SPURS chairman Daniel Levy has urged a quick and full opening of football’s turnstiles as he revealed the club faces a £150m loss if fans remain locked out.
Nine months with no supporters allowed inside the 62,000 Tottenham Hotspur Stadium only opened in April 2019 has seen Spurs turn a profit of £68.6m for the 2018-19 season into a loss of £63.6m last term.
Daniel Levy has lamented the lack of supporters in groundsCredit: PA:Press Association
But with the Spurs also having to make substantial debt repayments of £16m per year on its gleaming new home, Levy has revealed the scale of the financial crunch faced by even the world’s biggest clubs.
Levy said: “We are currently in the midst of one of the most challenging times ever experienced.
“The impact of the pandemic on our revenue is material and could not have come at a worse time, having just completed a £1.2bn stadium build which is financed by club resources and long-term debt.
“The 2020/21 season has so far seen no fans at games and this is compounded by a loss of third party events such as NFL, concerts, the closure of stores and visitor attractions.
“Our estimate for the current financial year of the potential loss of revenue, should the stadium remain closed to fans, is in excess of £150m.
“Clearly this would be an irrecoverable loss of income.”
Spurs had overtaken London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal to move into fourth place in the Prem revenue table with income of £460.7m in 2018-19.
The move into their new home brought a boost in match-day income before the pandemic struck.
Levy, 58, has been one of the very few people in attendance at Spurs games this seasonCredit: EPA
Spurs played 14 Prem games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last term, banking £81.9m – an average of £5.85m income for each home game.
In addition, Champions League and home cup ties earned Spurs a further £12.6m, while commercial revenues rose by more than 19 per cent to £161.5m.
But TV income plummeted as a result of the pandemic shutdown and the early European exit, dropping £54.7m to £95.2m, leading to an overall revenue fall to £402.4m
Levy was forced to backtrack after initially utilising the Government’s furlough scheme, before Spurs took out a £150m loan – at low interest rates – from the Bank of England.
The club also opened up the stadium to the local North Middlesex Hospital as a temporary outpatients department while Levy pointed to the ‘4,000 direct and indirect jobs’ supported by Spurs.
And he urged the Government to respond to the latest news on vaccines and efforts by clubs to provide a safe environment.
Games have had to take place at cavernous empty grounds since the restartCredit: Getty Images – Getty
The scenes have been a far cry from those of 2019Credit: PA:Press Association
Levy said: “Each and every Premier League club makes a significant financial and social contribution to the UK economy and to their local communities.
“We have spent the past months preparing our stadium, testing our digital ticketing process and registering ID validation for fans.
“Premier League clubs are entirely capable, similar to the experience in several other countries, of responsibly delivering outdoor events with social distancing.
“And we will offer exemplary hygiene standards, qualified stewards, testing capabilities and diverse travel plans, operating in some of the most technologically advanced venues in the world.
“We recognise that health and safety are paramount and we have been encouraged by the latest news on vaccine developments and potential Clinical Passports.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
