There was a video of a Spurs fan doing the rounds when the stadium was first opened to the public, with one guy looking around in a bewildered, mesmerized stupor. This man could literally not believe his eyes. He was clearly welling up, the dam was about to burst. He was having an out-of-body experience.
I never thought I could experience such feelings. Then I read this morning’s papers. William Pugh and Alex Miller for The Sun have some stupefying analysis of Tottenham’s financials – which may go a long way to explaining why Mr. Levy was so ruthlessly fast in furloughing all his non-playing staff.
- Tottenham’s total debt up to £852million
- £215million of the bill is composed of interest
- Some debts will still be outstanding until 2050
- Repayments will average £37m-a-year until 2042
- Over the last 5 years, only £21m-a-season was spent on transfers
The odds of a global pandemic were remote, and in the UK only Wimbledon took out the appropriate insurance, and so it would be unreasonable to chide Levy for not being fully prepared, although the Lawn Tennis Association only paid £1.5million per year in premiums… which looks like loose change in the mix when looking at the numbers above.
What ENIC has done though, is put Spurs in a position where it could become vulnerable to external factors. Guns N’ Roses have cancelled, as to has the Joshua fight.
Opinion
We had a perfectly good stadium, and enough money in the bank to back Pochettino.
ENIC opted to demolish the ground and stamped on Poch’s dreams.