving stars Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson on abuse charges (domestic and child respectively) show the NFL’s real character.

After giving a pittance for a punishment in Rice’s case (he punched his girlfriend in an elevator and dragged her out unconscious), the NFL retracted that suspension and levied a heavy one, but only after public outrage, and only after video footage of Rice punching his girlfriend surfaced. In other words, the NFL was happy to give Rice, a huge star, a two game suspension until the league looked bad. After the public outcry, Rice was suspended for the season. At first the league protected their money-making asset, but when they realized he was going to potentially cost them money, he was cast aside, and the cover-up began. I don’t want this to happen to Tottenham Hotspur.

Has anyone asked if the NFL is tossing any money into the new Spurs stadium for the fancy new pitch? Well, I can go ahead and tell you that they are not. Tottenham are funding the entire entity and the NFL is prancing in like they own the place. What do Spurs get? A little extra revenue, sure, but at what cost? The NFL says this all the time- give us what we want or we won’t play with you. It’s standard operating procedure for them.

It happens all the time in the US. A billionaire owner doesn’t like his current stadium situation, and threatens to move the team if a shiny new stadium is built….with public money. This situation has played out in the recent past in cities like Houston and Cleveland and is currently happening in Oakland and St. Louis.

Now, these situations do not directly pertain to Tottenham essentially sharing a ground with the NFL for 10 years or more, but they do show you who exactly Spurs are getting in bed with. This agreement could be a foundation for a permanent London franchise. I think I can safely speak for the whole of Tottenham supporters when I say that we do not want to share a ground with a permanent NFL franchise. We want the new stadium to be a Spurs ground, known across the world as the home of Tottenham Hotspur, not as the home to Tottenham Hotspur and the London (Insert tough sounding NFL name here).

As an American, I can see that the NFL is desperate to come to England having increased the frequency of games there in recent years, and if they are looking at a permanent London franchise, they may well have found their stadium. But if I am Daniel Levy and the other power brokers at White Hart Lane, I would proceed with caution from this point forward because the NFL usually get what it wants and will destroy everyone else in its path.

 

Good post.

I recently saw the PBS Doc "League of Denial" which exposed the lengths the NFL will go to to hush up the growing number of brain injuries that are attributable to the NFL version of the sport. As far as I can see, the NFL is really just a "Billionaire Boys Club", that is dedicated to enriching it's members, regardless of the number of men whose brains they have to mash.

With the doc in mind, and having seen Spurs getting in bed with these people, my first thought was "Will their still be an NFL in ten years time when the lawsuits start to take off"? My second thought was also raised by the author in his post. "What significant good will this bring Spurs"?

 

Youth American football is definitely on the decrease here in the States. I mean, would you want your child, who has a developing brain, playing this sport? I certainly wouldn't. I believe that there will be an NFL for several years to come, and the university game is almost as popular, but they can't hide what is happening. I recently read an article saying that the NFL could ultimately save itself by getting rid of the helmets, that they contribute to the problem because players think they are invincible in them. There is no way that they would make the kind of hits that they do without helmets.

Ice hockey is a very violent (and popular) sport here as well, and they have nowhere near the injury, especially concussion, issues. They've made the game safer through rule changes. The NFL just doesn't care. They only care about the bottom line. The first person to raise the trophy after the Super Bowl is the owner. That tells you everything that you need to know.

 

Very insightful post and comments about the situation - turns out this is something we'll have to watch very carefully!

 

What do spurs get? A HUGE bump in naming rights revenue for one.

 

With all due respect: Why?

 

Will net spurs millions per game I'd imagine. Tickets will be priced at top dollar. Fill the hotel at top whack for the weekend full of yanks and probably draw a big american backer in for naming rights of stadium and kit. Nike I'm hearing. 2-3m per game easy! Levy only deals in ££s signs so I'm sure there is ££ to be made.
The NFL probably won't have invested money into the project due to the fact it WILL NOT be their stadium. Its been a great day for spurs all around signing alderweireld, the NFL link up and more importantly gazumping the goons for stadium size. Hopefully this will help keep out top players from the clutches of man utd and real heading into the new ground.

 

Levy will always look for the money, only downside I can see is that our stadium won't be called WHL anymore, we'll have a horrible corporate ground name, hopefully everyone will still call it WHL though. COYS

 

How dare the op say he speaks for ALL spurs fans in opposing this deal? I dont know yet what the ££££ s is for Spurs but I know that it makes our new stadium and Spurs a household name across the USA. That alone is worth millions let alone what rent and incidental income we get. Arsenal had a 3-4 year transfer freeze in order to get their stadium. West Ham are getting one for free. Chelsea have unlimited funds. So we have to get an income stream and the NFL is looking for a partner. Yes.....they have a poor track record on some issues.....unlike our FA of course wbo are blameless when it comes to ill discipline (Shearer before the World Cup, Terry over blatant racism, numerous players guilty of "roasting" and worse). So lets not be sanctimonious about the NFL.

 

Excuse my ignorance, but if you are talking about the NFL element where do you get your figures from. NFL tickets at Wembley average about £60 each, so the maximum take will be £3.6 mill per game. If "Millions" is two or more, I can't see the NFL allowing us to walk away with nearly 60% of the gross. Regarding staying in a Tottenham hotel, I think that for those that come (and there will certainly not be 60,000 of them) once they hear what a crapper the area is, they will be sticking to the West End. But even if they do fill the hotel that will be less than £100k per night. As for the naming rights, these are usually done on periods of 10 years +. The Mancs deal, where they paid well over the odds, was for 10 years at £400 mill. Assume 25 games per season and you are looking at the fact that even though they over-paid, it still works out at only £1.6 mill per game.

I agree that we will make some money from this (NFL) but I think the likelihood is that it will be in the low (single figure) millions. Having said that, if we only make £1 mill per game, it's a £2 mill that we were not going to make otherwise.

 

Have u factored in match day food,programmes,alcohol,parking and corporate hospitality plus a % of TV revenue. Minimum £2m per game in telling thy

 

I think we can expect between £150-£250 mill for the naming rights. Like you, I am sentimentally attached to the name, but the idea that the money for the naming rights will pay most of the nett mortgage on a world class 60,000 sear stadium will dry my tears quite quickly.

 

I take your point, but to some extent, you are comparing apples and oranges. The real worry as I see it, is that this Billionaire Boys Club, is about as scrupulous as Don King when it comes to treating it's players and partners fairly. Of all the major sports in the US, this is by far the richest and most popular, as well as the most dangerous, and the players are the worst paid. The franchise owners are pathologically greedy, which is not something that I think can be said about the FA, and are not to be trusted IMHO.

I find it a bit odd though wondering why they should want to use Tottenham with all it's disadvantages and 60k capacity when they often play to a full house at Wembley? Might it be that they are trying to squeeze more money out of Wembley and this is the stick they want to beat them with. That being the case, we should not be surprised if they wriggle out of the agreement quite quickly once Wembley reduces the rent etc.

 

Lets put it another way. As car ownerships has grown, parking restrictions have become more common. Car ownership will continue to grow so do you think that when the capacity rises from 36,000 to 60,000 the Council are going to suddenly lift the restrictions on match days?

But lets go back a bit. How will any change in the street parking restrictions benefit Spurs. Car parks aim to put 170 cars per acre allowing for ease of access and egress. So if we didn't build the stadium, we could put about 3,400 cars in place of the new stadium.

Tell you what though: I will bet you any amount you care to wager that not only will the restrictions still be there in 2018, but that the no parking zone will be expanded even further.

I'd be surprised if anybody here really thinks that I need a crystal ball to make that prediction.

 

All i hope is that we build a top stadium that is centered around view and atmosphere, not a souless corporate hyper bowl !

 

Put it this way arsenal make 5.2m in matchday revenue so its fair to assume we would make that for each NFL game so say we got 50% as the actual owners of the stadium that's 5.2m over the two games not brining into account a cut of TV revenue we will get paid for the extra world wide exposure on offer for both sides. Look we can argue all day long about parking this that and the other but spurs will make at least 20m over the ten years. No need to piss on the parade is there. Its been a monumental day for the club enjoy it!!

 

With all due respect, I think after the unwarranted insult, I was entitled to make my case, notwithstanding that the post itself was not so much about football but questioning the benefits that NFL may bring.

FWIW, I'd like to think that we are going to make a mint from this, but I just can't see how.

 

I agree that we should not be turning the money down, but it amounts to a mere £2mill per year, which plays one decent players wages, or a weeks wages for the whole club. That is based on the figure of our last published wage bill which was £106 mill.

However, I really have a deep mistrust of these people and as I said elsewhere, I cannot rule out the possibility that this might be a stick to beat Wembley with, and that if that is the case, these people will find plenty of excuses to tear up the contract. To me, it does not make sense that when you are getting regular gates of up to 90k, you will be downsizing.

I could be wrong.

 

Afternoon fellow Spurs fans. It's been a while, enjoying the close season.

So 60,000 NFL fans, with loads of travelling Yanks are going to be marching up Tottenham High Road, staying in Tottenham hotels, using the local on-site parking or utilising the superb public transport links............yeh right!

Before we get carried away on the mass of revenue numbers being bandied about, what about the costs associated with modifying the current plans to accommodate a retractable pitch, NFL sized changing rooms plus all the things that I can't even start to imagine, then get a return on that investment from the net profit gained over a 10 year contract with the NFL franchise.

On the basis they, the NFL, will go wherever it suits them, you have to get the deal to be cash positive, after the additional costs of modifying the stadium infrastructure, not a trivial cost for sure.

At the end of the day we want, as fans, a football stadium at WHL. This NFL bolt-on just does not make sense, if you're trying to make a return over the 10 years. Add to that the complications of redrawing the plans, tendering, planning consents and the like, we will NEVER see the new stadium.

As for the debacle of only being away from The Lane for one year.....it's an insult to all the faithful that have been patiently waiting for something credible as a plan for the time we have to be away from our home base.

Take a look at how long it took the Gooners to have the Emirates built, on a brownfields site at Kings Cross. Look at the Wembley start to finish plans.
By saying that they expect us to be away for one season is an insult to our intelligence and says much for the Club's respect of its supporters. FFS.

COYS

 

Apologies for the missing previous comment. Operator error I am sorry to admit.

Regarding the first part of your post, I too am doubtful that this NFL link will do us any real good financially, and that's before you consider that most Yank businessmen seem to think that Ethics is a county to the north-east of Thuthex.

However, you really caught my eye with your beliefs that the new stadium is a con. As far as I am aware, most of the consents are already in place, and both the Mayor of London and Harringey Council are seeking to fast track any alterations that they may require. The site is almost cleared. Just to reach this stage has cost millions. I can see that it is possible for developers to pull of a coup, but what will happen to all the goodwill that has been cultivated with the local gov politicians if the NDP is really some sort of scam.

I recall when Wrexham had probs with a property developer who scammed them out of their ground, the local council more or less announced that they would not be granting Planning Permission on the ground. Basically, the ground became a white elephant to the developer.

On paper, what you say does have more than a grain of sense, but I really think that if the fans came to the conclusion that they were being scammed, even Levy's staunchest supporters would lynch him, especially if like me, you think that new stadium is the final piece of the puzzle.