Daniel Levy could sell minority stake of Tottenham Hotspur to finance stadium

Matt Law’s article in the Standard today is notable because it drops a couple of big stories on Tottenham Hotspur’s future. We already talked about Spurs dragging their feet until the end of March to confirm their use of Wembley Stadium for the 2017-18 season.

However, equally interesting is new information on how Chairman Daniel Levy is planning to finance the stadium. Law writes that Levy is seeking external clients who are willing to invest in the future of Tottenham Hotspur, and that he and Spurs owner Joe Lewis are even considering selling a minority stake in the club as part of that process.

It was reported earlier that Levy is seeking a massive stadium naming rights deal, reported to be as high as £400m and what would be the largest such deal in England. That would go a long way towards helping finance the cost of the £800m project.

Selling a minority ownership stake could also be extremely lucrative, but at the cost of ENIC losing some level of control over the club. Lewis and ENIC currently own about 85% of Spurs, and it’s not clear how much of that stake they would be willing to sell, nor does the Standard report who might be interested (apart from noting that Levy had met with American sports agent Jeff Moorad in 2015).

ENIC clearly doesn’t feel the need to sell their controlling interest in the club, though Lewis has in the past expressed at least a willingness to entertain the idea for the right price. However, it sounds like they’re willing to leverage that interest into further investment in order to help make sure that the new stadium is finished with Spurs in a healthy financial position.