Spurs could make an incredible amount of money after they announced the expansion of their existing partnership with the NFL
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will continue to host at least two NFL games per season (Image: Martin Leitch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Tottenham have announced the expansion of their deal with the National Football League which will lead to further revenue streams for the club.
It comes ahead of the two NFL matches already scheduled to take place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium later this year, which will see the Jacksonville Jaguars take on the Buffalo Bills on October 8.
The other will see Baltimore Ravens host the Tennessee Titans the following Sunday, October 15 while the Jaguars will play another game on October 1 against the Atlanta Falcons at Wembley Stadium.
Having first signed the deal, which runs through to the 2029/2030 season, back in 2019, Spurs are set to make some serious cash flow over the next few years with the expanded deal.
Now with the official title of the ‘Home of the NFL in the UK’, the stadium will continue to host a minimum of two games per season but has the possibility to be much more than that.
With the rapidly-expanding audience in the UK, the NFL are eager to capitalise on the opportunity to bring the sport to a bigger crowd with whispers that have persisted for years over plans for a permanent team overseas in the UK.
If that does eventually happen, Spurs would almost certainly be first in line to have their stadium be used, given its the only purpose-built NFL stadium outside of the U.S. on top of their existing relationship with the league.
On top of their deal in which the NFL has agreed to pay a flat rental fee for the stadium, they also hand Spurs all the profits for the food, drinks and merchandise sales they make on gamedays.
Back in 2019, the first year of the deal, the game between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Chicago Bears had reportedly already racked up over £1m spent on just beer alone.
With the queues for team merchandise longer than ever last year in what is the largest club shop in Europe, it seems like a precedent is being set for the North London club to be the epicentre for all of the NFL’s European adventures for the next seven years at least.
The stadium’s naming rights have also come into question, with some claiming the NFL could look to rename the stadium to better suit their conventional U.S sponsored stadium names, like the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The German luxury car company is paying $324 million (£260m) over a period of 27 years while the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium cost the telecommunications company $400m over 20 years (£322m) according to the Athletic.
If Spurs were to receive that kind of money with the club’s NFL ties fronting the naming system, it could mean a serious payday and spending power for those in charge of the footballing operations.
Indeed, without those naming rights deals it has been speculated that Spurs make close to £1m for each Premier League game on food and drink sales on their own.
“If you factor in a couple of NFL games, a couple of fights and a few concerts, we are talking substantial amounts of money,” football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire said in 2021.
