View: Tottenham jet off on Australian pre-season tour as the financial benefit cannot be ignored
Tottenham are heading down under as they begin their pre-season tour ahead of the 2023/24 campaign.
As confirmed by the club, 31 players boarded a flight to the other side of the world on Friday 14 July as they get set to kick off their pre-season against London rivals West Ham in Perth on Tuesday 18 July (Tottenham Hotspur).
Following the appointment of Ange Postecoglou at Spurs, which saw him become the first Australian manager in Premier League history, it is fair to say the match between his new club and West Ham will most likely feel like a home debut, despite it taking place over 9,000 miles away from North London.
New signings Manor Solomon, James Maddison and Guglielmo Vicario were all on board as well as star man Harry Kane, as speculation continues to swirl over his future with the club.
Veteran goalkeeper Hugo Lloris is not travelling with the squad as the club confirmed he had been left behind to explore transfer opportunities.
Following Postecoglou’s homecoming in Australia, he will take his squad to Thailand where they will face former Premier League rivals Leicester City before finishing the tour with a match against Lion City Sailors in Singapore.
Many fans may question the benefits of tours such as these. Travelling through multiple time zones just a matter of weeks before returning to Premier League action surely cannot be beneficial. So why do clubs jet across the globe as the demands of a Premier League season draw closer?
The answer is simple, and often one modern football always leads back to – money. The financial gain of a pre-season tour simply cannot be ignored.
An interesting revelation in Manchester United’s financial accounts for the year ending June 2021 demonstrated the importance of these tours. United experienced a drop off of £50million in commercial revenue between 2020 and 2021 and explained that a portion of this loss was due to the COVID pandemic preventing trips abroad.
Of course, the Red Devils are one of football’s biggest clubs and the demand to see them will be higher among overseas audiences. However, while this financial information may therefore not be reflective of all clubs, the benefits still remain lucrative for smaller sides.
As per The Athletic, “One source suggested that sides such as Manchester United, Real Madrid and other members of Europe’s traditional elite can demand fees of over £2 million per game. It was also pointed out that some Major League Soccer teams will offer close to $500,000 (£410,000) to play against a ‘mid-range’ Premier League club.”
Where Tottenham fall in that bracket is largely up to interpretation, however, most people would likely consider them sitting closer to the European elite rather than a “mid-range” Premier League club when it comes to the fees they can demand.
Gary Hobson organises pre-season trips for Premier League clubs and other sides in the football pyramid and broke down some of the revenue clubs can expect to generate.
“What I’m finding is the top-tier clubs, your global brands, are getting big enough fees and are commercially big enough so that they are exceeding their costs,” Hobson told The Athletic.
“They are making money from it. They might pull in £4 million and only spend £1 million to achieve that. The issue is that for those outside of that top bracket, they are getting smaller fees yet still incur the same costs to travel. Commercially, it has to be worthwhile — especially for those travelling to Australia.”
Of course, Australia is one of the most logistically difficult places for a club to travel to and it must be profitable in order to be worthwhile. Spurs’ trip to the land down under is therefore likely to be pulling them closer to that £4million mark.
Postecoglou’s influence alone, before factoring in the star power of players such as Harry Kane, should be enough to sell out their match against West Ham, and other commercial activities such as meet and greets will only help to bring in more.
In other Tottenham news, a young prospect has signed his first deal with the club.