N.B. As of current exchange rates the figure quoted of 1.5 billion UAE Dirham is equivalent to +/- £250 million which is the cost of the stadium build (not the whole stadium complex but just the stadium) as quoted by Matt Collecott.
A combined stadium naming rights and shirt sponsorship deal for e.g.15 years which gives us a brand new stadium with NO debt has to be a good deal in anybody’s eyes.
The deal has not been done but the cost of the deal is common knowledge and there is more than one interested party.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/sports/2009/June/sports_June323.xml§ion=sports
DUBAI — Football team Tottenham Hotspur are in talks with several Dubai-based companies over the sponsorship of a planned new stadium.
Officials from the UK Premier League club have paid two visits to the UAE in the last three months, with the most recent being three days ago.
The sponsors would have naming rights of the club’s new stadium as well as a 15-year shirt sponsorship deal, said Paul Barber, executive director of Tottenham.
The deal would be similar to the 10-year sponsorship agreement struck between Emirates and Arsenal in 2004, which was reportedly worth Dh638 million.
“We always felt that the Middle East and the Far East were the best places to look for sponsorship partners. This is because there are many emerging brands here which are looking for exposure in Europe,” said Barber in a phone interview with the Khaleej Times.
“As well as the huge amount of print and television coverage a deal like this would generate, it would also give a new brand a key place in the skyline of central London.”
Tottenham Hotspur is among the top five clubs in the UK and has a following of 160 million people worldwide. The Premier League is broadcast around the world and has an estimated global audience of 4.77 billion each season.
The planned sponsorship tie up with Tottenham is the latest in a line of deals between UAE investors and UK football clubs.
Last year, UK side Manchester City were purchased by Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG).
At the end of May, board member of ADUG, Sulaiman Al-Fahim announced the purchase of Portsmouth FC.
Moreover, in the last week there were rumours that division two UK football team Notts County was also in takeover talks with an unnamed Middle East conglomerate.
Barber declined to say how much the sponsorship deal would be worth. Planning permission for the stadium has been submitted and could take up to a year before building begins. The current shirt sponsorship deal between Tottenham and Mansion expires next year and was valued at Dh51 million a year, for four years.
It is believed that any sponsorship deal could begin as soon as the contract with Mansion expires.
Construction of the 60,000-seater stadium will take around three years. Because of the variable price of building materials at present, it is not clear how much exactly the stadium could cost, but it is believed to be around the range of Dh1.5 billion, officials said. Barber declined to say how many companies he had been in talks with or name which ones. “We don’t want to get involved in guessing games,” he said.
“Negotiations are ongoing and we want to take things slow. This could be a deal that lasts between 10-20 years, so there is no need to rush.”