‘Big-money Tottenham appointment failed to do the only job he was hired to do’
Tottenham have seen a raft of changes at the boardroom level in recent months.
Daniel Levy was the most high-profile exit at Tottenham, leaving his role as executive chairman in September.
While Levy delivered on his main task of bringing the state-of-the-art Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to life, there is still one problem.
Tottenham do not have a naming rights deal in place for their new home, and are losing out on a huge potential windfall as a result, and one man has had the blame placed firmly at his door.
Who is at fault for Tottenham’s lack of a stadium naming rights deal?
Tottenham are set to bring Alex Scotcher on board as their commercial director in January, to try and finally secure a deal.
John Wenham believes the blame lies squarely on Todd Kline, who joined Tottenham as Chief Commercial Officer in June 2021, but departed his role in February 2024.
Speaking exclusively to Tottenham News, he said: “On the naming rights deal, what a failure that whole process has been, they brought in a guy, Todd Kline, on big money, who had secured multiple deals in the American system.
“His only job was to secure a naming rights deal and the fact that he failed to do it, you could say ‘well Tottenham have been holding out for £25million’, but if they had taken £15m, they would have had money coming in at that rate since 2019, so a significant period of time has been missed on that.”
Why is the lack of a naming rights deal such a problem for Tottenham?
As Wenham states, the North London club have already lost out on a huge sum over the years, as they have not had a deal in place.
The fact that they brought Kline in to do so, and he failed, due to whatever reason, whether it be the finances on offer or not, is simply not good enough.
Thomas Frank’s side could have been further along in their progress, if the money had been rolling in constantly since the stadium opened in 2019.
Instead, they are playing catch-up, and a deal is still not in place, and Kline has left his post, it is an utterly embarrassing situation for all involved, and one that the N17 outfit needs to sort as soon as possible.
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